Two years now since we have managed a full length Motorhome trip so we really enjoyed planning this one. Never mind that it has only been two months since we got back from our holiday in Bangkok ! Hedges trimmed, flower beds dug, weeded, fertilised and all left ready for a magnificent Summer (which did not of course happen). House spring cleaned, house plants banished to the greenhouse, rooms air-freshened and then all locked up. Motorhome cleaned, checked, loaded up and waiting for us.

At the crack of dawn on the 2nd of May we locked up and set off for Dover and the (Sea France) ferry to Calais.

Bob's carefully planned trip for us was to last 8 weeks and would take us down the east of France into and across Switzerland then across the Alps for a tour eastwards along the Italian Lakes. From there we had arranged a short visit to our friends, Gerry and Andreya in Slovenia before returning across central Italy and back to the south of France. Here we planned some sea, sun and sand before our return northwards via the Massif Central to the Loire Valley to meet up with friends, Nigel and Lynne for a last few days before returning home.

That was Plan A and we started it well but as time went on we found ourselves working to a revised Plan B, Plan C, Plan D.... by the time we got home we had lost track of the version number. Possibly Z ! The changes to our planned route were caused by the weather which of course has been somewhat unpredictable this summer. We did have to do a bit of 'chasing the sun' and our plan for a leisurely route right across Switzerland was amended when we realised that some of the Alpine passes were not fully open for the summer and were not therefore such a good option for a 3.5 ton Motorhome.

By the end of our 57 day trip we had travelled 4242 miles, used 690 litres of fuel (at 28+ mpg), driven for 113 hours, enjoyed 28.5 sunny days, 20.5 Ok days and 8 days of rain. We had visited France, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia and stopped the night in 31 different locations. We had slept on the banks of three Italian lakes - Garda, Iseo and Como and a Swiss one - Brienz. We had viewed several of the highest Swiss mountains, all snow-capped - Eiger, Jungfrau, Matterhorn and indeed been quite a way up several of them as well. We had swum in the sea off the coasts of Italy, Croatia and France. We had camped by lakes, by rivers, on a beach, in the outskirts of cities and halfway up mountains. We had been roasted by the sun, drenched by the rain and chilled by the alpine snow as well as being eaten alive by mosquitoes by the Italian lagoons and the French Camargue. We had crossed lakes and rivers by ferry, wound our way via multiple hairpin bends over several Alpine passes, been through road and rail tunnels, up mountain cog railways and cable cars and along roads barely wider than the motorhome.

We have photographic memories from all along our route - not sure how many we took but certainly several thousand as there are so many wonderful things out there just waiting to be seen. At the end of June we returned home sun-tanned, very happy, healthy and a little better travelled than before.

Many thanks to our reliable Pilote Motorhome and "chauffeur" Bob for venturing where other less intrepid travellers would not dare ! The following pages contain a precis of the trip diary and some of the many photographs we took. The photos are not necessarily in strict order and they do not always appear on the same page as the relevant text but each photo has its own little bit of descriptive text if you move the cursor across it.....

We hope you enjoy them.