Day 27 – Leaving Lake Como, Into Switzerland

Woke up and went for a quick swim in the lake before getting our stuff ready to leave. Was very refreshing and enjoyed diving off the diving board without hundreds of kids swimming all over the place.

Today we head for Switzerland. The planned route would take us through the San Gotthard tunnel which we decided was a better idea than attempting one of the mountain pass in a 20 something year old aircooled vehicle which does not like hills.

Before getting there we had to cross the Italy-Swiss boarder and purchase a vignette, which is required for all vehicles that want to travel on Swiss motor ways. This cost us 40Fr which was pretty expensive but was a lot easier than paying for a lot of separate tolls as we had in France and Italy. While stopped we had a quick bite to eat and then got back on the road.

The San Gotthard tunnel is 17 km long as it cuts through a large section of the Alps. We had planned to try and drive it over night as we had heard horror stories about the traffic. That was the plan but once we set off we seemed to be making decent time and so thought the traffic might not be too bad. Big Mistake! About 5km before the tunnel the traffic came to a stand still. Luckily for us it was right by a service stop so we immediately pulled off and parked up. As mentioned being stopped in traffic with a running aircooled engine for any extended period of time is not good at all for the engine and my bank balance. 

We decided to sit there and wait to see if the traffic would die down before getting on the road again. We waited and waited! I think in total we must have been at the services for about 4 hours. Pretty boring although we did get to play a decent amount of cards and also witnessed a guy pull up next to us and pop his bonnet to see his engine on fire. His response was to run to the shop and buy a bottle of water, which he poured on the engine. He then shut the bonnet got back in the car and drove off. I was pretty sure we were going to see his whole car burnt to the ground further along the road but somehow we didn’t.

Eventually we made it through the tunnel, which was a strange experience to be driving underground for a full 20 min. Once through, the drive was lovely going past loads of little villages on the mountain side and seeing lots of little farms. Our destination we had decided would be Luzern.

Once we got about 10 km from Luzern the main motorway was shut for some reason so we were once again stuck in some serious traffic. This was not good but all of a sudden an all mighty storm appeared out of nowhere and the heavens opened which was followed by lightning bolts which Zeus would have been proud of. This made seeing where we were going very tricky but did serve to cool the very hot engine a bit.

Eventually we found ourselves at the campsite and we just managed to get a pitch before reception closed. The storm was still lingering so we had dinner inside the van and then hit the sack.

Day 26 – 17th August

Our time at Lake Garda had come to an end. We had intentions of going for another quick swim in the morning before leaving but I could not drag my ass out of bed and get it into gear quickly enough so that plan had to be shelved.

The plan for the day was to head to Lake Como. We had not booked anywhere so we headed there hoping there would be a nice site we could stay at. Rachel did all of the driving which was nice for a bit but after a while of not doing anything I tend to get very bored being a passenger.

When we arrived at Lake Como we headed to a site we found in the AA book. After getting lost once or twice we found the site, which had a scribbled sign drawn outside saying they were full. This was not good news as it was very hot, we saw a sign giving the temperature at 34c and the van does not like being driven in such warm temperatures. We decided to try head back to a site we had seen on the way in. This did not prove so successful as we somehow ended up on the other side of the lake. With the help of google maps and Rachel’s binoculars we managed to spot the site about 5km away on the opposite river bank. After much googling we found the name of the site and how to get there and we were off.

When we arrived at the site we were lucky to get a pitch as the site was very busy. It seemed to be a strange mix of people that seemed to live there semi permanently and people who we just camping short term.

Again this site was right on the shore of the lake and the beach was private. It also had its own diving board and floating platforms you could swim out to. As it was so hot we decided to go for a swim. The water seemed to be a lot colder than at lake garda but I’m not sure if it actually was. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and chilling on the Lake banks. 

Going for a swim to cool off

In the evening we had some dinner and bought a beer each from the shop as we had stupidly not stocked up again after Garda. The beer was lovely and cold and just what was needed on a hot day.

After dinner we had a little wonder around the site and then treated ourselves to an ice cream. As we wandered around we could not figure out if some of the people who were camping lived on the site permanently as the caravans they were in looked like they had not moved in a very long time and had full size ovens standing outside. Pretty strange place but was nice to be right by the lake.