Monday 26th September Classy Chamonix and Climate Change One thousand metres up in the Alps lies the ski resort of Chamonix. We drove for an hour or so from Aosta, through the romantic alpine scenery of mountains, valleys, precarious castles and monasteries, and plenty of tunnels. In fact, very little of the road we took was … Continue reading When We Dashed Through France and Bryn Became French!

September 25th 2022 We are parked in the shadow of Mont Blanc (or Monte Bianco as we are still on the Italian side of the border), in the tiny commune of Sarre. At 620metres, this is our highest campsite on the trip so far. We’ve driven 200 miles north to the Alps, and in that time … Continue reading It’s a Little Chilly

Friday 23rd September With the cookery course booked (See Scuse! Part One), we skipped down the rocky path that led to the village of Monterosso al Mare, the most northerly of the five villages. Until about forty or so years ago the main business of the Cinque Terra was mainly the cultivation of vines and olives. … Continue reading Scuse! Part Three – Cinque Terre

I had damp feet on Thursday morning! There had been an unexpected heavy dew on the grass for the morning’s dog walk and it soaked through my trainers. I suppose it shouldn’t really have been a surprise, as it was so cold last night that we ate our authentic pasta carbonara  inside. Today is the Autumnal … Continue reading Scuse! Part Two – Lucca

Saturday 24th September As I write this latest update, I am sitting on my own, in the van, parked in a tiny ‘aire’, 240m up a very steep cliff overlooking the Ligurian sea.  I am very sorry, dear reader, for the lack of notes on our progress through Italy. My only excuses are the poor connectivity … Continue reading Scuse! Part One – Trasimeno and Florence

Monday 19th September 2022 Passignano sun Trasimeno Ancona must be the worst possible way to enter Italy! Even in the first rays of the rising sun it looks shabby and that opinion worsens with the improving light. Its roads are awful too, full of potholes and raised ironwork and poorly designed and illegibly marked junctions, seemingly … Continue reading Two Towns and a Boat

Thursday 15th September 2022 Dubrovnik “A city is besieged by an invading army that outnumbers them seven times over. The invaders are highly trained and well armed. The citizens are not. It suffers almost 300 deaths and 16,000 refugees flee.”  No, this isn’t a story line from ‘Game of Thrones’; it is recent history. It happened … Continue reading 42° 39’ 47” N  18° 4’ 12” E

Tuesday 13th September 2022 Camp Prapratno and Ston It was a bit of a trek from Krka to Prapratno, a beachside campsite on the Peljesac Peninsular. One hundred and forty miles of mainly motorway driving that was savagely punctuated by a couple of stones, thrown up by a lorry on the opposite carriageway, hitting Andy’s windscreen … Continue reading “If you don’t go, you won’t know!”

Monday 12th September 2022 Monday dawned with clear blue skies and the September sun struggling to climb over the horizon, like a teenager getting up on a school day! We were up early as we joining the camp excursion into the Krka National Park. There were 15 of us in the minibus, with the four dogs … Continue reading Crikey it is Krka!

Sunday 11th September 2022 At 0535 we were rudely woken by the mother of all thunder storms. As well as a great sound and light show there was also heavy rain hammering on the van roof. Wendy suggested that it would be a good idea if I went out and rescued the dog trailer that was … Continue reading And So To Sibenik