Switzerland 1 - Great Morning, Bad Afternoon

How do I start this one, bonjour, ciao, or guten tag? The reason is we are in Switzerland, and along with Romansh, which I had never heard of, they speak all these languages. Anyway, I’ll just say hello instead!

We are in the small town of Altdorf, on the south side of Lake Urnersee. We have found ourselves on a lovely little campsite called Camping Remo at the foot of the Eggberg Cable Car, which I will come onto in my next post.

And that’s not the top!

We have good and bad days touring, as in life, some days just don’t work out, do they? We left Lake Como on Tuesday to head up into Switzerland, and I had the town of Faido in mind as a reasonable distance to travel and to look for somewhere to stop when we got there; however, things didn’t go quite to plan.

It was a lovely drive, although not helped by finding out at this stage of the trip, and in this area of northwest Italy and into Switzerland, that Winnie, our little Maltipoo, has decided she doesn’t like travelling through the tunnels, which are of course plentiful. There is a reasonable amount of whining going on each time we go through one!

We had been on the road for about 90 minutes and were getting close to Castagnola, near the town of Lugano, when our sat nav suddenly told us it was redirecting us due to a road closure. Now the question is, what do you do? You’re in a foreign country; you can’t understand any traffic announcements on the radio (if in fact there is/was any,) road signs are difficult to understand, so to us, it made sense to go with the sat nav, well, it did at the time.

The announcement came just as we approached a small roundabout, which we used to do a U-turn and back the way we had come all the way back to the town of Porlezzo, round the other side of the lake, up into the hills and up the winding roads, and on and upwards and more. Looking at the map, I’m not even sure where I got to, but after an hour after our U-turn, I pulled over to get my bearings and make sure we were on the right road.

It was here that a driver pulled over beside us and told us in very good English that if we were going to Switzerland, we couldn’t go this way as our vehicle was too wide, and off he went. I can’t quite remember what I was thinking but decided to push on for a couple of miles to see what we could find, and all we found was another layby at a strange junction, so once again I pulled over.

Thankfully for us, just as I was about to scream, a police car came over the junction, and I waved them down. I asked if I could get to Switzerland by turning left in this vehicle; they said yes, no problem, and off they went.

I had made a mistake by positioning the motorhome in the layby as I had, as I couldn’t see to my left, and cars could easily come round from that direction to turn right, going across our path, and I didn’t like it. But feeling relief from the information from the police, I asked the co-pilot to go and stand at the junction to wave me out when it was clear, which she did. So, I swung out and positioned myself where I should have been on the road to turn left, and I think that is when I did scream.

Now either the police had no idea or they were just laughing at the lost tourist, but as I sat at the junction, I saw the sign quite clearly showing a maximum vehicle width of 2.30m, and ours is measured at 2.35m, and I wasn’t risking it for a couple of reasons. The main and obvious one being getting to the narrow road and finding I couldn’t get through, and two being I couldn’t get turned round if I got stuck, or at least not very easily.

So, we had no real option; we had to go all the way back down the winding road, through the town of Porlezzo, and back to the roundabout we had been at some 2.5 hours previously at Castagnola. What a waste of time and effort. With the sat nav staying silent, off we went on the route we were originally planning to go, and everything was well.

It was a nice drive, but some strange situations, like traffic lights on a major dual carriageway, as drivers are going from two lanes to one to go through a tunnel, like the booths at the Mont Blanc tunnel. I reckon it was so that everyone stopped, and again, by only letting so many cars go at once, there is not the last-minute madness of cars trying to squeeze into one lane, especially when you are supposed to stay 150m apart in the tunnel. So different, but it worked, although not many drive to the 150m distance rule!

Because of the wasted detour, we only got as far as Bellinzona and found a campsite; it was pretty late and last minute, but it was a sanctuary for the night after a pretty miserable day driving, but it got worse. It cost us £61.71 for a night, and what did we get for that? Well, we got about the same as any other campsite. For that price I would have expected bells and whistles, but nothing. So, my advice here is if you are travelling this route from Lake Como into Switzerland, don’t stop at Bellinzona. Sure, the facilities were clean, and staff were helpful and informative, but as I have said, that’s how all the other sites have been. The one we are on now at Altdorf is just as good and smaller, if a little noisier due to a main road, and it’s nearly half the price!

We eventually got settled, and that first cold beer did not last very long, and as mentioned, some days are just not so good. Unlike my start to the morning, when I did something, I thought I would never, ever pluck up the courage to do this. I have seen it often, including near to us at home, the motorised versions, and at times I would shudder thinking about it. But we were at Lake Como, and you wouldn’t get a better place to do it, so I did. I went paragliding!

I got picked up at 9.30, driven to a meeting point in town to meet two other paragliding virgins, a younger German man and a Dutch lady, and off we went up the same road I had cycled a couple of days earlier, taking a left at a junction where I had gone right, and as the detour later in the day and the cycle a day or two earlier, we just went up and up and round and round; we laughed, meeting vehicles coming down the single track. wondering which would be more dangerous, the ascent or the descent.

We were soon at the takeoff point, with three instructors with the biggest rucksack-type bag I had ever seen, and even though we were in Italy, the cows that followed us with the bells around their necks clanging away just added to the scene, just like a set from a film.

Looking back, what I found strange was how quickly my ‘pilot’ Luca had the canopy prepared. We had already signed disclaimers, and there was no real brief until he got me into the harness and told me how we would take off. And then we waited for what seemed an eternity. He told me conditions had to be right, but I could feel no change in the wind and wondered what we were waiting for. Then he told me to walk, then run (try doing that in a harness with a guy strapped to your back – oh the image,) but then we were off, floating, flying, gliding, or however you describe it. But what I will say it was an absolutely amazing feeling.

That was fast

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

You can see from the pictures that the scenes are fantastic; the feeling of freedom was immense. Now I know where the saying ‘free as a bird’ comes from; until you have done this, you will never know.

As part of the descent, Luca said something like, ‘do you want some adrenaline?' Well, in a situation like that for me, there is only going to be one answer, which, of course was ‘okay,’ and which you can actually hear at the beginning of the video, and off he went side to side, and you will also see ‘over.’ The strange part here is that I couldn’t remember the ‘over’ bit until I saw the video again. It was absolutely adrenalin but I had to ask him to stop or I would have been sick, which can also be heard in the video.

It is an experience I will never forget, and while a touch expensive at £120, it had to be done, and I would say to anyone who is thinking or has thought about doing it – you must, as it is and was an incredible experience.

A fantastic start to the day and a frustrating end!

Thanks for reading

DJ