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Published: April 29th 2012
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There was confusion this morning in the Vaughanmobile, we said how busy the town we drove through yesterday was for a Sunday and that obviously Sunday trading has taken off in Italy. No, it was busy because it was Saturday! We’d lost a day somewhere lying in the sun and exploring the Cote D’Azure.
The exciting moment of the day though, was taking a very narrow road down the hillside into a town called Bordighera. As the walls each side of the road narrowed the caravan looked bigger and bigger in my mirrors I thought we were in trouble but it’ll be ok as long as nothing comes the other way. Then of course to drop into the town a series of very sharp hairpin bends followed, the total length of the caravan and car is over 12 metres and although it bends in middle it was very tight. There was a tense silence as we started to meet traffic coming the other way. We made it with cms to spare. Expecting glares from the Italian motorists who had to drive into the narrow roadside gulleys to get past, they all seemed very relaxed. It was a close one though
and any large vehicle coming up as we came down could have caused a stand off! Luckily, as you will know by now, we don’t operate a blame culture in our relationship. Well that’s not strictly true, we blame the map, the sat nav, the Italians (or French) for not catering for caravans when the road layout was designed in the 16
th Century and so on – but of course never each other.
So after yesterdays short hop across the border and we are now in a valley called Riviera dei Fiori e Alpi Liguri. Just north of the coast and East of San Remo. We arrived and the temperature on the car thermometer read 30 degrees! Too hot to do much so we sat around reading and dozing, the pool was empty and they don’t fill it until June, which was a shame because if we ever needed a dip then yesterday was the day. After talking about what real camping was earlier, we met a young couple today who had hiked the lower Alps from France and carried everything they needed on their backs. What it is to be young and all that! They wild camped on the mountain the night before and said it was spectacular.
We have set up camp in many valleys this trip and they all have subtle differences. This valley has a spectacular mountain at it’s northern end, which must be the foothills of the Alps. Whereas the Val de Cantobre was a yellow/pink sandstone and the French Cote D’Azure was a deep red stone we now have more of a grey granite feel about the place. My mind has never been troubled with geological data so I have absolutely no idea why this might be but just enjoy looking at it. We are looking up the valley at the terraces that have been cut into any fertile soil to grow vines, of course some of those terraces are now camping areas but I guess the land has to produce an income from whatever source it can.
As Dee will have stopped reading this by now I can safely say that it was her fault we took the wrong turning earlier!
After the heat of yesterday we had sat reading the papers, which we downloaded onto the Kindle, and saw all about the rain in the UK. We shouldn’t have smiled because it hammered down last night and the valley this morning is shrouded in mists and black clouds dominate the skies behind the mountains.
So with that in mind we are trying to decide a rough route for the second half of our trip. We may head straight across Italy to the East and into Slovenia, we’d love to spend a few days on the Adriatic coast and visit Croatia before turning North to Germany. Or we could carry on round the Italian coast and go further south. We’ll have to decide before tonight as we are at the sort of decision point when we leave here tomorrow.
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DEAN HAZELL
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As Dee will have stopped reading this by now I can safely say that it was her fault we took the wrong turning earlier! you are indeed a very funny man , straight out of the Dean book of comedy , well done the G- Man!!!!