Italy 60 - we saw a Hoopoe that elusive bird we have tried to see for a few years

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Suzy was on the move again and as she drove through the countryside what did we spy but that strange bird the Hoopoe. It strutted its stuff in the field. Its comb on its head upright. What an odd looking bird. Sadly it didnt stay long enough to photograph. Which was a shame.

The weather was still poor and as we headed North it seemed to be getting colder and more damp. Our neighbours of the night a Dutch couple told us the weather across Europe was the same. There was the rain in Spain falling everywhere, back home it felt more like Winter than Summer and it was hard to believe that June is just around the corner. France was wet as was Germany. It seems you cannot get any decent weather unless you headed South and we were now pointing in the wrong direction. Pitches on campsites were getting waterlogged and we found ourselves worrying less about putting the awning up but worrying more about keeping Suzys boots on the hard standing so that we would not get stuck again. Our Dutch neighbours were caravanners and were using the area as a base to visit Florence and Orvieto. We couldnt try Kathrein out as we were under trees so sadly we couldnt work out if we could view BBC here in this area.

Our drive up to lake Garda was pretty uneventful and we arrived at our stop for the night at Della Rosa at Lasize. It looked a very busy site close to the lake and the entertainments of GardaLand and MovieLand. It felt full to capacity with adults enjoying the sun which had just come out and children on their holidays playing football, table tennis and any other game you could think of. Not really the sort of site we like but it is hard to find any around the lake. We had not wanted to stay at Bella Italia nor Butterfly in Peschiara again and hoped that this site would be better.It turned out as it was the holiday season that we could not use ACSI at 16 euro a night. Instead a small packed in little plot would cost us 31 euros. It didnt take much for us to turn Suzy round and head to another site down the road.

The next site we chose was San Francesco at Desenzano. This again looked a busy site and when I went into the office there were only two spaces left on ACSI. I was asked to wait as another lady had gone down to check them out. The plan was that we would take the other. While I was waiting I got speaking to Mr Evans from Church Stretton , a lovely man who had Welsh ancestry. He told me the site was lovely and we would enjoy it and then he smiled and said we would fill a phone book us Jones's and him being an Evans - two of the most popular Welsh surnames. After a few minutes the lady checking out the site came back and I got the chance to look at the plot. Packed in like sardines sums it up best. So we moved again.

This time we drove up the lake to Piantelle Camping at Moniga del Garda which was an ACSI site and luckily had spaces at 16euros. We were warned that the site was wet and waterlogged so we would need to be careful parking. However they had laid limestone chippings down and we got a good sized corner plot. There was a swimming pool but this was full of children. The showers were Ok and the laundrette good. We sat in the sun and drank wine whilst talking to our neighbours - an English guy who worked in the Gambia.

Our evening meal wasnt the best Spag Bol I had ever tasted, the service was poor and the Pizza a bit like cardboard but you cant have it all. We were only staying the night before moving on to take on the urban sprawl and traffic jams of Milan tomorrow. Before it went dark we walked along the lake. The campsite had direct access to the peeble beach and there was a walkway all the way round the lake as far as the eye could see. The views across the lake were wonderful as usual. It was a pretty place to while away a few hours doing nothing much.

And then the storm hit, the sky went as black behind Bills mothers, the clouds were black as coal and the rain thundered down on Suzy's roof. Thunder boomed overhead like some angry God we had disturbed from his slumbers. And forked lightening that lit up the night sky. It went on for hours before the rumbling quietened and moved on and the lightening ceased. The rain however poured down all night. Tomorrow we hoped for a break in the weather as we needed to get through the Alps and into Switzerland and the last thing we wanted or needed was a thunderstorm.

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