We can't believe its our last night!

...and we are in a chintzy little B and B in Matera. Our lovely, loyal Mondeo estate finally gave up the ghost yesterday having 'climbed every mountain' and down again. The clutch has completely burned out and the steering is dodgy. So the last two nights have been away from the caravan too. We have just had the most extraordinary few days climbing over the back of the Appenine mountain range. At 3600 ft (1206m) we had our photo taken by a man working on the road up there. Goodness knows what he will do with it but he was clearly impressed! We crossed a long long long flat ridge that crossed over to another set of hills and allowed us to see three valleys at once. We have been through forests, looked up at villages with castles on the top, then a few minutes later found ourselves looking back down at them! As we came down again we found harvest in full swing which is weird to see in June. The weather is very hot and the up hills have been constant but we are pleased to report that we are coping well and haven't had to push our bikes once! Tomorrow is going to be all down hill...yippee and our welcoming committee will be Rob, Bruce, Jack, Dan and Charlie. Hope the champagne is chilling.