Biathlon at Pokljuka

As some of you will know I quite like watching biathlon and last year went to Hochfilzen in Austria to watch the World Cup event for a few days. This year the World Cup tour was scheduled to visit Pokljuka, which is just up the road from Bled, and I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss seeing some biathlon again. As we have being lazing about(!) for the last few months I thought it might be a good idea to volunteer and to help out with the organising and I sent out a few emails way back in August, then again in September and October and finally got a response from the people in late November saying yes they were happy for me to help out. From this lack of organisation I should have expected things to go a little awry.

I had asked to be part of the accreditation team, as I thought this would be a good way to meet the people directly involved in the event and I was a tad disappointed when I was told that whilst I could be part of the accreditation team that I would be based in the Festival Hall in Bled rather than at the venue in Pokljuka.

I decided that that would be better than not helping out so on the 09th December I found myself at the Festival Hall helping to set up the venue for the accreditation office that was due to open the following day. The set up took about 5 hours, but it could have been done quicker but there seemed to be no cohesion about what was needed to be done so a lot of time was just spent sitting around. V



Victoria Padial Hernandez and I

Monday came and after being asked to get to the office by about 7.30am as it was going to be busy, low and behold it wasn't. The first person didn't arrive until about 10am for their accreditation pass. The whole day was not busy and I was a little miffed at still being there at gone 9pm because the team leaders were not that great at organising things. One good thing that did happen though was that there was a team captains meeting for all of the nations taking part and I got to meet the Spanish biathlete Victoria Padial Hernandez.

Jacko, Marcel and I

Tuesday and Wednesday were much the same in terms of people coming to sort out their accreditation passes and I was getting more than a little bored of being there from 7.45am(ish) until 8pm. However, the frustration of sitting around was more than made up for by the arrival of Marcel Laponder and Steve-Lee Jackson (Jacko) at the office, who are both member of the GB biathlon national team and it was great to be able to talk to them for a while.

Sarah Murphy and I

Thursday was the first "busy" day as it was the first race of the event and so plenty of VIP's were due in the office to pick up their accreditation passes. Whilst the Slovenes I was working with thought it was busy, it was only really busy for an hour or so and even then we were not rushed off our feet. Today, I got to meet Klaus Siebert, who is the head of the Belarussian team and he was really funny and a good guy to talk and listen to. I also got to meet Uwe Mussigang, who is the overall team chief for the German team. Whilst it was good to meet these guys the best person I met that day was Sarah Murphy who represents New Zealand in biathlon. She was really nice and friendly and like the other people I met it was a pleasure to chat to her about what she hopes to achieve and where she will be going after Pokljuka.

The office was very quiet during the time that the race was on, which meant that I got to watch it albeit on TV and we all got highly jubilant when Jakov Fak of Slovenia won.

I tought Friday was going to be the same as Thursday, but it went back to being quiet which was a shame as I prefer to be busy but then it also meant that I again saw the race on TV and the bonus was that Gabriela Soukalova won the sprint race and Miri Gossner was second. In the absence of Magdalena Neuner, who retired last year Gabriela and Miri have taken over as my two favourite biathletes, which Synnoeve Solemdal close behind.

During the week several of the Slovenian team came into the office, including Teja Gregorin and Andrea Mali, to meet with officials and friends. Like all the biathletes and coaches that I met they were extremely nice to meet and to chat to. Not one of them was rude or standoffish which made a pleasant change from what you here about footballers and other celebrities.

Saturday came and I was feeling unwell so I decided not to go into the office that day, especially as I knew it would be a long day on Sunday. Of the women's race today, the positions were reversed with Miri coming in first in the pursuit and Gabriela second. Unfortunately, Synnoeve did not have much luck in either the sprint or the pursuit events.

Vicki and I before the first race

On Sunday I persuaded Vicki to come up to Pokljuka and watch the first Mass Start events of the season, whereby the top 30 athletes all start at the same time and the first over the line after 4 shoots and 12.5kms is the winner. After the rain of Saturday it was meant to be sunny but the clouds came in and didn't really lift all day. The cost to get in was only 10 euros and this included a bus ride to the venue & back as well as access to the hospitality tent where beer and food were served and there was a "singer".

I was quite suprised to find the paths for the specatators had not been properly cleared and both of s slid about abit on the way to the tribune (stands to us English people), but we managed not to spill any beer. That is what comes of years of practice in carrying alcohol!

Jakov Fak finishing 2nd in Mass Start

We managed to bag a place by the finish line and we had a good view of the shooting range. The mens event was won by Andi Birnbacher from Germany and Jakov Fak from Slovenia was second. Between the races we "retired" to the hospitality tent for beer and a hotdog whilst listening to the Slovenian "singer" murder a few songs, it was then time to go out again for what for me was the main event of the day the women's Mass Start.

Gabriela Soukalova coming in 3rd

We got a good place to stand just beyond the finish line for this race and we had a clear view of the penalty loop track, however we had a poor view of the shooting range but this was due to the mist coming in and obscuring it for most people including the athletes. My pre-race favourite of Tora Berger came in first, followed by Miri and Gabriela with Slovenias Teja Gregorin in 6th place.



Misty presentation

Despite the weather getting colder, we stayed for the medal ceremony and then went to get the bus back to Bled. However, we must have just missed them as we had to wait for about 50 minutes for the buses to get back from Bled by which time Vicki was quite cold.




Synnoeve Solemdal

All in all it was a good week, but the organisation of some aspects of the event leave a lot to be desired. It was good to meet the athletes and officials and I think Vicki had a good time watching on Sunday, I know I did.





Getting ready for Christmas

As the weather has closed in, we have settled down in Bled to a slower way of life.  The mornings are darker and the sun goes down about 4.30pm, so we have tended to get up later and enjoy a reduced pace.  We have been fortunate enough to have had some visitors over October and November with various friends and family coming to stay.  It has kept us busy with cleaning and tidying before they come, showing them the various sites of Slovenia while they are here, and collapsing in a heap once they have gone.  It has been great to see them all, and we've had a chance to see some of the sites either again or for the first time. 

We visited the Skocjan caves - which are an UNESCO World Heritage site and are some of the hugest caves I've ever seen.  The Reka River runs through them and has created an immense cave 165m deep, one of the largest underground chambers in the world.  It is an awe-inspiring experience and one I would definitely recommend (although not good if you don't like heights).  We also had a chance to visit the Postojna caves with some friends, and although I'd been before, Vicki hadn't and it was good to go when it was less crowded.  It was a very enjoyable trip.

Bled has been beautiful in the autumn, with the changing  colours and some lovely sunny days.  Although we have had some snow and quite a lot of rain as well.  We have done some fabulous walks, including one where Vicki and I had to climb up some vertical wooden ladders.  Bit frightening, but we managed with no broken bones.

 

We did a trip up the cable car at Bohinj before it closed at the end of October to see the fabulous view of the Julian Alps, including Triglav, the highest mountain.  The colours at Bohinj were wonderful, too.

 

And now, December is here and Christmas is drawing closer.  I am hopeful that we will have a proper white Christmas with the amount of snow we've been having recently (the winter tyres on the car are excellent!) 

The view from our balcony

Christmas has been made possible by the wonders of the internet, as we organised ourselves early and ordered cards online and used e-cards.  Some we designed ourselves with the help of Bonusprint, and they sent them to us so we could post them in plenty of time.  The postage wasn't much more than at home, and they came from the Netherlands!  Presents to home have been organised in the same way, with delivery from M&S and Amazon.  We've found ourselves a very small Christmas tree and a few ornaments (including some chocolate ones).  With a few other decorations, candles and lights we are feeling very Christmassy. 


Vicki and I visited the Christmas markets in Ljubljana this week.  We went on the bus ( it stops at the end of our lane), and it was a bit chilly.  We chose a warmer day than the previous few but it still only maxed out at 1 degree.   The market wasn't as big as we'd expected, but we found a few nice presents (some for me!), and the lights were gorgeous.    We stopped for a meal in one of the cafe bars, and I warmed up with a goulash slovenian-style. 

 

That's about it for now, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us in snowy Slovenia.