Day 18 – Sunday 19th May 2013
The weather was much improved this morning for the continuation of our jaunt further north, although still quite a fresh breeze and relatively chilly. After a pleasant breakfast and saying goodbye to our host family, who were very pleasant and had two lovely children, and taking photographs of the surrounding views from their property which overlooks Ovada, we set off. The motorways were beautifully quiet on this sunny Sunday morning, we made excellent progress and the plan was to go ‘over the top’ of the Alps rather than tackle the very long Frejus tunnel. When we reached the point for opting for the ‘over the top’ route, we found that the road appeared to be closed due to snow, so we took the Grand Saint Bernard tunnel, only about 5km long, and immediately before the entrance to that, we crossed the border into Switzerland. We also had to stop just prior to the tunnel as Geoff and Carole’s clutch started giving further problems, and after stopping to top up fluids, we continued for a short while, stopping just after the tunnel for a drink and bite to eat, during which we made a number of phone calls and enquiries to see what options were available to obtain a replacement clutch master cylinder. We eventually found the best course of action, after speaking with various fellow Jobbers, etc, was that Roger and Yvonne Hunt are still in the region of the IMM, and can hopefully obtain a replacement master cylinder, and associated ancillary parts required to replace same, from the IMM show, and their destination for tomorrow (Monday) is where we are heading today (Annecy), we are proposing to be there for 2 days, departing on Wednesday morning, so hopefully there will be time to fit a replacement on Tuesday 🙂
We continued our journey north in very mixed weather, circumnavigating Lake Lausanne, which was huge and lovely. After crossing the border into France, we arrived at Annecy, eventually found our hotel and settled in. We then went for a pleasant walk down to the river and old town and ate at a very pleasant restaurant.
