We stumbled across les Rousses while trying to avoid Switzerland. The plan was to head for the French Alps for some skiing. We wanted to by-pass Switzerland because the emergence of Omicron had brought with it a rash of new border controls. Driving a few more miles was preferable to having things stuck up our noses again. We stayed north of Geneva. This took us through the Jura mountains. A picturesque area famous for cheese. Add a small, friendly ski resort and that is me very happy for a few days.
120 liters water for 5 EurNervousImprovingGot the hang of itHappy
Diane had a chance to re-acquaint herself with skiing. After falling last year and hurting her knee, she avoided skis for the rest of the season. Les Rousses was an ideal place to start again. No crowds. Gentle slopes and snow in remarkably good condition for so early in the season. After a couple of days she was definitely starting to get her ski mojo back. We even spent xmas day skiing.
The weather turned to rain. We moved on to La Clusaz, a French resort not far from Mont Blanc. It continued to rain. Solid rain for three days. I tried to ski in the rain. Enjoyed it for a couple of hours before wetness and coldness dampened my enthusiasm. Took days to dry my gloves out. That afternoon a big, wet, soggy avalanche came down one of the pistes I had skied in the morning.
Best avoided
Eventually the sky cleared and despite the sun it became very cold. This was no good for the skiing at all because the runs became seriously icy. Hard and fast. Much harder to control your speed and direction. Diane rather sensibly avoided this. I dabbled a bit more until eventually conceding that while La Clusaz is a lovely area, it needed a bit more snow. Another Covid New Year arrived, marked by a single person cheering from a balcony. We moved on.
Why on earth would you want two passports? If you have dual nationality you may have passports from two different countries. What I am talking about here is a second passport from the same country. Well, it turns out there are two good and official reasons plus one that is less so. Having a second passport is perfectly allowable and legal. In some countries it is really quite easy to get two or even three passports. You will not be surprised to learn that in the UK it is not so easy. However, it is possible if you meet the criteria and apply in the correct way.
The first reason for needing two passports would be if you intended to visit two contradictory countries. That is, countries that do not like each other to such an extent that if you have a passport stamp from one you will not be allowed into the other. Sometimes this is associated with disputed territories, so for example, stamps from Kosovo, Israel and Abkhazia can cause problems in certain other countries. Similarly having an Iranian stamp might cause hassle when visiting Israel. Even undisputed areas can be contradictory so that same Iranian stamp might also see you banned from the USA under the Visa Waiver Program. A Ukrainian stamp could cause trouble when entering Russia. There are almost certainly other examples. The nature of international politics is such that this landscape is constantly changing.
A side note about novelty passport stamps – avoid them. I used to be quite proud of a penguin stamp I got from the Cape Horn lighthouse. Now know it was not such a good idea. Your passport is an official government document and when marked for any non-official purposes, you are technically defacing it. This is frowned on by some officials. Border guards do not have a sense of humour. It has been widely reported that a UK woman was barred from a flight to Thailand a couple of years ago because of a Machu Pichu stamp in her passport. There may be other cases. I am not suggesting you should have a second passport to collect novelty stamps. Put them somewhere else altogether.
The second reason for concurrent passports is that you travel a lot and so, on occasion, will need to send one passport away for a visa while travelling on the other one.
Finally, the reason many people might consider a second passport, in case one is lost or stolen, is not such a good reason in practice. Usually, when you leave a country, the border guards will want to see your entry stamp. This is your proof that you entered the country legally. So if your passport is lost then you will probably need embassy help anyhow.
In preparation for travelling much further east we decided to apply for a second passport each. There is a good chance of contradictory countries and we will definitely be sending off for many visas. We succeeded but it took a while. Ten weeks in fact. We had hoped for two or three weeks at the most. At the two week point, we were informed by the passport office that our EU compliant photos were not UK compliant. New photos from the high street shop were not a problem but they needed to be counter-signed and our designated counter-signatory, Andrew, had meanwhile caught the Covid. Fortunately, he was still willing, so with the help of his wife, Anne, some plastic bags, a tea tray and some slightly acrobatic leaning out of windows, we managed to get the signatures without the virus. Thank you both. After that minor excitement we just had to wait.
We were in the UK about 2½ times longer than we had planned for. It was nice to catch up with friends and family. It was nice to drink real ale and go to the chip shop. It was nice to walk in some familiar countryside. But the road was calling. Accommodation was a bit of a problem. Fortunately, Gary, who I knew of old and had previously met in Western Sahara, helped us out. Thank you Gary.
After what had seemed like an age, our new passports arrived. We waited nervously for our old passports to come back. Would they be cancelled? A day later our old and still valid passports arrived. Hooray – we were good to go.
Last thing to do was get rid of the car. The beautiful Jaguar V8 Sovereign is a terrific vehicle and a complete joy to drive. Unfortunately, post-Brexit it is next to impossible to keep a UK registered car in Europe. So it has gone to my baby sister, Helen. At least it is still in the family and I may still get a chance to drive it again.
Finally reunited with Baloo we just had time to grab a few supplies and head off to the Black Forest for my birthday. Back on the road again.
From Estonia we drove south through Latvia and Lithuania to Poland. We had arranged to meet friends in the bottom, right hand corner of Poland.
Shortly after to getting to Poland I began to form an opinion that driving in Poland was a bit more exciting than normal. The typical driver tended to be faster, closer and more assertive that we had been used to. Clearly one always needs to be careful of broad generalisations so I looked up some statistics. In particular, I looked at the ETSC (European Transport Safety Council) website that contains up to date road safety information. Poland is right up there with a road death rate about three times that in Sweden. Romanian and Bulgaria appear pretty dangerous too. We have that to look forward to. Our first evening in Poland we parked by some lovely forests and found one of the more deadly poisonous mushrooms, Destroying Deathcap, growing abundantly. Feels like you need to be careful in Poland.
Look at this photo closely. It was taken by our dashcam, looking down through the front windscreen. In the top, left you can see another truck. This is approximately the same size as Baloo, 20 tonnes, and doing the same sort of speed. So the gap between the trucks is closing at around 160 kmph (100 mph) which is 44m per second. When that gap closes by another 5m there will not be enough space for the car to fit through. This will take approximately a tenth of a second. Baloo was already as far to the side of the narrow road as possible. I was breaking as hard as I dared given the queue of vehicles that were far too close behind me. All the first two or three cars could see was the back of the truck so if I slowed too rapidly they would all run into each other and me. Our rear under-ride guard suffers enough damage without having to disentangle cars from it as well.
At best, this guy and his passengers avoided dying and causing a major accident by less than two tenths of a second. That is not judgment or skill – just luck.
We met up with the wonderful Lars and Inge with their magnificent Volvo C303 and pottered around Poland for a few days. They have been working hard on the Volvo, turning an aging military vehicle into a terrifically capable overland camper. The weather was working against us. Rain and wind much of the time. We had a few pleasant walks and ate some foraged mushrooms one evening. We camped on a hill, by a river several times, on another hill and finally by a lake. Eventually they headed north to explore Kraków and we were feeling the call to go west in preparation for returning to the UK. A day later the road we been following for hours was abruptly closed. Lacking any diversion information, we wandered down some increasingly narrow lanes and then got forced, by weight restrictions onto the motorway. Five minutes later we were in Slovakia.
Destroying Deathcaps – do not nibble
8t max – we had to find another way
When we stumbled into Slovakia we had to buy a tracking box for Baloo. This is how the road toll is paid. The box is pre-paid, you can top it up and the funds trickle away at about €1 per 5 km. I am not a fan of road tolls. I doubt many drivers are. It seems to me that if each country maintained its own roads through national vehicle taxation and made them freely usable by foreigners then the costs would about balance out. However, while the cost of the tolls is an irritation, the implementation of the toll system in some countries can be a real problem. Arriving at the Polish border, I was expecting to need to buy a tracking box. However the border guards thought they were only needed for commercial vehicles and anyhow there was nowhere to buy one. They also cheerfully directed us down a road with a 7.5t weight limit. It was very strange and a bit uncomfortable. I was sure there would be a police car waiting round the corner for us. We got on to an unrestricted road as soon as possible and then avoided the motorways just in case. I still do not really know if a heavy motorhome needs a tracking box in Poland.
Some countries use toll booths. They are rarely suitable for a truck, at least, not a modern truck like Baloo. At the French Péage, my technique is to stop so that the door is just past the automated pay station. Then I can open the door and lean out, hanging onto the window frame, to reach underneath the door and access the ticket slot. In Morocco I looked down out of the window to see a hand reaching out of the ticket office towards me. At full stretch I could just touch the hand with the tip of a ten dirham note. The hand disappeared for a second and then reappeared with my ticket, which I retrieved using the same ligament stretching manoeuvre. Never saw the person, just a hand. Czech Republic uses a similar looking box to Slovakia but, I think, it only charges for certain major roads. For Austria we have a post-pay box linked to a bank account and for Slovenia a box linked to an internet account that I can top up remotely. Our collection of boxes is steadily growing.
Would you drive a 20t truck over a 10t bridge?
Baloo is registered as a motorhome (wohnmobile) rather than a commercial vehicle and in some countries this is respected. Germany for example, charges a toll on all heavy goods vehicles but not motorhomes. In Norway they use number plate recognition cameras. The implementation is almost painless in that you do not need to anything. You can register on the Norwegian toll company website. I think they will still find you and send you bill even if you do not register but it gave us the opportunity to prove our motorhome status and get a reduction. As described in an earlier blog, Hungary uses it toll system to prohibit all but the keenest large motorhome drivers. This may not be an intentional consequence so I would encourage them to rethink what they are doing.
Three more days of steady driving and a blast along the German autobahns saw us back at the Unicat workshop. We left Baloo to be serviced and tested, jumped in the car and set off back to the UK. The blast of Covid bureaucracy was staggering. Most of Europe is getting on with life now but approaching the UK we stepped back into the thick of the pandemic and country that loves its paperwork. At the port I had to spend twenty minutes re-doing our passenger locator forms. These cannot be changed, only re-done from the start. We had come from Germany and were told to include being in the Netherlands. The reality was that the only time our feet touched the ground in the Netherlands was the twenty minutes when we had to go into the terminal building to redo our passenger locator forms. Cent had a narrow escape. On the previous day his passport had only been marked with the date of his worming treatment and not the exact time. The requirements are that the treatment should be between 24 and 120 hours before entering GB. Mathematically there was no strict necessity for an exact time. The previous day was separated from the arrival time by at least 30 hours but no more than 54 hours. I considered getting out the blackboard and chalk but obviously it was more productive to just to smile hopefully while petting the dog. The official consulted with two other officials and someone senior. Not sure if they eventually worked it out but they did agree, on this occasion, to let the omission pass.
We reluctantly started to make our way south. Both of us really like Finland and resolved we should try and come back to spend a bit more time here. The mosquitos are a bit of a pest so our plan would be to arrive in the north at the end of summer. Once the temperature drops the mosquitos go away. Then we would stay until it gets too cold. Hopefully catch some more aurora. We saw the Northern Lights in Finland just once this trip, the day Cent had his operation. Another motorhome had arrived late on and they came banging on the door about 11pm to tell us the aurora was out. It was faint in the late twilight sky but still quite visible and exciting to experience.
Meanwhile, plodding south, there were still many forests and lakes to explore. They are a complete delight and we spent many contented hours wandering small tracks and lakesides. Gave me chance for a bit more swimming as well.
View from the tower
Also, many mushrooms still to collect. Our identification skills are slowly improving. It can sometimes be difficult to be certain about a mushroom from the picture and description in a book. We have taken to occasionally accosting other foragers to see what they are collecting. They are usually quite obliging and even a bit proud of their collections. Once you have positively identified a particular species it tends to get a lot easier to spot them again. On this trip we have extended our knowledge of edibles by at least eight more fungi. One high light was discovering Matsutake mushrooms. These are highly prized in Japan and can fetch a significant price but have only fairly recently been recognized in Finland. We only found a modest handful but they made a tasty snack fried up in butter with a bit of garlic.
Arriving at Helsinki in the afternoon, we found a quite parking spot well outside the main part of the city. Our ferry to Tallinn sailed the following morning so we got the motorbike out and had a run into town. This gave us a bit of a look around the main parts of the city and was also a useful reconnaissance of the route to the ferry terminal. To be honest, neither of us are great lovers of cities and a brief tour by bike was fine. Helsinki seems like a very nice place but was very quiet. Most of the bars and restaurants are still closed. The harbour area especially, was clean and colourful with many small boats, sailing yachts and immense power boats.
Sun
Rain
River ferry
Leaving Finland
Next day we boarded a half-empty ferry and three hours later arrived in Estonia. Getting out of the harbour area proved tricky because of the narrow streets and weight restrictions. We were happy when we had not only escaped the confines of Tallinn but also avoided any damage or fines. So we headed for the country and by the evening were back in a forest. Our natural environment.
The range and quantities of mushrooms in the north of Scandinavia is astounding. They are everywhere. I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with mushrooms so spending a few hours each day wandering through forests collecting fungi has been wonderful. We have a couple of good mushroom books and occasionally manage to identify something edible. Then we have the added bonus of cooking up a tasty snack at the end of our walk. It is not quite living off the land but there is a certain satisfaction in a successful foraging trip.
Don’t eat these
The further north we go, the more reindeer we see. They tend to be quite nervous and bolt at the slightest noise. Trying to sneak up on them in a truck is tricky. Eventually, we spotted a small herd grazing in a distant field. We stopped Baloo well short of them, left Cent in the cab, and like deer stalkers of old, attempted to sneak up on them. I think my stalking skills are lacking a bit but I did manage to get a few photos before they ran off.
For the whole time we have been in Sweden, there has been no visible signs of the pandemic at all. Life appears to be completely normal. The next day we crossed into Finland and this took us back to wearing masks. At the border we needed to provide proof that we were vaccinated.
There are bears in Finland. European Brown Bears. The cubs are exceptionally cute and look just the original child’s toy. We haven’t seen any cubs. Or bears. Or moose. There are a lot of road signs warning of moose. Every few kilometres there is a warning sign but, as far as we can tell, there are not actually any moose. I am starting to believe that my chances of seeing a bear riding a moose are vanishingly small.
As soon as you drive off the main roads you are usually onto dirt tracks. This makes a lot of sense when you realise that these roads are covered in snow and ice for much of the year. Road vehicles are fitted with studded tyres and the tracks also get used by snow mobiles. Everywhere is criss-crossed with tracks most of which are used by forestry vehicles. So, we have been able to drive for days on end without touching any tarmac. Quiet tracks deep in the forest. Perfect.
Border to Russia
We took Cent to the vet for a rabies booster in preparation for coming back to the UK next month. The vet examined him and then said he had big balls. I felt a momentary twinge of pride. “No, really. He has a swollen testicle.” she explained. Oh. “This could be cancer.“ Yikes! Next day we brought him back for an operation to remove his testicles. They did a very good job and two hours later we were carrying a virtually unconscious dog back to Baloo. A short way down the road we found a pleasant and deserted camping area where he could lie in the sun and sleep it off. He is fine now and completely back to his normal self.
Our Scandinavian peregrination continues. Peregrination – “noun, a journey, especially a long or meandering one”. Seems to fit what we are doing perfectly. In the north of Sweden we found a few hills. We also found some snow and many reindeer. There are several long valleys that run westward towards Norway. These are picturesque, quiet and peaceful so we lingered a while.
Once we’d finished lingering, we got the bike out and rode right down to the far end of the valley. We could have taken Baloo but the bike was much better suited to the narrow, winding road. Also, we really enjoy having the occasional ride out. On the way back we spotted the sign for a feature. It looks like this ⌘Apple people will recognise it as the command key but in fact it has been used to indicate places of interest across Scandinavia since the 1950s. This particular one was showing us the way to a waterfall. To Diane’s dismay, this involved walking along planks for most of the way. Balance was required but it kept us from the bog. The waterfall at the end was worth it.
This far north it is getting close to the limits of where trees can grow. We had a few walks and saw how you only need to climb a couple of hundred metres before the trees give way to small, stunted bushes of silver birch. Then, a little way higher, nothing but moss, heathers and grasses.
The mosquitoes thrive in the valleys and get quite voracious at times. Chemical repellent helps a little, so does the smoke from a fire, a strong wind and hiding inside Baloo with the windows shut. Camping nearly always involves a fire. There are campfires everywhere and no shortage of wood. In the summer your fire provides protection from mosquitoes and in the winter it stops you freezing to death. Possibly worse that mosquitoes, are their little cousins, the midges. These little blighters can get through the mesh covers we have on the windows. Occasionally, we have woken up in the morning covered in little tiny lumps where they have been biting us.
My previous visit to Kiruna was in 1981 with fellow venture scout Tim Mulroy. We arrived by train in March and set off to ski to Narvik on the Norwegian coast. I really cannot recall why we decided that this particular route was a good idea. Neither of us had skied before and we had never been in the arctic. It was a steep learning curve. We made our way through the mountains, skiing very badly while carrying large rucksacks. We camped most of the time, even on frozen lakes. There were a few cold nights and some terrible food but we prevailed and it was a terrific experience. We achieved the requirements of the scout Independent Explorer Belt. It is a kind of badge, except that you receive a nice belt with a compass on it. I still have it.
We are in Lappland. Not to be confused with Lapland, which is part of Finland. However, both areas are often called Lapland and frankly this just adds to the confusion. Lappland originally included the Finish Lapland but was annexed in 1809 by Russia. Lapland became part of the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire and predecessor to Finland as we know it now. We plan to visit Lapland, home of Santa Claus, shortly. For now we are in Lappland.
Just after I wrote this, as if to prove me completely wrong, we drove past a signpost for “Lapland Airport” in Sweden.
Sweden has a lot of lakes. Lakes and trees. Sweden is mostly lakes and trees. In an attempt to embrace the lake culture I have been swimming in a few of them. I used to be very keen on swimming but went off public pools several years ago. The thought of swimming in a tepid mixture of chlorine and human effluent is just too revolting. You need a shower when you get out, for goodness sake. Also it made my eyes sting for the rest of the day. The lakes in Sweden are beautifully clear and fresh. They are a bit chilly. Some of them are really chilly. Slightly to my surprise I have found myself coming to like this. In fact, I feel like I have rediscovered swimming. The water is beautifully clean, the scenery is fabulous, I come out feeling refreshed an invigorated. Then I have to get dressed really quickly before the mosquitoes find me.
Sweden has a lot of trees. Trees and lakes. Forestry is a national activity. They probably teach it at infant school. My first chainsaw; a felt toy at age three. The forests all appear to be well managed. In any region you can usually spot areas in all stages of the forestry process from the recently clear-felled, through compartments in various stages of regrowth, to the mature trees. This scale of forestry requires big machines, much bigger than Baloo: harvesters cut the trees down, forwarders carry the logs to the roadside and trucks carry the logs to the saw mills. Consequently the supporting roads and tracks are, for the most part, quite suitable for us to drive along. There is a whole network of smaller roads and tracks which we have been exploring.
Down one such track we came across a sign that read “Husky farm”. So we were compelled to investigate and indeed, we found a husky farm. I have no idea why huskies are bred in farms whereas other dogs are bred in kennels. The owner, Constantin, was very friendly and happy to show us round. This despite the recent downturn in tourism which just about drove his business down to nothing. The dogs are quite small, very fit and agile, bred for stamina rather than strength. They were also very friendly and much calmer than I had expected. This time of year it is too hot to run them so mostly they just laze around but they seemed very happy doing this.
Pushing further north the countryside becomes more rugged, people are more sparse and the mosquitoes are more voracious. We saw an Elk which I completely failed to photograph. We have also see quite a lot of reindeer. Trying to photograph these is tricky because they always spot you first and wander off. We have a lot of pictures of reindeer bottoms. Eventually we crossed the Arctic circle. This is the geographic line that marks the start of the midnight sun. A roadside parking area marked the line and some large billboards announced the grandeur of the midnight sun. However, it was overcast, cold and raining so some of the splendor of crossing the line might have been lost on us.
In two months we have to be back in the UK. We figured this was just long enough to circumnavigate the Gulf of Bothnia. We would see a bit more Scandinavia, this time in the summer, and more of eastern Europe.
We took our time heading north. Settling back into the rhythm of travelling while exploring some of the wonderful forests in northern Germany. The forests are suffering at the moment. Extreme weather events, three successive droughts, storms and forest fires are taking their toll. Some areas have massive bark beetle infections. Vast tracts of forest are being clear-felled, leaving the hills bruised, battered and bare.
Suburban camping – sorry about upsetting the neighbours
Looking across the Kattegat
Old bridge to Middlefart
In the very north of Germany we visited Kai and his wife Urte whom we had first met outside the walls of Taroudant in Morocco. We had a terrific evening eating, drinking and listening to some remarkable and scary tales of their desert travels in a Unimog back in the days when it was actually possible to drive south to north through Algeria. Next day we crossed into Denmark and spent a couple of days with the ever wonderful Lars and Inge. They loaded us up with fantastic homemade and home grown produce before we headed for the coast.
A quiet night on the beach and we were ready for the ferry to Sweden. Two years ago we had driven over the bridge from Copenhagen. The bridge is an awesome engineering achievement and fun to drive across. It is also very expensive. This time we took the slightly cheaper and much more sedate ferry to Halmstad. By the evening we were parked next to some woods in Sweden.
North and still further north. For the first couple of days it rained. We plodded along in the drizzle watching endless forests and lakes go past. Before long the roads were getting quieter and we felt we were leaving the bustle of holiday season in southern Sweden behind us.
We both enjoy being in and around woodland. In years past, we owned a small plot of ancient woodland. This was a complete delight and the perfect retreat from the stresses of running a small company. It also taught both of us a lot. We achieved a formal qualification in woodland management but more importantly, we also learned to deeply appreciate what goes on in the forest. The way balance is achieved and the delicate interactions between the vast multitude of living things deep in a forest is quite remarkable. These days we are very happy to spend time exploring and experiencing new forests.
Ferry
The weather cleared up just as we happened to find ourselves in a quiet, secluded area of forest. So we stayed there for a while. Exploring the forest we discovered discarded antlers and other traces of reindeer. We also found an abundance of fungi. I was particularly proud to find an example of the mushroom featured on the cover picture of my mushroom book. We also found a wonderful edible fungus called Hedgehog mushroom. This is a firm, white mushroom that makes excellent eating. After a bit of sorting, we gently fried them in butter with a dash of fresh thyme and black pepper. Went perfectly with a glass of white wine.
Two months of housekeeping chores. Mostly this was sorting out some of the post-Brexit officialdom that has been dumped on us. Being in mainland Europe during the final spasms of Brexit has not only been deeply embarrassing but has also caused us a whole bunch of practical problems. Other jobs on the list included making a few improvements to Baloo and getting Covid vaccinations. This has now all happened but was a bit of a chore and some days ran dangerously close to tedium. Cent is now German. Britain has turned its back on the European pet passport scheme so British dogs cannot sensibly travel abroad any more. In fact, because Cent was out of the UK when the Brexit guillotine fell, he was in serious danger of becoming an illegal immigrant. Happily, he is now a genuinely German, German Shepherd with a passport recognized all around Europe and in the UK as well.
Ski rack in the rear storage
We grew some mushrooms
Headless Raspberry-Pi to run the Z-Wave system
Chassis box for the snow chains
Many bbq in the warm weather
Repairing the quilt cover
Camped at the end of the Unicat garden
At the end of June, with our chores almost complete, we made a short trip to Bologna to meet up with Franca and Davide. They have a beautiful house in the countryside that they let us use for a few days. They also acted as local guides, giving us a great insight into life in this part of Italy. We stood on the beach at San Marino – but only briefly because it was very hot. We visited a vineyard in the hills and then visited a dog sanctuary run by Lia. Here the dogs could play in the river and cool off properly. Italy is hot in the summer. Cent and I struggled with the heat a bit.
Lia with Franca, Davide and Diane
Lia making friends with Cent
Spin cycle
Nikita
Odino
We went to a producer of Balsamico di Modena (in Modena of course) where we saw how vinegar is made and drank some that was 100 years old. Most “Balsamic” is ordinary vinegar with artificial colouring and flavouring. Having tasted the real thing it is obvious why, but still rather sad, that it is copied so frequently.
We ate breakfast Italian style – strong, fresh coffee with sweet pastries. We explored the old city of Bologna and visited a big church on a hill. One evening we went to the most remarkable shop where we tasted many types of wine. Each one was paired with some tasty cheese or other small serving of food. For me, this was the perfect way to spend an evening.
Somehow, during the day or even last thing in the evening, there always seemed to be ice cream. Not just ice cream but intensely creamy and very tasty Italian ice cream. Even I enjoyed it – and I don’t like ice cream.
We needed to get back to Germany for our second covid jabs but we promised to return, possibly when the weather was a little cooler. Coming back over the Swiss Alps we took in a couple of mountain passes, partially to enjoy the views but also to enjoy being cool for a while.
Balsamico di Modena begins life as grapes
After cooking for 36 hours, the vinegar goes into barrels for at least 10 years
Then we get to taste it
It is good
My first taste of 100 year old vinegar
Vinegar on ice cream
Also very good
Ideal shop to spend an evening
On the way back, we took in a some alpine passes
Cent and I enjoyed the coolness
Travelling in Austria is difficult and expensive. We tried it twice and vowed never to go there again. However we wanted to go to Budapest to buy some sand ladders so we chose to suck it up, pay the tolls and straight line Austria to get to Hungary. We were looking forward to visiting Hungary.
Hungary has the most remarkable road toll system. Like many people, I am not a fan of road tolls. Modern European road tolls arrived in the 20th century to fund the development of the motorway network. The Italians started all this in 1924. In the 1950s France, Spain and Portugal began an enormous expansion of motorways based entirely on tolls. These days pretty much every European country has some sort of toll system. We have noted before that entry into Switzerland is usually about making sure that you have paid the toll. Other countries take things a bit further by requiring vehicles, usually the heavier vehicles, to carry tracking devices that are detected by sensors on overhead gantries. This is linked to an account which is debited every time you pass a sensor. The device emits a ding when this happens but in my mind it is more like the “ker-ching” sound of a cash register.
Hungary, we discovered, has now raised the bar even higher if you drive a vehicle over 3.5t, regardless of classification. Each day, you need to visit a special machine which will plan your route for you. Obviously you need to know where you are going first and in some detail. There is no chance of stumbling upon the serendipitously perfect place to end the day. You need to choose from a list of approved destinations. If it is not on the list then you cannot go there. Then you need to enter your vehicle information – weight, dimensions, registration details and so on. With this the great machine constructs your route. It will choose motorways even if this is the long way around or if this by-passes a scenic route. The machine informs you of the cost. The route is printed and you go to the cash desk to pay for it. This involves a microphone to record the conversation, a prepared speech (in Hungarian – I have no idea what was said) a couple of signatures, payment and more speech. The route is valid for 24 hours. You must have a pre-paid route for every trip you do and you cannot deviate from the route.
In practice, what this means in terms of exploring Hungary, is that you can drive around a few motorways. You will pay a lot to explore these two lane, poorly maintained, motorways and at night you get to park in one of the rubbish strewn service stations. I guess pre-booked space at a campsite might be an option but it would need to be pre-booked because if you got there and they were full – you would have to immediately find a machine to make a route and pay the toll to go – to go where? – well, somewhere on the list that you could spend a night, probably a service station.
We entered Hungary having paid €25 for a D2 vehicle ‘sticker’. With the information presented at the official website this appeared to be good for a motorhome for ten days. To be on the safe side I checked with a roadside office when we arrived. They were displaying big signs with the exact same information as the website. All good then? No. No – not at all good. We were escorted several kilometers down the road to the Nemzeti Útdíjfizetési Szolgáltató (National Toll Payment Services) office in Lébény. Here I was introduced to the great machine and told we were not a D2 but a J3. Baloo is officially registered as a motorhome (wohnmobil). This is respected in most of Europe to distinguish it from a commercial vehicle. In the National Toll Payment Services office this distinction was irrelevant. Where did I want to go? Well – we wanted to potter around Hungary for a couple of days absorbing some scenery and culture before ending up in Budapest to buy sand ladders. But where exactly do you want to go? I pointed to the map and we typed a destination into the machine. It described a long route which was almost entirely motorway. And where will you stay? No idea. We usually just rock up somewhere and find a quiet spot. It slowly dawned on me that the only way we could ‘potter’ would be to move between pre-determined service stations so at this point, we bailed. Hungary was clearly impossible. I explained that I just wanted to return the 10km we had come from the border with Austria. Most of this distance was while we were being escorted to the office. Back to the great machine. Create a route back to the border, enter the vehicle details and pay the €10. Do we have to pay for driving to the National Toll Payment Services office? Yes. Any chance of credit on the D2 sticker we were misled in to buying? No. No chance at all.
That was our experience of Hungary. 10km of motorway, seen in both directions, at a cost of €35. Temperature 30°C. Traffic moderate. Scenery non-existent. Most of the time spent in a soulless National Toll Payment Services office poring over a soulless machine getting my money patiently removed by soulless officials. This now makes Hungary our most unwelcoming country in Europe and Austria is relegated to number two.
This was the only photograph I took in Hungary
From Austria we looped south to Italy before returning via Switzerland. Europe is clearly getting back to normal. Housekeeping done, jabs done, truck done – time to get back on the road.
Austria viewed from motorway service areas
We had breakfast here while many people used the bushes as a toilet
An unseasonal cold spell and occasional snowy days kept the ski area in great condition right up to the official closing date of 25th April. I skied roughly every other day. Right next to the camping area was a prepared piste, less than a kilometre, down to the cable car. I could put my skis on within a 20 second walk from Baloo. Perfect. The cable car was a double decker capable of carrying 180 people. Most mornings there would just be 20 or so skiers. We all had to wear masks and all the windows in the cabin were left were open.
Ski raceDeserted Ischgl
Up on the slopes were half a dozen chair lifts servicing sixteen pistes. All of which were kept immaculately groomed. This is only about 1/3 of the skiable area but the rest was in Austria and closed. Most days there were very few other people skiing so there were some excellent opportunities for making fresh tracks on and off the piste. I got to know the mountains better and started to work out where the good snow would be and how the weather conditions would affect it. On a few good days, powder days, I was lucky enough to be able to ski some beautiful deep soft fresh snow before anyone else had got there.
At lunchtime there was a great run down into the valley from where I could catch a bus back up to the campsite. The same run, by late afternoon, was often getting a bit messed up. Tricky soft snow with the consistency of sugar. On the last few days the snow was not so much white as the colour of mud with an assortment of small branches and the odd rock mixed in. At the bottom of this run was the only grocery store in four villages. Very handy as I could nip in and grab a few supplies before catching the bus back up to where Baloo was parked.
On other days, Diane and I would walk or take the bike for a spin. The old road down the Swiss side of the valley was the only place we could ride. In the small tunnels there were icy patches so extreme care was needed. Once down the valley it was warm and sunny. This made for a few great days out.
Everyone and everything appeared to anticipate the official closing date, 25th April. Just two days earlier the marmots appeared. We had not seen a hint of them all the time we had been there and then, suddenly, there were marmots and marmot holes everywhere. Even up on the prepared skiing areas. They clearly knew when the lifts were closing and when they would be able to get on with whatever it is marmots do. A small group of ibex appeared near the top cable car station. The four of them paid no attention at all when the cable car went past. Unfortunately the windows were so scratched it that it was impossible to take photographs. Even the small piste from the campsite got in on the act. The day before closing I just managed to ski along it. A small detour through a bush was required and balancing on one leg was needed for another section. The next day it was completely impassable.
Golden eagleChamoisAlpine ibex (steinbock)Marmot
The day after the resort closed the valley was deserted. Even the bread shop closed. On the campsite the only other vehicle was an immense MAN coach based motorhome owned by Carston and Silke. It is even bigger than Baloo and they keep their Porsche in the back. We packed up, said goodbye and set off back to Germany via Covid tests, registration forms and quarantine.
There are two roads up the valley to the collection of little Swiss villages that is Samnaun. The old road goes up the Swiss side of the valley and features three very small, unlit tunnels. A sign at the bottom of the road indicates a maximum height limit of 3.0 m, width 2.3 m, length 10 m and weight 10 t. Baloo fails on all four counts so we needed the newer road on the Austrian side of the valley. Because of Covid, popping in and out of Switzerland is not the trivial task it used to be. Fortunately they have a system. Once we explained where we were going to the Austrian border guards they gave us a piece of paper that, 12km further up the road, we gave to the border guards as we returned to Switzerland.
That sorted, we settled into the duty free enclave of Samnaun. The place boasts 50 duty free shops. This may well be true but the difficulty is buying ordinary food like carrots. Pretty much every shop can sell you vodka, cigarettes, chocolate and perfume. Potatoes are a much more difficult. In fact, there is just a single general grocery store about 4km down the valley from the campsite. The bakery is much closer. They sell cigarettes and vodka along with bread but also have locally produced eggs, butter and cheese. The eggs are the largest hens’ eggs I have ever seen.
Chamois
The motorhome next door has a car inside
Crispy tofu
Ischgl is closed
In a normal year, the ski area links with the Austrian Ischgl area. Unfortunately Ischgl was the location of one of the big super spreader Coronavirus events last year. Thousands of people headed home from the bars, restaurants, night clubs and other après ski venues carrying the virus with them. Now the place is very firmly shut down. Completely. Ski lifts and everything. So Samnaun is a much quieter place than normal. There are a few visitors, mostly Germans in motorhomes. A few hotels are open. Bars, restaurants and other indoor venues are closed. Fortunately the ski lifts are open. The skiable area is much reduced but still ample for a good day’s skiing. The slopes are very quiet. No lift queues. On powder days there are plenty of fresh places to go round.
Playing in the fresh snow
The campsite or wohnmobilplatz, is just for campervans. There is probably space here for 25 or more vehicles but today there are just 5. We have electricity, water and somewhere to empty our tanks. That is all we need really. There are showers and a toilet block but we don’t use them. We are at the end of a valley so it is very quiet. No through traffic in fact hardly any traffic at all.
50 places to buy vodka
I’ve been enjoying some skiing. Diane’s knee is still getting better. She can walk quite well now but skiing for this year is probably out. We have been exploring the local area. I did a couple of trips on my touring skis. We got the snow shoes out and walked up a small but very pretty valley. No idea where we will go next. Europe is still locked down for the most part so just now Switzerland continues to look like our best option.
We were not exactly getting bored parked up outside the Unicat workshop, but there was an element of running out of interesting things to do. We had walked along the canal looking at the Coypu. We had walked down to the Rhine when it was in flood to see the inundated forests.
Coypu
When it snowed, we lined all the Unicat trucks up and took a photo of them. I did an interview for the new Unicat web site that will be very embarrassing if it is ever used. We contemplated the project to mount an Airstream caravan on the back of a 6×6 – and wondered why. We fitted additional snow chain hooks onto Baloo and bought a second set of chains.
Prototyping the snow chain box
Extra chains
Why?
Can you work this out?
Then the boss told us that he thought Switzerland was still open for business. Some of the ski areas were still running and, importantly, some of the campsites were open. The significance of the campsites is that, uniquely in Europe, it was legitimate to be driving around in a motor home. A few days planning later, we were ready. The idea was to visit campsites by ski lifts, stay a while at each and get a bit of skiing in.
Arriving at the Swiss border, we explained who we were and what we were doing. No problem at all. The border officials’ main concern was that we had paid the road tax on Baloo. I have an app for that.
First stop was Savogin, a pleasant little village where the campsite was a roped off section of the car park. According to Google maps, the car park is a lake in the summer. We could walk to the ski lift. There was a bakery and a cheese shop nearby. All good.
This time last year, many ski resorts were closed in the wake of ‘super spreading’ events. Through most of Europe, the ski areas are still closed. Switzerland is the exception. We now know that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spreads from an infected person to others through respiratory droplets and aerosols created when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, shouts, or talks. Setting ripe for transmission are:
closed spaces
crowded places
close-contact settings and close-range conversations
settings where there is singing, shouting or heavy breathing, for example, during exercise
The après-ski scene caused the big outbreaks. The bars, restaurants and, in particular, the night clubs packed with dancing, singing people all breathing the same air for hours at a time. Up on the slopes, the air is clean and fresh. It is easy to keep your distance. Some of the lifts present a minor risk but even so there is plenty of fresh air and the time spent on each lift is small. Use of masks may help.
The enlightened Swiss approach is to close bars, restaurant and clubs but keep the lifts open. This has been the case for many months now and has proven to be safe. So, we are not breaking any rules and still get to ski. The slopes are quiet. With much of Europe in various states of lock down not many people can travel. Some hotels are open but obviously, there is risk associated with this. We are very happy in our personal, mobile space, living a life of isolation where the only real contact we have with anyone is when we buy food.
We skied for a week in Savignon. It was very pleasant. Most of the lifts are draglifts. Very safe Covid-wise but tiring compared to the small rest you get on a chair lift. Our last day of skiing, Saturday, Diane took a tumble. We could not ski down the very last piste because they were preparing it for night skiing. Instead, we were directed down the sledging route. This is very narrow, just a couple of metres wide in places. Also very bumpy and icy. Diane mastered the most difficult bit like a pro but then got caught out a bit further down and sprained her knee. Getting off the mountain was a tricky combination of half carrying and half skiing. We took the direct route to the nearest village then banged on the door of the first house and asked if they would call us a taxi. The very nice people there got their own car out and took us back to Baloo. Given the Covid situation, I thought this was an act of exceptional compassion. Thank you nice people.
We moved onto Flims. The campsite was very friendly but had a bit of a problem with the size of Baloo. Eventually, we were put down the bottom of a road by the sports centre. This was a nice enough place but meant a long walk in ski boots to the lifts. Diane could not really walk very much in any event. There were a few sunny days so I got the bike out and enjoyed a couple of runs along the valley. This and some lovely walks in the woods with Cent were about it for Flims and a week later we moved on.
The Covid is messing with our travel plans. It is messing with everyone’s plans, not just travel plans. I am not complaining. The problem for us is about deciding where to go. We have been camped in the field at Unicat for way too long. Christmas is going to bring a surge of new outbreaks and the evolution of a new, more infectious strain makes things even worse. We are hoping that patience is the key. This will be over soon. There will be an effective vaccine program and then life will get much easier. In the meantime, we have to stay safe and follow the rules. International travel is possible. but problematic in a motor home. We are clearly not travelling on business or going back home. We would need to pay for Covid tests at every border. The situation could change with very little notice and we might end up stuck again. For a while, we are going to stay in Germany, explore the hills and forests, avoid people.
The Black Forest is a large, forested area of mountains in the bottom, left hand corner of Germany just to the south of the Unicat workshop. It is roughly 160km NS by 50km. To the South is Switzerland and to the West is France. Tourism is important. There are many attractions and pretty villages. There are also numerous hiking trails and large tracts of forest and hills. We can park in lay-bys and designated parking areas for a night or two, do a walk in the local area and then move on. Some places were very busy. I guess nobody has gone away on holiday. No one had gone to visit friends or relatives. The cinemas, hotels, leisure centres, bars and tourist attractions are all closed. One of the few activities left is to drive out to the hills and go for a walk. Fortunately, we could still find some quiet places and usually, a kilometre or so away from the car park there was nobody at all.
Birthday margaritas
The snow came. A great big overnight dump that transformed the scenery. Me and the dog got very excited about it. There are a few ski areas in the Black Forest. Typically, they have one draglift and one piste. All closed because of the Covid but after the snow came they were packed with visitors. The car parks were full to bursting and overflowing. The slopes were thick with people, sledges, skis, children and the occasional dog. We did our best to stay well clear but even so were caught up in a traffic jam caused by excessive roadside parking.
By New Year’s Eve, we were pushing the limits in terms of finding quiet places and found ourselves on a very narrow road deep in the woods. The road climbed up and the snow was falling. Just after we reached the highest point, the truck started sliding. We were only going slowly. Not much more than walking pace. However, Baloo was inexorably slipping sideways. The soft fresh snow compressed to wet ice under the tyres and gave us no grip at all. I stuck the front left wheel into the ditch to stop us. To the right was a steep, wooded slope that I really did not want to get involved with. We eased the truck forward to straighten it up on the road and dropped the rear wheels into the ditch to get everything stable and safe.
Several deep breaths later, we set about getting the snow chains out. These were stowed inside the spare wheels for summer storage and it took us over an hour just to get them ready. Baloo has work lights front and back. These proved to be very effective in the gathering darkness, reflecting off the snow on the floor and in the trees to illuminate the whole area. Normally snow chains are fitted by laying them out on the road and driving the vehicle to pull them onto the tyres. We had to modify this approach because one wheel was in a ditch. I managed to get very wet and muddy. Eventually, the chains were in place and we set about getting out of the ditch. With diff-locks fully engaged this worked really well but we needed to be very careful about the rear wheels. We only have one pair of chains, fitted at the front, so there is nothing to stop the rear wheels sliding sideways. This had never been a problem in our previous ice travels but now it was a serious worry. The road was treacherously slippery with quite a steep camber towards a very steep slope into the forest. The dark made this look especially ominous. We reversed back up the hill. The camber was less this way and pushing the vehicle carefully uphill we could make sure that rear wheels did not drift sideways. A few hundreds of meters later, we reached a level patch where we could park off the road and finally relax. The champagne to celebrate the New Year was particularly enjoyable.
Next morning, not a single vehicle had passed in the night. The snowplough came past about 8 am dropping grit behind it. We had a slow start and by the time we left, just before midday, the road was completely clear of ice and snow.
Over the next few days, we completed our exploration of the Schwarz Wald (Black Forest). Found a few more delightful places to walk and some quiet corners to park. Eventually we turned back towards the Unicat workshop. Time, yet again, to reappraise our travel plans. Also we might think about getting a second pair of snow chains.
