First week somewhere other than home and we have been collecting borders - 8 in total. France, belgium, back into France, Belgium again, Luxembourg for a blink, then Germany, Switzerland and finally france, where we decided to stand still for a while. All of which we hardly noticed save for a change in road signs so say that we had crossed into a completely separate culture, legal system and often language. The only border to offer any resistance was Switzerland, where being Switzerland we were asked to pay our way, ostensibly to use the road system for the 4 hours we spent in the country.

Since in France we have split our time between holiday, walking and camping in the Alps near Chatel, and more organisation, buying parts, finishing jobs that make our life more comfortable and continuing the project management of VISAs, guides and permits. The car has also developed a clunk that could either be the  personality of a LandRover or something more serious. Our "friendly" landRover garage in Chambery was no help at all, offering us a dubious diagnosis before shrugging his shoulders to tell us that it was vacation time and he had better things to do with cars sold by him. We will try again at a garage with some more pride in their work. Until then, either diagnosis is not iminently serious.

Next stop Italy.

john



sun is shiny, food is good and we have been up alps with a bivvy bag and swam in lakes as the sun goes down. So far so good!

ruth