Nail biting over, but almost replaced by frost biting, the following morning saw us on the Italian side of the Swiss Alps. Escort fees paid to the Politzie, permit confirmed and all we had to do was wait until their car turned up to take us through the Gotthard. Whilst the bus started with little or no ado, it became clear that as the temperature dropped several degrees below freezing, aided by very significant wind chill that all was not well with the air system ... and possibly the water. The former now refused to allow any more than about 60psi before venting at the compressor, clearly we potentially had a problem. With such low air pressure it would be touch and go as to whether semi- auto gear selection would be possible. Fiddling around in the dark in the bonnet tracing water pipes too, I'd forgotten how unsympathetically fan blades trim ones fingernails. After an hour or so of running, no progress had been made in either department as the Police car rolled up alongside. Our only hope now was to try for drive and make for the warmth of the tunnel hoping we'd not have to stop. This time 'luck' was on our side and spiralling round the approach roads and down the ramp we entered the bore. Almost instantly, the cab steamed up with condensation, the snow melted, the air pressure restored itself and the cab heater became warm... time for sighs of relief all round. The next 16km underground was spent straddling the white lines until we emerged on the other side of the mountain. Here we were handed over to another escorting operation who'd also a mobile rock crusher to attend to. Instructions now were to follow them, after ascertaining what speed we could manage, to a lorry park where we could at 5am phone for permission to proceed. Arrival there, a location with no facilities, in severely sub zero temperatures at about 1am with no saloon heaters fitted with four hours to kill wasn't an endearing prospect. The multitude of lorries present all hummed away to the sound of massed night heaters. Rather than wait until the suggested 5am, we rang the number given as hypothermia was setting in. Thankfully we were given permission to proceed another twenty miles to a service area with a hotel, though this meant a deviation back onto the northbound carriageway. Here, the following morning 572 CNW refuelled and checked over for the last time points once again in the direction of Italy in the company of one of those bland looking Volvo FHs.

The washer in one of the upper units leaked and water got into our laundry room and one of the bathrooms. Other than the mess, and a wrecked light fixture, we thought that was all we would have to deal with. Then we noticed rust on the water heater. Of course, this was not from the water leaking in. Okay, so we thought we had to clean up the water, fix the light, and replace the water heater - The water here is pretty hard and who knows how old this heater was. What we didn't know was if we didn't notice the heater when we did, we could have had a lot more serious issues - the insulation in the heater had become wet and water and electricity is not kewl at all. The laundry closet is pretty small and we hardly ever really look at the water heater there in the back, as there wasn't much reason to. I think the leak upstairs happened for a reason, so that we would discover a hidden danger lurking in the laundry closet.