Having pretty much prepared everything for departure last night, we had time for a leisurely breakfast before setting off at around 11am for Krun, in Germany, . The forecast predicted heavy storms so we were surprised, and pleased, when the weather was still fine for the start of the journey at least.
This was a journey of several parts and not all of them were good. We drove through some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen to date, out of Switzerland and into Austria, just stunning. But that was just the bit that we travelled above ground. We spent a good deal of the journey in tunnels. This saved time but was pretty tedious, particularly for Roland who was driving. There was also confusion at the Austrian border, with a lot of congestion and police manually directing traffic. We were hurriedly waved through, which meant we weren’t able to pull over and buy a vignette. It’s illegal to travel on the Austrian motorway without one and the minimum on the spot fine is 120 Euros. We were a little worried about this, and even more so as the miles went on, ten, twenty, thirty, without any on-motorway service station that we could buy one from. We were quite a few signs for services off the motorway but we were loath to take an exit in case we found ourselves in some town centre that we wouldn’t be able to manoeuvre out of with the caravan in tow. By the time we’d travelled on the motorway, illegally, for some thirty odd miles we were mightily relieved to pull into a service station and buy a vignette. Never have we been so happy to spend 23 Euros.
Back on the road again all went well until we came off the motorway and started to climb around a mountain. The road got steeper and steeper, with one switchback after another (not easy to negotiate with a caravan on tow) and we got slower and slower as the car really struggled with the load. Eventually, we pulled over to let some other vehicles pass us but then we couldn’t get going again! Every time we tried, the car slipped backwards instead of forwards. It was all very scary because, as you can imagine, we were on the edge of very steep slopes. I have absolutely no head for heights so was totally terrified. Eventually, Roland managed to get the car moving forward again and we carried on to the top. We couldn’t believe this hadn’t been mentioned in the campsite route information, as the site was only about sixteen miles from this massive mountain climb. Anyway, once we were safely over that, we were in a valley between mountain ranges and everything was fine. It was only later that we discovered that the road we took is designated as absolutely unsuitable for caravans and we should have come an entirely different route. Happily, we lived to tell the tale and arrived at a terrific campsite with wonderful facilities, in stunning countryside. Phew!
Once we got ourselves settled in, we went down to the grill bar and rewarded ourselves with chicken and chips and a couple of beers and the world seemed a better place altogether
A welcome site – Am Tennsee campsite Reception
Our little baby caravan in amongst the big boys
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