Pulling in to Dover the shipping forecast gave way to Sailing By which in turn stood aside for the National Anthem. Radio 4 was put to sleep for another night. In my semi dormant state I thought some stars may have aligned and it might have meant something, but I guess it was just chance and I still had a long drive ahead. Filling in line 46 on the docking lane it occurred to me the last time i had made this journey was in 2001. On that occasion I had a oneway ticket, a new life in Italy to forge, this trip by comparison was just 2 weeks.
In 2001 I didn’t even know Val di Mello existed, to be honest I didn’t know anything of the mountains around Milan which was to become my home for 5 years. My ex italian girlfriend (who lived in the area) had failed to mention the fact that sharp peaked mountains rose just 30 km north out of lake Como with steep limestone cliffs, a vibrant mountaineering community, a little further north magnificent granite monsters. At the time all I remember thinking was .. there must at least be a climbing wall near by!
Well all that is a distraction, now I most certainly did know what was there, who was there, and I just had to be there! My plans were diverse.. Week 1 Melloblocco and week 2 the Italian singlespeed championships. All that stood between me and that was 12 miles of sea water and 1000k of driving.