At the end of August, we spent about ten days of paddling several
sections of the the Soca river in Slovenia. As usual, we camped at Camp
Toni, the paddler's camp site near Bovec. It a clean place, with
friendly owners and a bunch of little conveniences, such as steel cables
behind the camp spots tent to hang your wet paddling gear on, fire
places, no gates, clean toilets with soap and toilet paper and hot
showers included in the price.
During this time, we paddled the section to Trnovo with some Slovenian
friends. They stayed at Camp Trnovo. At the end of this trip, we stopped
before the slalom course, walked up into the campsite, carrying our
kayaks, dropping them off near the tents, picking up the car of one of
our Slovenian friends and drive back upstream with the drivers to pick
up our cars.
As we drove the three cars back onto the campground, we were stopped. I
explained to the lady at the gate that I was only going to pick up our
kayaks, and that I would be right back. After picking up the boats, I
came back, parked the car outside the camp site in the public parking
lot and walked back onto the camp site grounds to have a drink at the
camp site bar with our group of friends.
My girlfriend had to go to the toilet, and she came back a while later,
telling me what a disgusting mess the toilets were. With the signs
everywhere stating that the toilets are off limits to anyone who was not
a guest of Camp Trnovo or the bar, I was surprised by that.
The next day, we had arranged to meet our Czech friends (who had just
arrived) at Camp Trnovo. They wanted to stay at Camp Trnovo because it
was cheaper and because the location was so much more practical, they said.
As we arrived early in the evening, I deliberately walked up to the lady
at the gate, and told her that we were going to visit our Slovenian and
our Czech friends, who had just arrived.
Much to my surprise, she said:"Only half an hour!"
I smiled, and said: "You must be kidding, right?"
She wasn't joking, and she made very clear that I understood her
seriousness.
We walked over to our Slovenian friends, explained them the story, and
they were also flabbergasted. Then we walked over to the Czech group,
who camped next to the big public parking lot.
All the time, the lady from the gate kept us in her sights. We again
explained the story, and the Czechs also didn't get it. If you're a
boater's campsite, you can expect boaters to come pick each other up
there, and have paddlers come on in and spend some time with their
paddling buddies in the evening. That's how it goes on all the day at
Camp Toni. Well, obviously not at Camp Trnovo.
We thought about setting up our folding chairs in the public parking
lot, talking to our friends through the wire fence. As we walked back to
the entrance, one of our Slovenian friends came walking over to us. He
heard the story and our "solution" and he said: "Don't do that, they
will call the police." He explained that he had seen them do exactly
that before.
Now I was really getting pissed!
Our Czech friends invited us for a drink at the Camp Trnovo bar, but we
declined. I was not going to spend any more money at Camp Trnovo. When
we heard how much our friends were paying, it became clear that they
paid exactly the same as we did at Camp Toni. So a lower price also
isn't a motive to go to Camp Trnovo instead.
We ended up having a fun evening with our friends on the opposite side
of the hangbridge, drinking our own drinks by candle light. The next day
we met at the Camp Trnovo public parking lot, paddling together during
the day and going for a drink at a nice bar in Kobarid (Tip: they have
very cheap but huge balls of ice cream there
).
--
Wilko van den Bergh wilko.TakeThisOut@dse.nl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.
http://wilko.webzone.ru/
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