Wednesday 14th of September 2011

The alarm went off about 7am and I was up not long after. The breakfast table was all laid out for me but I just ate a yoghurt and made an espresso (nespresso type of thing) before picking up the marmallata filled croissant and a couple of other sweet things and a bit of fruit and putting it in my bag. Quick shower and dressed and I was ready to go. I said goodbye to the mum and headed off towards Trento.

3km tunnel before the superstrada turns right for Trento

I'd been having a look at the satnav and the maps last night to see if there was any way to go that would be less boring than the motorway and thought it would take a little more time but would at least be a little more interesting if I went down the west side of Lake Garda. I'd been down that side before with Steve on the Verona trip and it had been a nightmare. There had been an incident involving a pedestrian and so the police had all but closed the road. It took an absolute age to get down there and we went from having loads of spare time to almost late for dinner before the opera. You'd have thought I'd have learned my lesson but no. The same road proved to be a nightmare again. There was no blockage as such but it soon came apparent that the road is vastly undersized for the type and volume of traffic that goes down it. Once behind a coach that was it. Because of the overhanging rock it had to drive down the middle of the road or tunnel in places so as soon as anything came the other way it would have to slow or stop. One german BMW did get past myself and the coach in a tunnel but the move was a little precarious and my power to weight ratio in the car was vastly reduced given the car was full (lots of wine!). Eventually I got past it but then it became apparent that nothing was going to move that quickly because it was the start in that area of the apple and grape harvest, cue hundreds of little motorised vans and tractors and anything else they can use to move the produce. Ok bottom line I should have just taken the autostrada. By the time I joined it I'd lost probably an hour and a half. I was in no rush but the benefits of a couple of nice views were vastly outweighed by the loss of time.

Not a lot of space....

There is very occasionally a nice view though  

A little further down the valley

So time to crack on with the autostrada but this time instead of going around the north of Milan I was going to head south first from Brescia and then west and come up on Torino from the south.

Spotted it again - much better photo though this time.  Near Brescia Sud.

It was getting on 11am now and the sun was out in full force and the clouds, well there weren't any to be seen. A great day to chill out in this very flat and agricultural part of the country but not a great day to be in a Honda with no air conditioning. I'd taken out my handy thermometer and put it in the door pocket. On the country roads with the windows wider open and the occasional bout of shade it was 32c, on the autostrada it was 34c. It was going to be a long hot day.

The route to the south had proved much better in that up to the ring-road at Turino I'd not had to stop and mess about with the tolls, it was all done on one journey. Unfortunately I didn't have a ticket because of some stupid labelling at Brescia where I joined. There were big signs saying 'biglietti' (tickets) but also signs saying something about reservation for passes. There was no machine to collect a ticket and I wasn't going to back up so I went through. I thought I'd done well at the other end when she said I had to pay just over €15 but it turns out I owe another €51 to pay at a later date through a website. Oh well it was still less of a panic than getting off the motorway at Brescia when it wouldn't accept either of 2 cards or my cash notes and people were queueing behind me.

Once I'd paid again (€1.60) to get on the ring road I decided I was hungry and I'd had enough of motorways so I turned off and followed a sign for a McD's. Ah my cholesterol heading back to it's normal higher level as the fats soaked in. From there I added some more fuel (second time of the day) and headed cross country following the satnav's suggestions once it had admitted to itself that I didn't want to go the way it initially wanted me too. I think I was initially on the SS24 (super-strada) and initial progress was hounded by a series of half a dozen sets of road works. It really didn't seem to be my day for making good progress. However as I got nearer to the border the traffic reduced and the roadworks stopped and I found a great piece of road running alongside the newer autostrada. The speed limits are often a little slow on it (70km/h) for no apparent reason (other than to get you to go on the autostrada and pay the toll) but even with a full and heavy car it was still interesting and there were places to get past the odd truck or dutch holidaymaker. There was a fantastic fort which I tried to get a picture of but might have to borrow one from the web if mine don't come out.

The autostrada - a great descent down to Torino 

Forte di Exilles - what a great path up to the fort.

The SS24 

I'm assuming this was a bob-sleigh track - given it's near an olympic village

I had to stop before entering France but only because there were a couple of trucks in line and they had to stop. Once at the front I was waved through. The road that had been a nightmare because it was so slow heading out of Briancon towards Italy became fun as going the other way it was 8% decline for 5.5km (I think) with very little traffic. Again the car hardly proving fun with it being so heavy but there's always some fun to be had.

Back to Galbier

On the incline from Briancon up to Lautaret I spotted an old Renault van in my mirror going for an overtake. He was clearly a local on his way home for dinner and didn't want to hang around. With a run up he would happily take the tourists out of a corner but he tried to take the guy behind me on the one piece of two lane carriageway and I went for the overtake too so he didn't get me. He was however tramming along rather nicely given he had probably about a third the power of my car. I managed to get a couple of cars infront by Lautaret but he soon caught up again and I let him past after a hairpin and then tried to keep up with him. It was funny to see the van rolling in the corners, more 2CV style cornering than a modern van but with his lack of willing to brake for blind corners he quickly after half a dozen or so corners, although I caught him back up at a set of temporary lights only for him to turn off soon after.

No stopping him - like a scene from a Remy Julienne chase movie 

Managed to catch up again at the lights for the tunnel

At the bottom of the valley I was turning left to head out to la Berade and to le Champ de Pin B+B and guest house. I had emailed them for directions and they just said head to the end of the valley.

25km drive down a dead end valley to the b+b

It turns out that it's the same place Dave had a baguette and I had a chocolate fondant on our first ride in the Alps all those weeks ago. Once there I unpacked a few things and soon it was time for dinner (they do half board too) and so I had a double portion of vegetable soup, a pork with mushroom sauce main, potato balls baked with egg and cheese as a side, with salad and then a creme caramel for desert. Excellent food.

The plan tomorrow was to head up to Lautaret on the bike but having driven through some of the tunnels I don't particularly want to ride through them even with lights on. So instead I'll aim for plan B which is to ride back down the valley (downhill easy) then to get some cash in Bourg d'Oisan and finally I'll attack Alpe d'Huez if the knees hold out. All I'll have to do then after coasting back down is another 25km back up the valley including some steep gradients and hairpins and roads with big drops but without barriers.