Wednesday 9th June
We got up at 7am and had breakfast on the site. We set off just after 9am.
The traffic was very heavy, and it was hot again, but we'd both decided to wear jeans instead of full leathers and it was much better. We made good progress and got to Milan at around 11:30.
It was very busy around Milan and people were being just as insane as on the way down, but for some reason it seemed a lot easier than it was on the way down - probably because I knew what to expect. We had some queues around Milan - but we worked our way round and left Milan heading west.
At about 100km out of Milan we started to see mountains in the distance. Then, it seemed, suddenly we were in them. We were back to stunning scenary again and the riding became much easier.
We got to Aosta - Northern Italy - at around 2pm, a beautiful place that I will definately have to go back to. On the pictures it looks quite crisp, but believe me it was still very warm. We had originally planned on stopping in Aosta, but as we had made such good time we decided to push on through the Mont Blanc tunnel and stay the night in France.
The Mont Blanc tunnel was very expensive - it cost us 19 euros to go through it. In a car it costs over 40 euros!
On the other side of Mont Blanc we headed into Chamonix, but unfortunately got a little lost and ended up heading in the wrong direction. Eventually, after asking a few folk, we found our way onto the right road and found a campsite at the base of the mountain.
As it was such a nice day, we threw the tents up and went for something to eat. This proved to be a bit of a struggle, and we ended up getting a Kebab and taking it back to the tents.
We were sitting outside the tents chilling out, when I felt a spot of rain on my face. Strange I thought - theres not a cloud in the sky. But as I looked up a massive cloud had crept over the mountain. We got in the tents, just as the heavens opened. I have never seen rain like it - it was bouncing about 1/2 meter off the ground. We were caught between 2 big storms, the thunder and lightning was incredible, it sounded like the moutain was falling on our heads.
Because I had just thrown the tent up, the rain was forcing the outer layer onto the inner layer and my tent started to leak. I ran round the tent, trying to peg it out a bit better and putting the guy ropes on, but it was too late by then - once it's leaking - it's leaking. It was a lesson well learnt - if you're camping in the moutains, peg your tent out correctly!
I decided there was nothing I could do about it - so I put everything in the tent into a bin bag , ensured my camp bed was not getting dripped on and went to sleep. It was one of the best nights sleep I had all holiday!