Ending Up Anywhere

We found the northern end of Lake Como, where we camped four five nights, to be pretty good for cyclists and hikers alike. We were based in Sorico and cycling to the east and anti-clockwise around the lake was enjoyable, with the terrain mostly flat and cycle lane almost all the way. The only times we had to use a busy road was across bridges. Heading anti-clockwise from Sorico we found a quiet stretch of beach with two small coves where we were completely alone. You'll cross two rivers flowing into the lake, following cycleway parallel to the second river into some woods, where just before Colico Piano there's a small path to the lake edge and the larger stretch of beach. Lock up your bikes and walk to the right and you'll find two smaller and coves just across a grass clearing. We spent a quiet afternoon laying on the beach here with an occasional dip in the lake to cool off. If you're feeling particularly energetic then I cannot recommend highly ...

We were spoilt on the first two weeks of our Italian adventure. Tuscany gave us a pitch with fabulous views and mainly sunny weather. Going further south to Umbria we found ourselves on a five-star campsite and 40 degree heat. Our third week required that we started heading back north and we chose the Italian lakes. A few years ago we stayed in a hotel on Lake Garda. This time we decided to give Lake Como a try and booked Camping La Riva on the northern tip. I say northern tip but that's kind of stretching it a little. It's on the river slightly before it flows into the lake. We had a warm welcome by the site owners and were shown to our pitch. I'm afraid this isn't the kind of site we enjoy. Firstly it has semi-permanent caravans that have what I can best describe as wooden shanty towns built around them. Secondly there are just too many camping units crammed in. Our pitch was between the road and the river, but the pitches are two deep, so in front of us...

Dinner is bubbling away and smells amazing. We purchased a bag of dried beans from an Italian Lidl and added a third of a chorizo sausage, onions, garlic and a yellow pepper, plus a carton of tomato passata. A little squeeze of harissa paste added for a spicy kick, and a low simmer for a couple of hours (might as well use the electricity now it's paid for). More beans are soaking ready for breakfast of eggs, beans and spam! Meanwhile the couple in the 'campervan' next to us with the two kayaks are having Pot Noodles and cigarettes.

Heatwave Lucifer hit Italy just as we travelled south, for eight nights at Campsite Il Collacio in Umbria. Temperatures were around 35 to 39 degrees C and so we made the most of our campsite's two swimming pools for much of our days. My family flew out to join us for seven nights. The trip was a surprise for my mum's 70th birthday. All she was told was that Dad was taking her somewhere hot that wasn't by the sea. She thought my brother Ben and his family were only taking them to the airport and so the first surprise was revealed when they parked in the airport's long-stay car park and joined them on the flight to Rome. At around 4pm in the afternoon their car pulled up at Il Collacio. Tony and I were sitting by the pool and saw them, over the hedge, getting out of the car. I'd told Mum we were in Lichtenstein and was even checking in to places on Facebook to throw her off the scent. She was completely surprised to see us and the birthday surprise even ma...

Tuscany, the furthest yet we've travelled in Cleopatra, was to be our second campsite for our three week European tour. We set off from Huttopia Le Plage Blanche in France's Jura region at 6.50am. We stopped once for diesel and a wee. One difference between driving in France and Italy is that Italian motorway service stations are not self service. We arrived in Marcialla at 3.45pm. The coordinates in Tony's Google Maps sat nav were a little off and we had to reverse back up a narrow stoney track to get back to the main road before navigating the narrow streets of the town all over again to come out on a different side. When you know where you're going, the campsite, Camping Chianti Panorama, is just two minutes out of town. When I'd emailed a reservation to the site the previous week the reply came back addressed to 'Miss Cleoptra' with the prices for her and her two human friends. That was a lovely touch and showed they'd clicked the link...

We used Huttopia's La Plage Blanche as a convenient stopover on our way south. The intention was we would go to Switzerland but the forecast for rain all week prompted a change of plans. Quite a major change of plans since Tuscany, where the sun is, is quite a distance further than Switzerland. Anyway, this blog post is about Le Plage Blanche, which translates as the white beach. The site is nowhere near the sea, being in the east side of France, not far from Dijon. We spotted the beach just as we arrived, at the bank of a river where many people were swimming. There is a perfectly good pool on site so I have no idea why. Our pitch for our brief stay had a countryside view across fields. You can pay slightly more for riverside pitch. Opposite our pitch was a trailer tent with a couple who drove away with their bikes on the car roof just as we arrived. To our left a British motorhome was our nearest neighboring three pitches away. I knew them to be British when the mo...

We booked a site we return to again and again, Town Farm in Ivinghoe in the Chiltern Hills. We've always bagged a pitch on the hilltop overlooking the valley below. The sun sets over the valley and it's just beautiful to sit and take it all in with a glass of wine. On this occasion I'd managed to book a pitch with electric, I've no idea how. However they didn't mind us ditching the hook-up and parking Cleopatra at the field edge. It's often very windy on this site but winds kept below 15mph this weekend and we were able to leave our awning up for the duration of our stay. As has become our weekend ritual when we stay here we cycled to the cafe on the Ashridge estate for a full English breakfast before continuing on to Berkhamstead and back via Aldbury where we discovered a second village pub we've not spotted before. Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing in the sun with our Kindles and some bottles of real ale. On both evenings we sat in front o...