7th May - Bergamo

7th May

Iseo to Bergamo

Arrival 48138 km

42e camping
18e diesel
12e engine oil
25e groceries

I headed off from Iseo around 11am after finally getting all the remaining washing dried. The campsite was pretty good, but had beeen very quiet, probably as the wetaher had been so poor and a lot of the pitches are seasonal where people have their caravans and awnings set up for the whole time, so more than likely they don't bother visiting unless the weather's decent. This was the first campsite that I've used the Camping Card (discount card for certain sites) and it saved me 10e each night, so it more than paid for itself just then. It worked out at 14e per night inc electric. The showers were decent, so I used the ones on site and saved on the gas in the m/home too.

I stopped off at a Lidl and bought a few groceries. Raging now as they had snorkel sets on special and I wish I'd picked one up now for the next time I'm at a beach or lake. There was a kid outside with her father mooching around the van when I came out, probably looking for money. I told her to scram, which probably doesn't translate into Italian, but she seemed to get the message anyway. there's a fair bit of begging goes on here, but then Spain was quite bad for it too.

I topped up the engine oil and diesel at a filling station. I think the guy saw me coming since he sold me synthetic engine oil at 12e for a litre, bloody rip-off, but anyway, my language skills are non existant, soi it would have been difficult to try to get something else and none of it was out on display anywhere. The turbo warning light is still staying on, but it's coming on as soon as the ignition is switched on without the engine running, which leads me to (Hope!) believe that it may be a faulty pressure sensor. I'm assuming it's some kind of diaphragm arrangement that may have got stuck, but I'll need to strip it off and see if I can suss it out. The turbo still sounds ok and the engine's running alright, so I shall hope for the best that all is ok....

I arrived at the camper stop in Bergamo and it was ok. Just a public car park really and not much room, but a few vans parked up andc it looked safe enough, so I manoeuvred in and then headed into the city on Shanks' pony, which was about 3km into the centre. Quite a nice city for a stroll around and I spent a pleasant enough afternoon wandering the streets and window shopping. There are some amount of the African 'looky looky' guys selling sunglasses, belts and watches. And there I thought that they only frequented the beach areas.....

By the time I got back to the van it was really warm. Such a difference from a few days ago. Also, my cold is nearly gone, so I'm feeling a bit more back on form.

Bruce is due to arrive from Prestwick around midnight on a Ryanair flight, so I'll need to head off and collect hime from the airport later. He's coming out for 3 weeks, but we'll need to get the heads together and see where he'd like to see. I'm thinking Florence, but it's a bit of a trek south, and definately Venice. There's a campsite at Lido de Jesolo that is served by public transport to Venice so that looks to be an option. Anyway, I'm sure that a plan will form along the way........