Středa duben 09, 2008

I've Killed a Deer

Maybe it wasn't a deer. I think it was a roe deer. I haven't seen any antlers anyway...

A roe deer (by Marek Szczepanek)

Well, it was an easy ride to our winter holiday in Bormio, Italy. Our friends departed a few hours earlier and were already expecting us at the destination. According to the GPS, we were supposed to arrive at 11pm. Once we entered Switzerland, the ride became a little adventurous. On a straight road surrounded by grassland, I've spotted a pair of young fawns on the right side of the road. I hit a break and fortunately they didn't enter the road. But all our luggage flew over our heads right on the front desk, because one of the rear seats was not locked properly and let the yogurts, sweets and cooking recipes cover us like an avalanche of snow. But that was still fine, because all I had to do is grab the stuff, put it back to the boot and, of course, fix the seats. A more horrible part of the night was still ahead.

Just 13 km before reaching Bormio, we were unable to continue the way the GPS was telling us as the road was closed. The receptionist at a nearby hotel told us we should have known that the road is closed in winter. Ok, I will check my TomTom software for updates next time. We were happy to find out that the correct way is through the tunnel to Livigno, the well known duty free zone. Once we arrived to the tunnel gate, we found out it has just closed, as it is open only till midnight and opens at 8am next day. Tunnel being closed? I thought that was a joke when our friends told us that on our meeting before the departure. But now it was real. So I used the opportunity to relax and went to the toilet. I quickly realized that it's -15 C out there and hastily returned back to the car. But I enjoyed the silence of the Swiss Alps in a height of 2000 m.

The only two options were:

• sleep in the car until the tunnel opens again
• ride another 150 km around the tunnel to get to Bormio from the south and arrive at 4am

Even though we were exhausted, I decided to continue driving the car as I didn't want to spend a night in the freezing mountains. I had only a quarter of the gas tank full, so I hoped to find a gas station in the nearest town of Zernez, which was only 10 km away. And on the way to Zernez, I hit a deer.

The road was curvy, so I wasn't going fast, but it too fast to break and avoid the contact. All I did was just hold the wheel firmly and hit the break pedal when I saw the deer jump from the left side of the road right in front of the car. It seemed like it all happened in a second. There was a steep hill on the left and that's why I couldn't see it in advance. When I stopped the car, I only saw her lying and looking at me surprisingly. She was trying to stand up but clearly couldn't as the bones were broken. I set the car away not to block the road and I was glad I don't have to see the animal die.

I went out of the car to check the damage. The front of our Renault Laguna was fairly bumped, headlights were still working but shining in the wrong direction. It looked like the car is ok and we can continue. After a long while of making calls to the insurance company, I tried to continue. My first impression was good, as the car was going well and everything looked fine. But after nearly 30 km, just before entering St. Moritz, we had to stop because the engine was overheated. It didn't took very long to let it cool down, as it was still cold enough out there (around -5 C). Unfortunately, we soon realized that not only the cooler, but also the heating is out of order. We obviously couldn't sleep in the car with no heating. We had to take the car to a car service, but nobody would fix the car immediately on early Sunday morning. Our insurance covered a free assistance service which would take the car to the nearest authorized car service. So we could let the car get repaired, but what about us?

It was silent, cold night in St. Moritz and it suddenly started snowing. We saw people taking taxi to return home from the local music club. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it. Except for us, sitting in the cold car and wearing winter jackets, waiting for the engine to cool down to be able to continue in desperate search for a free room in any hotel. They were all fully booked. Oh yes, it was Easter. Maybe it was fortune, we have finally found one free room in the Hotel Crystal****. You can imagine the price offer in the four-star hotel. I was given a 20 EUR sale because it was late night. So we paid only 270 EUR. I wasn't expecting anything cheaper in St. Moritz, and actually we hadn't many options to choose from. But it was a very nice hotel, indeed.

The view of Bormio 3000 (more photos)

Waking up at 9.30am after 3.5 hours of sleep was painful. I wasn't able to eat the breakfast. The free Wifi connection proved to be good opportunity to contact our families via Skype and then we had to leave, because the check-out time was 11am. I will have good memories of the room and service at Hotel Crystal, though. Particularly because we stayed in the lobby for a long time that day to wait for our friends to come from Bormio to pick us up. Finally, it all ended well. We had a wonderful time in Bormio, perfect skiing conditions and the Airport Garage Geronimi car service met the Saturday deadline and did all the necessary repairs (1862.5 SFr) for us to drive home safely.

My recommendations to all car drivers going abroad:

• Check your car insurance. Make sure you get a free assistance service and that your insurance company would pay any necessary repairs abroad. Write down the telephone number to the insurance hot line.
• Check your GPS whether you can see which roads get closed in winter and check if you can see the nearest hotel and car repair on the map.
• Buy a map in case you GPS will be out of order in the cold conditions.
• Avoid traveling in the night. If you travel in the night and you are alone on the road, go slowly and watch out.
• If it's getting late and you are exhausted, it's better to stop early and get a sleep when your car is working and has enough fuel. Don't wait until it gets worse.
• When you spot an animal, it's better to hold the wheel firmly, hit the break pedal and go straight. Don't try avoiding the contact, you can easily get out of the road and bump it into a tree or worse than that, fall down the steep mountain.

— IV 09 2008, 08:33:32 odp. CEST Permalink