Slovenia - day 4

I slept really badly last night, I had about 2 hours sleep - so it was a struggle to get up at 5am this morning. We went to photograph St Thomas Church, Selca, that we photographed the other day, but this time from across the valley as the sun rose. We were hoping for mist to be swirling around the church and the weather gods delivered, we had superb conditions to photograph the scene as can be seen here. 

We got back for breakfast and after breakfast set off to drive through Triglav National Park. We climbed up a short steep path to photograph Peričnik Waterfall, near Mojstrana, but I did not think that waterfall was in the best location as we were too close to it so the water was constantly spraying on our lenses. Lunch was a sandwich by the side of the road before heading to Kranjska Gora to see the Russian Chapel. A view of the gorge is in the first extra. Slovenia is a beautiful country, it very much reminds me of Switzerland but on a smaller scale. We had a very short stop at the Soca River, it was a pity we could not spend more time there as the water was the most beautiful turquoise blue.

We drove up from Vršič  to the Mangart Pass, it was a steep, winding, white knuckle drive consisting of countless hairpin bends, some were 180 degrees. At the top of Mangart Saddle at 6000ft we had the most amazing conditions to photograph the sunset, there was a dense cloud inversion. We watched in awe as the clouds drifted over the valley below like water over rocks. We stayed up there until about 7.30pm before driving down the winding road to a fantastic restaurant in Bovec for supper. It was difficult to capture the incredible beauty of what we saw from up there, but some of it is in the second extra. I have not had time to look at my photos nor edit them so this was just one I chose at random. It was another late night back as we had an hour and half drive back to Lesce and we only got back at 11.30pm. 

I am feeling shattered but the sights we saw today have been so worth it - these are not holidays, the long days and little sleep are exhausting. Although Slovenia is a small country we are driving from one end to another to see the beautiful landscape scenery.

Another 5am start tomorrow...groan....