Stage 1: Three countries, one day, one terrifying drive.

Ross : Day 5. The Alps have been pleasured by the sound of Martha today.  Finally at 8am this morning with a solid fuel tank in place we departed our motel and headed towards Italy. I am now writing this at 7.30pm and we are approaching the Austrian border – boy it’s been a long day.

The peregrination through the Alps was one of wonder and fear. We are currently rotating the driving at hourly intervals, and it just so happened that Steve was at the wheel when we traversed a couple of 6000+ft mountains. Davos and Klosters are beautiful popular ski resorts in the winter, in the summer they are simply stunning alpine pasture lands. The ascent was slow and rewarding, the descent was simply terrifying. I’m sure in a smart sports car one would get to appreciate the blind corners and sharp switch-backs. In Martha the feeling was very different. With minimal barriers protecting us from deep ravines the conversation ceased in the cab and there was an eerie silence only punctuated with the multiple gasps. Needless to say this didn’t last long and once Steve had boldly navigated us through the worst the conversation quickly turned to what would have been our last words if Martha had decided to take the plunge – you can imagine!

The Italian border held no problems and the majestic scenery of the Alps has now turned into the quite spectacular Dolomites. The one thing that has changed quite dramatically is the driving speed and aggression of of our fellow motorists. Mind you one would expect the Italians to be slightly more forceful than the Swiss. This was discussed at length in the cab and it was firmly concluded that we had history on our side to support this hypothesis.

Arthur (our mascot)  has had a cracking day being photographed in three different countries (we have just crossed a deserted Austrian border). Ben had a tricky time driving Martha onto a car train (official first prang) which took us straight through a mountain rather than having another hair raising descent – we all thought this was rather a good idea, the cab is not a nice place when silence kicks in!  Chris is using his driving skills to coach George through some tough sharp bends at high speeds and Steve is now sound asleep in the back  recovering from ‘the drive of his life’.

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