Day 6 on the mountains Lac du Mont Cenis to Gran Bosco

A cold morning after another rainy night, but the day did look better so We started with a brief trip over the reservoir at the end of the lake to get some breakfast at one of the excellent cafes overlooking the reservoir,

Expresso & Croque-monsieur was welcome after a cold evening / night and  and then up into France for a look-see/shopping trip.

The next stop was one of the most impressive forts on the trip. Good drive back towards our list nights campsite, and then Mike, Chris, Rhian and I went for a stiff walk up the hill whilst German Mike went to check what would be our last green lane of the trip for suitability as the guys were aware of some rocks that needed to be climbed over.

Fort de Variselle was truly stunning with multiple levels and rooms to explore once you had navigated the drawbridge which was some very flimsy looking beams in my opinion.

On our return German Mike had returned and declared that the trip was probably ok for Chris and Gillian, but we were simply not going to make it over the rocks on the track without removing some of Katy’s underside.

So the party was split and we headed off with Mike and Mandy. Once they had been spotted as having made it past the obstacle we went to do the old Roman road they call Jurassic from the other end to meet the rest of the team for lunch. A real cracking route and a real highlight of the trip even if we only did part of it, and took more video on that run than pictures so you will need to wait for the video if you want to see more of it than I have here

We stopped on the way back for a couple of pictures

and whilst we did Mandy located some really nice wild strawberries

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Then back through Susa and up the hill where we passed a personal milestone for Katy 150,000 miles on the clock. As I've noted before this mileage may not be real and she may well have done about 50,000 miles less than this figure

We then went to Fort Excilles on the way back to the campsite as it was on-route and enjoyed the lifts up rather than the long walk up the old roadway, It’s probably best if I don’t mention who locked who into the loo or the castle.. The guilty know who they are.

A few pictures of some obscure parts of the castle

Like many old buildings the lime mortar was being redeposited

One thing they had done really well was these shadow graphics. this one showed the Alpini's practicing rope work on the mountains

And this one their emblem, the Eagles soaring

Back then to campsite where the formal bit ended and we enjoyed a meal with the group and shared thoughts and experiences.

So what more have we learned in summary

1. We can do it – a total of about 216 Km / 134 Miles on green lanes with no serious issues
2. Travelling with people who know the capabilities of people and vehicles was really useful. Mandy related how the Mikes take a close look at people on day 1 and decide from there what they are capable of. They were impressed with how well Katy coped and I take that as a compliment on the work and upgrade we've done, because she would not have made this in the state we got her 
3. Picking a tour company based on how much you trust them to look after you is important. I’d got a head-start because I’d talked to Mandy on the Land Rover Addict and Land Rover Scene forums. 
4. We have things we want to do to improve Katy, but we need to take German Mike’s advice seriously “only add things that add value, knowledge of how to cope & fix things is more useful than any gadget”. I think he was approving when I said my most important things on board were a toolkit and a Defender Haynes manual
5. We really need to look into fridges again. Chris and Mandy both gave us advice on compressor fridges and I’ll take a look into that again
6. German Mike offered advice on the relay problem I had identified and agreed that this really did look like it was allowing current to flow even when the ignition was supposed to be off. A typical Land Rover fault apparently is the ignition switch allows some current through (post trip review has identified that there is definitely something wrong with this as the switched feed is permanently live and causing battery drain) - Need to add multi-meter to the going away kit list
7. The only negative was we had in the week was 2 camp fire nights washed out – nothing anyone could have done, and not enough to spoil what had been a fantastic adventure 

Damage / Problems so far

1. None

Credits 

We had some more adventures and saw some more scenery on the way home through France which I'll add, but this was the end of our mountain adventures so I would like to thank 

1. Mandy, Mike and Mike from Alpine Rovers for looking after us and all the positive comments and advice
2. Chris and Gillian for being good company along the way and their good advice
3. Rhian for putting up with me and taking many of the pictures and all the video which I still have to cut into something watchable
4. Steve Walford back in Cardiff for the work he put in to help me get Katy ready for this first adventure
5. John. Toby and all the other people who used to own Katy, but let her move on to us so we could have these adventures
6. All the people who dropped by to marvel at the strange apparition that is Katy as we wended our way back and fore