E2: 06:30 AM in Locarno on 17th April

Friday 17th April

 

So here we are, nearly in Italy!  The journey from Metz to here (Locarno) took another 8 hours or so of total driving time and clocked up another 345 miles.  I forgot to say that the temperatures on Wednesday were bonkers! Most of the day was 25c and yesterday was much the same, despite my self assumed ‘Yorkshire man’ status I even had to resort to using the air conditioning and accept the reduced MPG that comes with it!

Our route here was via Epinal, Mulhouse (where we topped up with diesel at 83p per litre), across the border into Germany then into Switzerland at Basel and via Luzern to Locarno.  

After entering Switzerland our GPS was trying to send us via toll free roads and we turned off the motorway, this was a mistake as the mountain roads were slow and torturous.  We realised our mistake after an hour or so and stopped in a filling station to purchase a Vignette (€40) so that we could use the motorways.  Soon on our way we continued fairly drama free.

Again the outside temperature was hot but what did surprise us was that even at 3500 feet above sea level in the mountains it was still over 20c and  in the St Gotthard tunnel it reached 33c (!).  The tunnel is over 17 kilometres long and was one of many cutting it’s way through the Swiss Alps.

Finally we arrived in Locarno around 19:00 and found the dedicated parking space for camping cars behind the CoOP in Locarno where we stopped for the night (this morning we realised it is meant to be during opening hours only…….. oh well, that’s the advantage of being foreign sometimes!)

 

The journey so far from Folkestone in the UK to Locarno on the Switzerland / Italy border has taken two full days, 660 miles and around 16 hours of driving.  We have averaged just over 40 miles per gallon despite the traffic jams and even using the air conditioning (!).

That is the ‘utility’ part of our travel complete.  The mission was to get here quickly so that we can begin our ‘Italian Adventure’.  I do hope than when I next update this blog it will be with more interesting facts and photo’s!

Until then, tara for now x