Monday, 23rd July 2007
Up reasonably early after a good night’s sleep, and we were on our way again by around 9am. We made good progress, and we stopped for lunch at an Aire de Service just south of Selestat, on the A35. Annie had a bit of a lie down, and I took advantage of a free half hour’s wifi in the coffee shop (free). It logged me off after half an hour, although I probably could have logged on again, but I wanted to get back on the road.
We passed into Switzerland at Basle, and Annie’s first introduction to this beautiful country was tunnels, roadworks, and the back end of Basle’s industrial district. Not impressive. We invested our €30 in a vignette, to proudly display on the windscreen.
We started to head for a campsite near Lucern, but Annie found a nice one from the Caravan Club book at Altdorf, so we punched on through the gathering gloom and rainclouds around the side of Lake Luzern. It was a shame the weather was so rubbish, because it can be beautiful. The mountains were striking, and it was a shame that we spent so much time in the tunnels, and thereby missing a lot of the stunning views.
We arrived at the campsite in Altdorf, to find the wind howling through the power lines above, making a high-pitched screaming noise. Fortunately, the campsite was full. The very helpful man at reception told us that “all of Switzerland is full”. After a few seconds thought, we decided to ditch Switzerland, and head off to Italy. It was just after 6pm.
The Gotthard tunnel was its usual disgusting self, the lack of proper ventilation causing a smog of exhaust fumes that were clearly visible. However, we were grateful for getting through, as the queues on the other side (travelling north into Switzerland) were horrendous, and stretched for several miles (and even more kilometres).
We admired the scenery some more, but sped on nonetheless. Suddenly, Italy sounded much more pleasant than Switzerland. The TomTom was prodded and cajoled many times, plotting routes to different places, but we decided that Lake Maggiore sounded nice, and we wound our way around the little roads and alongside the lake. The campsite was full. We tried a couple more. They were full too.
At one rather grotty place (any port in a storm), whilst Annie was getting the “full” treatment, I engaged in a strange conversation with a couple of men who were standing by the side of the road. Although we had officially traversed into Italy (past some very bored looking border guards who paid no attention to anything or anyone passing by), our conversation was a truly European mix of English, French, German, and something I didn’t recognise. They suggested we try Verbania, where there were “many, many campings”. Off we drove.
Annie began to phone up the sites from the Caravan Club book trying a lively mixture of French, Italian and English, getting the ‘full’ response each time. One phone call was more successful, and there was one place if we got there in 5 minutes. 20km – 5 minutes? Along a winding, slightly treacherous, lakeside road? No. But we went there anyway, got to the site around half an hour later, drove the shaky half a mile along a very badly-made road, to be told … yes, you guessed it, they were full. It was now 9pm.
We had passed a small car park, with about eight motorhomes parked, which was our fallback position. We headed back in that direction, towards the centre of Verbania, and Annie spotted two motorhomes parked just off the road, down a little lane and right next to the lake. We turned around, and turned around again, and drove onto what was obviously a car park for the restaurant next door, which had closed for the night.
Annie and I aren’t reasoned wild campers. Our nearest form of wild camping is a Caravan Club CL or a Camping and Caravanning Club CS. We prefer to sleep peacefully, with some feeling of security. We had a very quiet night, with some road noise, and a heavy downpour, which had me scurrying for the roof vents. But on the whole, I slept pretty well. Annie took her worrying duties seriously and didn’t sleep at all well, and we were awake and on the road by 7.15am.
