Our hole approach amazed a German

BaCK in the Fifties I read a book about a couple who went camping in Venice driving a bond Minicar with a lawn mower engine. They drove over the old simplon pass and into switzerland, camped by the swiss and Italian lakes, ending up on the Venice Lido. I decided to organise the same trip with five family members sharing the expenses and driving. I hired a dormobile — a bedford van converted to a Multi purpose Vehicle. The six seats could be converted into bunks and a tent on the back for the rest. It proved ideal for our purpose and the RaC provided all the documents. They supplied us with a map of Europe with the route marked in blue, and with suggested camping sites. We set off despite never having tried driving abroad or been camping before. We referred to the map so often we wore a hole in one corner which proved a problem in avignon because the next town was in the hole. We proceeded by eliminating roads going in the wrong direction and arrived in Venice more or less on time. The next day a VW beetle pulled up with a family of four. They had filled every tiny space with part of their kit and set about camping like a military exercise. The following day I spoke to the man. In excellent English, he explained he’d been a pOW in England during World War II, but said it was far better than fighting. having been working in the cookhouse, he was never short of food. he showed me his itinerary on several sheets of a4 covered in great detail. It had taken him all winter to plan it, but some things hadn’t worked out so he was trying to make corrections for the return trip. Everything had a place and each person had their jobs written down. I said I was amazed at the attention to detail that seemed a national characteristic of the Germans. he replied that only the british would drive 1,400 miles through places they’d never been before with a map with a hole in it. ‘no wonder you won the war,’ he said.

Derek Trayler, Hornchurch, Essex.