Saturday 3rd June

Today was a pretty uneventful travel day. We ploughed our way up the Italian Autostrade around Milan and into Switzerland.

It had been our intention to spend a few days in Switzerland but when I researched some of the things we would like to do in the country we changed our mind. One of the activities which appealed was taking a cable car high into the Alps and doing some walking. However the price of the cable cars to the most recommended areas were prohibitive. One was €80 per person and the other €60. I didn’t even get as far as researching fares for Skye! So Switzerland was going to be just a place to traverse and stay overnight.

The one notable incident was that in several hundred thousand miles of driving, today I came the closest I ever have to a major accident. We were driving on the motorway north of Milan at about 60MPH (100KPH) when I luckily noticed out of the corner of my left eye a small silver car drifting into our lane, apparently unaware of Basil’s bulky presence. I immediately slammed on my brakes and the silver car, oblivious, continued into our lane missing Basil’s front corner by inches. Given Basil’s weight I think if the rear of the car had hit Basil it may well have been spun sideways in front of us and then who knows what would have happened.

By the time we reached our fairly average campsite near Bellinzona, our heart rates had just about returned to normal. Camping Isola (46.1703, 8.9320) was our most expensive of the trip at €31. We arrived early in the afternoon and enjoyed afternoon sunshine and Sarah even managed a swim. As evening approached thunder could be heard and it was soon teeming with rain.

Sunday 4th June

The torrential rain at Camping Isola continued all night and with Basil being parked on a grass pitch I was worried we may struggle to extricate him. We got off to an early, for us, start at 9am and there was no trouble with Basil exiting the mud. We have new CrossClimate tyres which are supposed to be better in the mud, but ultimately I think it was just that the pitch was hard enough that Basil’s tyres did not sink in.

We had planned a 200 mile journey to Southern Germany where we could start our German adventure tomorrow. The weather forecast was good and although we set off in heavy rain as we neared the 16km (10 mile) long Gottard Tunnel the skies were beginning to clear.

As we approached time to stop for lunch we saw signs for Rheinfall. Fortunately I happened to have read a little about Rheinfall in my guide book last night and so we decided to combine lunch with a stop at, what is, a very popular tourist attraction.

Sarah had a quick sandwich in the motorhome and I bided my time hoping for a German Sausage! It was €5 each to get a close up of the falls which we initially thought a bit steep. I grabbed a Bratwurst and we went down to the falls viewing area.

Even though the Rhein starts in Switzerland and we still had not crossed into Germany, it was already a mighty torrent. It is not a very high waterfall but the spectacle comes from the colossal weight of water. It is said to be the largest “Plains Waterfall” in Europe, whatever that means, but in all it was a spectacular sight and the €5 seemed more than fair.

Finally Team Basil entered Germany and have parked up at an excellent aire (47.9961, 9.1191) in the town of Messkirch. It is €24.50, but it has all the facilities of a campsite, including a grassy area next to each pitch to set out tables and chairs. In fact it might be better called a campsite without a permanent reception.