Turtmann, Switzerland - 20 April 2024

20.04 - Italy through Simplon Pass into Switzerland - Turtmann

Woke up to beautiful sunshine again. Serviced Dave - and off we went. Tintin wanted to drive the Simplon Pass (2,005m). It’s a high mountain pass between the Pennine Alps and the Lepontine Alps in Switzerland. 

But first we had to endure the rubbish Italian roads. Whereas my drive yesterday was narrow - today was just bumpy - even in tunnels. Poor Dave - he’s been rattled today. 

Once again, crossing the border was a non event! 

There were quite a few sets of traffic lights today, work going on through tunnels too (no workmen anywhere today though!). 

Tintin wasn’t convinced the outside temperature gauge was working, as it was at 17° for ages. As we climbed - it quickly dropped to -1° where we stopped off for lunch. Ha - he had ideas of spending the night there - I don’t think so!

It was lovely to see so much snow again, people skiing and trying to para-ski (?), after lunch we went for a very brief walk!

Hopefully the photos will ‘describe’ the journey better than words. 

Tintin called the drive epic - it was certainly very picturesque. It’s surreal that we were in sunny Italy, and about an hour later, back in Switzerland in snow. I suppose people living here get used to extremes. I do, however,  feel we’re now ‘the wrong side’ of the mountains!

There didn’t seem much choice of where to park up - we elected for Turtmann (another 45 minute drive) - however the huge space does say for 5 hours maximum parking…

Went off for a walk to find the waterfall. Quite impressive, but then again we’ve been spoilt previously 😉

It’s like a ghost town here. All the places in Italy were full of loud, hand gesticulating people - here - nothing! Well, a little old lady walking and talking to herself and some motorcyclists racing round a circuit on an old airfield.

There’s a huge wood mill. Two shops were open, not sure the restaurants or cafe will ever open again! Maybe everything closes on Saturdays as well as Sundays…

I took a photo of the ancient elephant - and when we walked back, we looked at each other - thought it had moved - but more logically there’s another one we didn’t see before!

Tintin then spent time changing Dave’s tyre pressures as they were too low in these lower temperatures. I tried to do more research for where we’re going next - and more importantly where we can actually park. Some places like Sion seem to actively discourage motorhomes from visiting.  I can sort of understand why. It’s the usual, a small minority spoil it for the majority by leaving litter (and worse). However, for those places who do provide (for us, we repay the community by shopping there, eating out and generally contributing to the economy. 

Another noticeable difference now we’re back in Switzerland is the size of cars. In Italy - there were loads of smaller cars - here the majority seem to be the Audis, BMWs and more SUV type. 

🤞we don’t get moved on…