Oh we moved reluctantly when the alarm went off at 0615; leaving Camping Bled is always the biggest bind. If I could end every day with an afternoon Aperol and a paddleboard session on the lake I would do but unfortunately we don’t live in such a beautiful place.

For the next two nights, we planned to stay at Camping Zlatorog Bohinj, just 40 mins drive away and in a very different location. While this campsite is also on the banks of a lake free from motorised transport, Bohinj is the largest permanent lake in Slovenia, surrounded by mountains from both the Julian Alps and Triglav National Park. We did all our research: Google reviews, TripAdvisor, Instagram feed and the site looked truly magical, a tranquil splendar. We followed their instructions to arrive by 8am and were “luckily” third in line for booking (after the obligatory stop for meat and sunshine wine).

“Find a pitch and return between 13:00 and 22:00 hrs with your documents” said the helpful member of staff. Not too difficult – so I thought. Plot A and B were for campers/motorhomes/caravans etc. They can only be described as utter carnage. Maybe I am too accustomed to the “Caravan Club” way. Maybe, I am too particular to have vehicles perpendicular to one another, blocking each other in, with awnings here and electrical cables there. Maybe, I haven’t been cultured enough to stay in similar places. But, my first impressions were that it was a free for all. You can arrive, find a hole and stay for as long as you like. If you can find a hole.

Both ourselves and a lovely German couple, who had followed us from Bled, were bemused, terrified and slightly disconcerted by the chaos that lay before us. It certainly didn’t reflect the tranquillity of Instagram. We decided to go up a mountain instead…

This turned out to be a great turn of events for us: the car park was relatively empty so we could park the van easily. There were not queues for the cable car and we were up at Vogel Ski Center within 10 minutes of paying for our tickets. The cost, €24 per adult, does seem steep initially but not when you are comparing them to ski lift prices. At the top of the cable car, which does ascend incredibly quickly, there is a restaurant, souvenir shop and the obligatory selfie heart for all your souvenir picture needs. Beyond that stood the Triglav mountain and others of the Triglav National Pak and Julian Alps. While topped with cloud, they were majestic and immense. I would have loved to spend time walking along the crest of the range – to be on top of the world. We were able to take the chair lift to **** where we could walk to the memorial and ring the wishing bell. There, in front of the backdrop of numerous mountains, was a trig point with arrows pointing to each peak. While it wasn’t as clear as from the pentagonal tower at Ljublijana Castle yesterday, it was still fairly simple to identify each one.

While surrounded by tranquillity, never ending blue skies and nature, we decided that returning to Camping Zlatorog Bohinj was not going to happen. Unfortunately, it was not the camping experience that we wanted – nor needed – despite the lake being absolutely stunning. I am sure that if you were to visit out of season, during term time, or on another day, the site may resemble the pictures that are marketed for future customers. We just didn’t receive that at all.

The beauty of our van is that we can chop and change our ad hoc bookings to suit our needs and changing plans. We knew that we were booked into Camping Schluchsee in the Black Forest on Friday so decided to journey North today finding a lovely, albeit pricey, campsite approx. 4 km from Salzburg. This campsite held criticism from other campers due to the size of pitches, separation of each by hedges and cost but actually, with the Camperstops being €22+ in the vicinity and being so close to the city, we decided to go with it anyway. And couldn’t be happier here.