Battling the Bora

Did you know that no two weather websites say the same?  So what do you do?  Tempting as it is to find the one with the best outlook for the journey ahead, recent web action has been focusing on the wind speed, as driving takes on a whole new interesting art form when crossing high ravines.  Welcome to the Bora.

The Bora is a wind that blows in these here parts.  At the moment it is taking the form of the cold Siberian air that wants to go the warmer Italian air.  There is also a front sitting over Italy that makes it that bit more interesting.  It wants to get to Italy but there are mountains in the way so it channels down the valleys and pops out in the Northern Italian/ Slovenian border near Trieste, which is where we made its acquaintance.  

It was getting increasingly windy on the motorway in to Trieste and I was glad to park up.  But as I got out of the van, the wind, literally (I know it’s an overused word but) literally blew the wind out of me.  We bundled into the B and B, battening down the hatches to see it out.  When we thought it had died down, Cat ventured out try to find an ATM and had to hold on to street furniture! Hazel did her puzzles on the bed..

We had no WIFI and could not understand the wind forecast in Italian, or indeed the land lady, so after an informed phone call to our internet gurus, made the decision to make a next day break for Croatia, in a good weather window. (thank you Caz and Ed) After an amazingly cheap and tasty lunch in a Slovenian Casino we made for the second border.

Frozen formalities aside, we headed for a place we had booked just off the motorway, an hour into the mountains.  The wind had picked up, we were later than planned. (The Bora blows at its peak from 2 until 7, hindsight eh..) The van was feeling it but coping ok, we then turned a corner on the motorway and bang.

We hit the wind full on.  Mr Bora pummelled us; he battered, rocked and pounded the van (H stayed asleep!!) Hazard lights on, right down to 20 mph, the motorway was shut in front of us and all lorries had parked up off the road.  A decision was quickened to head back as the van was rocking on its wheels, and I made a tentative turn back to the coast.  The wind cast a victorious shrug as it had beaten another into submission and the drive back was surprisingly easy.  

So we decided to stay the night in a nice hotel, primarily as it was the only one we could find.  This was on Tuesday.  A detailed analysis of the weather, Croatian road reports and a friendly hostel owner (Wednesday night) lead us to the conclusion that Monday looks a whole lot better.  With 130 mph winds, a daytime temp of -20 in the mountains and 2 metres of snow, it’s a bit of a no brainer!

We are now sitting in a pleasant city apartment in Rijeka, enjoying the port city life and we found a veggie restaurant. And relax.