Someone has said that I’m never in the photo’s so how do you know I am really here!?!?

Well just to prove it, here I am enjoying the view on Col D’Izoard!

Dookes

Good morning everyone.

Another hot one here in the Alps, so probably a storm or two later!

The road outside the hotel kicks straight up to Col de Petit St Bernard, better let Harley warm up well before we set off, hairpins straight away! Then trundle through Aosta and find Le Grand St Bernard.

Doubtful that I’m gonna top yesterday, but let’s go see, you coming along for the ride?

Hang on!

Dookes

Right, cards on the table to start with. This is going to be quite a long report and I fully expect a number of my followers to be, shall we say, a little peeved with me!

Working on the basis that there are a large number of the Blog followers that are keen motorcyclists and at least one very fit chap that pedals his way around on two wheels who has an obsession with the Tour de France; to you people I apologise in advance, because if the following does not make you want to get out here and ride…then I doubt if you are alive!

Today has been, without doubt, the best day I have spent riding a motorbike, ever, honest, fact!

Harley and I kicked off nice and early, just for fun I put an extra Col in the programme, so we set off up the D900 to Col de Larche 1996m(6549 ft) which is bang on the Italian border and also quite a long way up in the sky. The road was fun, but not over demanding, the views superb! Time for a couple of photos, then back into France and head for Col de Vars.

We picked up the D902, a road that I have, by now, had time to reflect on and believe that I love it more than any other road anywhere….follow on, you’ll see why!

Before today I’d mistakenly Thought Col de Vars was a small player for the other higher Cols, wrong, very very wrong. It’s bloomin’ fantastic. Technically demanding on the corners, exhilarating climbing and views everwhere, the top is at 2109m(6916ft)then comes a fast decent towards Guillestre, oh and there is a nice series of hairpins just before the bottom to wake you up!
At the top.

Next came another unexpected gem, the ride through Combe du Queyras. Here the road is not so much on a ledge in the gorge, it’s as if it’s been pushed into the side of the rock, which over hangs the road and the river, there are also a couple of small tunnels. The road then hangs a sharp left and heads for Col d’Izoard. It’s like what you want heaven to be if you ride a motorbike, so fantastic it takes your breath away. It was on this climb that my respect for the guys on Le Tour De France went atomic and what is more there were happy souls out there doing it just for fun, amazing and I have nothing but respect for them! I told a couple of guys just that at the top, as well. The road climbs through the famous Cass Désert section, which is a remnant of ancient sea meets volcano millions of years ago and now a mile and a half up in the air!

Cass Désert

Oh yes one of the bends.

There is graffiti all over the road, as it’s one of the Hors climbs of Le Tour, mostly it’s supportive stuff for the like of the Schlek brothers, but there was some less complimentary stuff about Contador and drugs.

At the top 2360m (7746ft), it was like a biker picnic, they (we) were everywhere and from all over Europe, frankly it was the first time I have ever felt part of the big European thing and it was kind of nice.

The decent to Briancon was fast, but hell, pedal cyclists do it even faster, honestly they are crazy doing over 45 mph down hill and overtaking everything!

Lunch in Briancon, then the steady and fast climb to Col du Lautaret 2058m(6752ft). Stunning views all around, but particularly of the Glaciers de la Meije and de la Girose. I had a chat with a couple of motorbike Gendarmes and they told me that the glaciers are disappearing at a very rapid rate due to global warming, food for thought, as I started up Harley’s not insubstantial engine!

Glacier de la Girose

Then came the Daddy, Col du Galibier 2646m(8678ft). Go look at Google Earth or Maps in the satellite view, you’ll sort of get the picture. It’s simply the greatest bit of road ever, I don’t care what Clarkson says about the Romanian bypass, THIS is the best road in the world!

I have to confess that reaching the top of Galibier was a deeply moving experience for me, even to the point of the old eyes welling up, can’t say why, it just a very special place.

The run down to Col du Telegraph and St Michel was fun, loads more wiggles and loads more pedal cyclists going up. I do declare I got better at wrestling Harley round the bends as well!

Fast run up the valley through Modane and stuck in a quick visit to Col du Mont Cenis 2083m (6834 ft) very fine wide sweepers to this one up the D1006, it’s quite a ski centre and the road reflects this plus there are countless ski lifts all lying idle at the moment.

Starting to climb Col d’Iseran, it became obvious we had a major problem, an alpine storm was brewing up! Now here we were, part way up my D902, and it went cold, very cold. Then the rain started, well actually somebody turned on the tap, no the fire hose and the sprinklers come to think back on it. Then the lightning began! Oh boy we’re we in trouble! Should I do what my Mountain Leadership Training taught me and get the hell off the mountain? Go where? There was nowhere to run, we were in the open in the worse electric storm I have ever experienced, just got to tough it out! Still, with a carbon fibre helmet any lightning strike would finish me off without me knowing anything about it! Then about a mile or so from the top, we got into the relative safety of the small tunnel. Bliss to put on dry waterproof gloves and sit it out for twenty minutes. The thunder and lightening slowly moved away, but at one point I could actually see the lightening strike the ground on the hills the other side of the valley, wow what a privilege! We set off for the top and the relative safety of the decent to Val d’Isere. Briefly stopping to grab a quick phot at the top, 2764 m(9088ft) we beat a hasty decent.

!

A mile further down the road we were sheltered by the mountain and could see the fine weather in the valley below.

A careful yet spirited decent soon lifted the spirits as we sped on to our overnight stop at Seez.

Total miles today 217; Trip total so far, 1173.

Tomorrow, Italy.

Galibier south climb from top.

The north side.

Galibier was only cleared of winter snow last week, there’s still a lot about!

Until tomorrow!

Dookes

Good morning all.

A beautiful day here in the Alps.

The view from my room, not bad at all!

Weather forecast looks reasonable as well, gonna be another hot one.

This hotel is really biker friendly, there’s 14 bikes in the car park! It’s also a bit like the United Nations, Austrians, Italians, Germans, Belgians, Dutch, French….and me! An Italian couple had an argument over dinner last night, no one else argues like that, good entertainment for the rest of us though!

Off on the road now. Catch ya later!

Dookes

OK, so I said we were on a mission!

One of the objectives of this trip has been to knock off a load of the high mountain passes or Cols, en Français.

This morning we chalked off Col de La République, 1161m(3810ft) and Col Bayard, 1246m(4088ft) but to be fair neither were very special, however, things can change!

Col de La Bonnette lies south of Jausiers, where I’m staying tonight, on the D6.
There are, I believe, several claims as to the highest asphalted pass in the Alps, but this one actually wins! Well only because the inventive French cheated and built a totally useless and otherwise pointless loop, just above the real pass, by 87m at it’s highest, brilliantly bonkers, but I love it!

There are signs all the way up telling you it’s the highest, but amazingly they all get the height wrong!! Even more crazy; build the thing, but hey, tell people the correct height! For the record the pass is 2715m(8907ft) and the loop is 2802m(9193ft). So can we agree, it’s pretty high?

The road from Jausiers really kicks you in the pants from the start, as the hairpins start before you pass the town limit sign. The surface all the way to the summit is fantastic, in places nice and wide, in others a bit tight but ok. It’s about 15 miles to the top and takes about half an hour or so. There are some sweet straight bits, but just about every type of bend/curve/corner you could wish for and some that you wish were not! It was bloody hard work on Harley, not really the bike for this kind of road or altitude, she only has a carburettor and was desperately trying to gulp in the thin air long before the top, where she was surprisingly like an old Honda CB500!

The road climbs through woods and passes through the tree line into ever more barren country. There were still pockets of snow on the more shaded slopes which made a stunning contrast to the dark rock. In a number of locations Alpine Marmots were scampering along and across the road.

Near the top the geology changed to metamorphosed shale, which gives the Col and summit a moonlike appearance, vegetation is almost totally absent. Anyway enough words, pictures say more!

The winding stuff.

Resting at the top.

I told you there was snow!

Nice, eh?

Total miles for today was 255. Which brings the total for the last three days to 928, or 953 since leaving home!

I think I might find another pass or two tomorrow, riding part of La Route des Grandes Alpes, through Briancon, Galibier, L’Iseran and Val D’Isere.

Catch you all later.

Dookes

Puis je continuer?

Gap was like riding through a grill that was set on high and had been for days. The air was so hot that it was more comfortable to keep the helmet visor closed. That said, the town looked really smart, nice and tidy a good mix of old a new, which the French sometimes get very wrong, but here very right, I must go back and explore one day.

Back to the riding, I was praying for things to cool as we climbed, wrong, very wrong, but hey I found another fantastic road. Leaving Gap the D900B was super, on joining the Val de Durance it got a million times better. The road crosses one of two dams near Espinasses that form the Lac de Serre-Ponçon, it then begins to climb and follows the Val D’Ubaye. Go do it, it’s fab and if you don’t ride a motorbike go learn and ride this road! The road climbs and winds up the side of the valley, sometimes against rock, sometimes alpine fields and the views are stunning. You can set a good pace without wringing either yourself, or the machine into a shaking wreck. You sports bike folk would do it a sight quicker than my battleship and I, mais je suis contente! And that’s all you can ask really!

Cop these pics.
Lac de Serre-Ponçon from the lower dam.

And looking back, eight miles further on.

Took fuel again, this time in Barcelonnette…Harley and I had a big job to do next!

Good evening everybody.

Well now here’s a surprise, a hotel which advertises WiFi and the thing actually works! So watch out and prepare for a couple of updates to this developing blog thingy!

Right then, Tournon was hot, very hot, but it just got hotter, Harley and I headed east towards Grenoble. I made up my mind that Autoroutes were out of the question today and boy was I pleased with that decision. The road out of the Rhône valley passed through mile after mile of fruit orchards, cherry, peach, apricot and plums you have never seen so many and lots for sale on roadside stalls. I stopped and bought some apricots, beautify ripe and juicy, six for a Euro, not bad at all!

Further down the road there were walnut trees…miles of them, even more than the fruit, all that was missing was the chocolate! Ok, so you have apple orchards, olive groves…what about walnut trees?

A cracker? I dunno!

After a really nice ride, we arrived on the outskirts of Grenoble, oh dear…keep driving, to be fair I didn’t venture into the city centre, but the outskirts put me off the rest. Grabbed fuel and picked up the N85 Le Route De Napoléon towards Gap.

Now this is a road that has long been on my radar and to be honest I was a little disappointed. It allegedly follows the route taken by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815 when he returned from exile in Elba. It has a reputation as a great biking road, but I was a little underwhelmed. True there are parts that are fun, some of the views are super, as are the small towns and villages, but….the surface is often terrible, the traffic heavy and camper-vans travel in convoy, 14 in a line was the worse I saw, thankfully going the other way!!! Had some fun when two German Harley riders hooked up with me for the last twenty miles into Gap, which was even hotter than Tournon, 34 degrees would you believe!

Views along the Route de Napoléon.

Bon jour mon amis!

Woke up to thick fog in Le Bessat, mind you, it is over 3000′ above sea level, think Snowdon.
Fog cleared as Harley and I headed towards the Rhône valley.

Currently taking a break in Tournon sur Rhône. Couple of photos attached at end of post.

Sorry that I omitted to report on yesterday’s mileage, total was 378 including the evening excursion into St E.

Today the plan is to continue onto Grenoble, famous for the Winter Olympics in, I think, 1968. Then follow the Route Napoléon to Gap and on to Barcelonette and o/n in Jausiers. Weather is now sweltering, but will doubtless get cooler as the climb into the mountains begins.

Ride hard, ride a Harley!

Dookes

Le Bessat

Ex CdF Vivrais Loco in Tournon

The Rhone at Tournon

Hello again everyone.
Really nice ride this afternoon.

After my lunch stop the sun came out and boy did it shine, which made up for the miserable time Harley and I had this morning. To give you an idea, the time is now 20:40 local and the temp is currently a sweltering 27 degrees C!

Right first up, grab a load of this beauty!

This is a Mirage III jet, mounted imaginatively on a pole in the middle of a roundabout near St Amand. Where else can you find a nuclear bomber on a roundabout…only in France, superb!

Excellent fast run south down the Péage, don’t ask how fast, but that screen sure helps! Mind you all that fast running plays havoc with the fuel economy!!!!

Found a new favourite Autoroute, from Clermont to St Etienne, miles of sweeping bends just made for a Harley. Enjoyed it so much I might change my return route to do it the other way!

Popped into St E tonight, big industrial city, got some tiny nice bits, (had to be careful how it typed that bit, not to many t’s!!!!) don’t go out of your way to visit. Hotel is in a village called Le Bessat, small but nice. Only trouble is the church is next door, tomorrow is Sunday and this is a catholic country, merde!

Picture of the area.

Catch ya later. Thanks for all the messages.

Dookes