Timmelsjoch - Passo Rombo

Following our Italian misfortune, we headed for the Austrian border in the hope that things would take on a more Swiss feel, allowing us to forget the experience of Italy.

On Saturday morning, we woke up completely unaware as to where we were due to the circumstances that got us there. We headed towards Lecco and then northwards to escape. However, things did not go as planned due to the state of the Italian roads and the inclines that Metro was having to deal with.

We got to Merano at around about 4 yesterday afternoon and decided that rather than slum it there, we would push on to the border as there are a number of campsites just as you get into Austria.

The road we were on was to take us over the mountains using Passo Rombo. It was only as we left Merano that we found out that the pass shuts at 2000hrs. Quickly after finding that out, we camped in a German-centric village - Keith had poorly made Italian food for dinner and James had a German pork dish (he has had the same dish 3 times in the last week and each time it has been called something different on the menu!)

The campsite was typical of the climate - hot and humid. It was, therefore, riddled with ants the size of your hand and flies bigger than that.

You won't be surprised to learn that we were looking forward to getting to Austria today...