They say you learn a lot on the road.
They say learning new ways can be tough.
Tough? I absolutely shat it!
Cycling through the beautiful Slovenian countryside for only two hours I arrived at the Croatian border check point.
I hadn’t made any effort to check the weather so far on the trip and I was waved through customs completely oblivious to the impending storm the locals were expecting.
Of course people assume I’m heading for a hotel or campsite …
Anyway I was all pitched up by 8pm under some trees in a field having a much needed early and relaxing night.
The following posts are taken from my social media page that evening:
9.06pm
OH MY FRIGGEN GOD THERE IS AN ANIMAL JUMPING AT MY TENT TRYING TO GET IN!!!
There goes sleep, my heart rate is maxing out!!!
I need to calm the fck down because we humans are top of the food chain and that makes me boss in this situation.
23.19pm
WTF WTF WTF!
The animal may well be in my tent now cause I’ve done a runner.
I don’t even think I closed the tent on legging it.
Out of nowhere a massive electrical storm began. I’ve never in my life experienced anything close to this. The entire tent was lighting up with the sky. The constant sound of the almighty thunder was nothing on the deafening crackle and boom of lightening hitting the ground near my tent!
I opened the tent and ‘flew’ out it running across the field to a farmhouse where I stood under the porch of the doorway shaking and trying not to cry. I just stood there. Looking out at the storm. My plan was to stand there all night. I saw another bolt hit the ground – again it was the sound that consumed all the senses. The air had changed. Something had changed in me. I was whimpering by this point. The front door opened and there was the understandable ‘fright’ moment for home owners being greeted with the sight of me on their porch. But I was past all that and remained with my back to them looking out to the storm freaking out in an English rambling whisper,
“It’s okay I’m just going to stand here all night, I’m just going to stand here all night, that’s what I’m doing, everything’s okay”.
They spoke little English but when they realised my tent was out there in the field they took me in and gave me a warm sugary drink and a bed for the night.
I can’t begin to put into words how thankful I was and as I lay safe in my bed I resolved that from that point on I would check the weather forecast on a daily basis. I also threw in that I would know which signs meant motorways also.
The extravaganza in the sky lasted throughout the night and I woke up with each bang thinking I still had a tent to run out of …
The next morning I had such the strangest descent into Rijeka from where I had been ‘camped’. Things kept jumping off my bike onto the road – it was seriously freaking me out. First my solar charger jumped off which had been securely fastened to my bike then the whole Ortileb handlebar bag jumped off scattering all the contents across the road. I was glad to reach the sea.
Nobody on the coastline could believe I had camped out on top of ‘the’ hill as they had all been watching the sky in disbelief and too hadn’t been able to sleep in their homes from the fear the lights and sounds and caused in the night.
Diaries of a Cog Girl 