Roland Routier

This will be my first job, at CentroAnidra (http://centroanidra.it/index.php/it/). What they didn't tell me is that the roads are narrow, the valley sides near vertical and there are very few places to turn a car, let alone a van, around. This I discovered getting here late last night, when HereWeGo, my iPad GPS, directed me down a narrow lane that eventually petered out into a forest track. I had to reverse back to a farmhouse in order to execute an 8 point turn, hoping the fragile valley side wouldn't give way.

To add interest to what would otherwise have been a banal experience at midnight, the van manufactures have put forward facing side lights near the roof at the rear. My rear view mirrors therefore serve only to destroy my night vision. I scout the way 3 metres at a time with my torch and then back up blindly.

Miraculously I only destroy a pile of plastic crates left out for garbage collection. (Yes, it appears that there really are small garbage trucks here that collect from the side of forest tracks.)

The twin electric fans in the engine bay kicked in with all this revving and sounded like an aircraft taking off. By this time the dogs were barking and lights were appearing in the old stone cottages. Being in hunting territiory made me a bit nervous, but I managed to skidaddle without a shot being fired.

Luckily I only had to do this one more time before finding my destination, although this time I had to reverse up a 1 in 4 drive with a curve at the top, and the van does not have the power for a hill start so I needed about Half a dozen tries before gaining enough momentum to get up onto the level and bending the bumper on the earth bank.

When I got to the CentroAnidra turnoff I decided not to venture down the track in the darkness, and found sufficient space to park by the road for the night. Checked in after brekky and working by 10:30 on cleaning up after a wedding.En savoir plus