Karrina’s Diary

The howling gale rocking our van saw me awake by 5am, the rest of the gang seemed to sleep oblivious to it and only woke when the local bakery delivery van drove through the site honking repeatedly. Who would run out at 7am to buy bread while on holiday? Yet another time I wish Neil had let me buy a gun.

We took a brisk morning stroll to take a look at the lake and Nature reserve which had kindly hosted us for free, it would have been rude not to. The cold breeze (howling gale) meant we did not spend long at the lakeside but we did agree it could be a lovely location for a return with kayaks in the summer. Lucy was very bemused by the toilet block which had locks on the outside of each door, not toilet pans (holes in the floor) and a shower only high enough for dwarfs.

We set off promptly heading for the Alps. Lucy has studied mountains as part of her topic during the last term and asked at even the smallest hill if it was Mont Blanc. After a few hours we spotted Mont Blanc to her delight and then the queue began, 90 mins of slow up hill clutch control to reach the tunnel entrance. Unlike the French toll which had seen me row unsuccessfully with a numpty that I should be a class 2 vehicle, not class 3, the kind girl in the booth only charged me class 2 saving us over €100, this would be spent later in a bar 😄🍻

Having no planned stop for the night the trusted Camperstop Europe book was pulled out the cupboard and an ‘enny menny minny mo’ saw us pick a stop in a town called Aosta. We rustled up a quick culenary delight in the van then hit the town looking for the disco.

The town was very Italian with lots of nude statues and shops which were mostly closed. The first open pub looking venue turned out to be a German bar, avoiding Hoe Garden beer we all went for different looking beers which were all ok, the waiter even served peanut flavoured wotsits along with other special crisps. Lucy provided the entertainment in the form of a game of dares, Neil promptly stopped the game by daring Lucy to eat one of the funny looking crisps. We didn’t stay for long in the German bar as we were the only customers and I think the waiter was waiting for us to leave so he could go home – also the bar had no toilet, only another hole in the floor.

We then stumbled on a VW campervan bar with much more atmosphere and actual toilets. A few beers here and then we went back to the van to bed.

Daily Details

Daily Trip – 377 Miles

Total Trip – 737 Miles

Countries Visited – France, Switzerland, Italy

Overnight Motorhome Stopover Link

Overnight Motorhome Parking Cost – €14

Overnight Location Map

Overnight Sat Nav Coordinates – N 45.73600, E 7.33049