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Week 10 – COVID-19 Tests and the Beauties of Majella National Park
Week 10: Monday 31/08 – Sun 06/09 Fonte Cerreto under the rain – Monday Yesterday it has been raining since 6pm. At around 8pm the rainstorm reached its peak and water started dripping through the lateral and back doors of the van. We realized that both the doors weren’t well closed… This fixed the night was calm and quiet. After breakfast we leave the place and head to Fonte Cerreto. Rain will be falling all day. On Mondays in Italy, especially in small villages, shops and cafes are closed. We decide to drink a coffee in the bar of a deserted hotel. We can sit outside, covered by a roof,…
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Day 27 – Collecting Spruce Resin for the Magic Balm
It’s not a good morning if you do not pick berries The weather forecast for the next days says “a lot of rain”. For this reason, we spend three hours in the orchard, under the last sun, in order to collect as many black currants as possible. We manage to finish the row before lunch. Collecting resin from wounded Spruces No spruces were harmed during this process… Before it starts to rain we go into the forest in order to collect spruces’ resin. To do this, Matej follows the roads created by woodcutters and, with the permission of the owner of the forest, collects the resin only from those trees…
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Day 6 – The Greens and the Greys of Slovenian Alps
Early bird in Austria The alarm rings at 7am after a rainy -and noisy- night. The fun thing is that we got to bed saying that we are glad the van is well isolated, and then spent the night hearing the drops of water hitting the metal roof. After the last breakfast in Italy we cross the border and stop by the first Austrian village to buy rice, vegetables and bread. We follow the road 83 until Villach, where we are supposed to find a gas station selling cooking gas. After a few wrong attempts, we finally end up in the right station where we refill our gas bottle and…
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Day 3 – Time for mountains
Asphalt and towns The morning wakes us with its unbearable heat. After a quick yogurt with cereals we leave the suburbs of Verona towards a new Region. Our goal: Friuli’s Alps. The way is long. The asphalt broken and noisy, the heat still unbearable. We pass through a series of deserted towns. Traffic is irregular and sometimes we find ourselves stuck, with no air conditioning and our backs melting on the seats. Many rivers: but where’s the water? We cross fields, towns, again fields and a lot of bridges. Rivers are small and hide themselves in the trees’ shade, to avoid the late morning sun. The river beds are wide,…
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Day 1 – The masked tourist
A stressful start Monza was hot and trafficked despite some people are still afraid of Coronavirus. Masks are descending below the noses, G’s neighbour are complaining about ‘this mask thing is unbearable, it’s just too hot’. And it is too hot, too humid as well. We just realised that we cannot power the old portable fridge G’s parents offered us. Our battery is only 30Ah and our solar panel just 100W – we can just power our laptop and phones. It took a week of works, tutorials, and fights to get the van functional for a long trip. It’s hard to get practical and to deal with our own errors…
