Slovenia didn't go quite to plan!

Well, it was going so well..... 3am in the morning and a storm comes over, loud crash, van shakes, wind out awning ripped off the van. Me (drenched) holding torch in my mouth holding up whats left of it whilst he (also drenched) tries to wind it into the casing to prevent damage to the van. We manage to get it back in but its clear it's trashed, so we have to somehow organise its removal, assess whether it's repairable or dispose of it, rather than risk it fall out or off whilst we are away and cause further damage to anything. We spend the next day walking round the lake at Bled. Having not slept much the night before and a bit upset about the loss of our £500 awning, we were a little subdued but Bled is a very pretty place. The sun shone for some of the day but the forecast was for a lot more rain and thunderstorms, so we decided the best thing to do was to return to Switzerland the next day.

The following morning, we secured the awning packed up and set off. We (probably foolishly!) decided to do the whole trip in one go but we did a 2 hour driving rota and were fine. We took our own route and saw the most fantastic scenery along the roof of Italy. We went through the Trentino Alto Adige region, which includes the Dolomites, which, with their jagged tops give a quite different skyline from the Italian Alps.

We passed though lovely villages and mountain passes. We stopped for lunch just outside Forni Di Sopra at a restaurant serving typical mountain food. We had polenta and wild mixed mushrooms, with him having grilled cheese and some kind of meat with his. We pushed on and admired the scenery on the way. We went through beautiful villages and towns as we approached the Swiss border, including Glorenza.

Then we went over the Offen Pass at 2150 metres, which was lovely. We have done so many high passes in the Alps but this one is really pretty. We went over as the sun was going down, which added to the spendour.

We then progressed through Davos but missed a turning so missed Klosters. We hadn't realised that on this route we had to go over the Furka pass at 2500 metres, which in rain and late at night was a little scary! A little fog at the top but nothing too bad - didn't have to worry about anything coming the other way though! Once we neared Brig we were in familiar territory, finally arrived and climbed into bed.

The next morning we removed the awning and dismantled it. Too many bits were damaged to make it worth repairing but at least it was off. A dent in the van is a little disappointing but paint not broken so repair can wait. We'll stay here until the mass of thunderstorms over the Alpine regions moves on. Lots of rain without an awning would be a pain. The tour will continue, the the route will just change. We might not get to go to Croatia, as it's a long way back there but we have plenty of time, so we'll see.