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Anglo-Italian Transalp Meeting 2009.
Quality, not quantity!
I had seen the original message from Scorpio (Maurizio) waaay back in the wintertime, inviting any xrv’ers who were interested to join with the Italian Transalp owners Summer meeting in the Italian Tyrol. “No way”, I had thought at the time, “too far and the wrong time but wouldn’t it be nice…”. A few month later, I noticed a posting from Haynesmail (Jason) regarding this meeting and I started to think, “Well why not? I am fairly quiet with no cattle on the farm and the harvest will be finished AND I may well be too old by next year” So I dropped a line to Scorpio (Maurizio) got a sort of OK from Janice, and the trip was on…
3 weeks later, I had booked the ferry, checked the ‘alp over and fitted a new rear tyre and chain and changed the oil and filters and That part of the combination was ready to go…. I was struggling with a shoulder problem and was having fizzio, but the physiotherapist gave me some exercises, an elbow clasp and patted me on the bottom and sent me on my way. So on the morning of the Monday 17th, “Gertrude” was loaded up to the gunwales with camping gear, clothes and some rations (well you can never trust that foreign food, you know!!) and I set off for a wee shakedown run. 10 minutes later I was back home again, panniers off and the rear shock was being WOUND up another 20mm, the air pressures raised even more and after another hour, I set off down to London to stop the night with family before the early run to Dover."Gertrude" laden like an HGV.!
The bike was about as good as I can get it, fully laden. So, stable on Motorways and other roads, but with an horrendous wobble and shaking at the front end on a rolled off throttle around 30mph if I let go of the bars. I DO NOT let go!! I think most ‘alps suffer with this. I had a good run down and a pleasant evening with Sisters before an early start at 5m after a poor night (excitement I guess). I reached the ferry in good time, pobbled on and off to Dunkirk. Norfolk lines are OK and better than LD and the cheapest of the short crossings when I booked, £44 ret. I was dumped out into the industrial horror that is Dunkirk and I was pleased to move quickly onto the main roads heading for Lille. At least it was sunny.
Ah, Lille…. What a mess the m’ways are around there, a right tangle of spaghetti! Happily the sagnag pointed me right on almost all the lane swaps and I was soon past there and on the way towards better roads and Belgium. I was heading for a campsite near a small town called Florenville, near where the Orval beer comes from. I had plotted an interesting route and the satnav as ever offered even more interesting little “diversions” away from the main roads. I am happy to have this setting as you can get some cracking little trips. As the early afternoon came on though, I realised I was really getting tired and hungry so I pulled over and had 20mins rest. To get some warm grub into me as I had miles to go, I decided to try the self-heating meal I had toted along in the pannier. The heat engine was wonderful, the “all day breakfast” less so! J It filled a need though. Pressing on, I got to my first nights campsite that I had pre-booked to give me a target for the first day. It was on the Semois river and was reached after a really attractive run along the banks for 20odd miles. Zillions of families and kids but I was pointed to a quiet spot. I had a super evening chatting with a Dutch family and sipping beer and talking bikes, plitics and farming! An ideal first day!
Wednesday was planned as a meander South West across Belgium and France down to the Black Forest and then a route down the spine of the region on the Schwarzwald Strasse. I had by now started to realise that some of the routes I had planned which were achievable but would be giving some very long days, mainly because I have over estimated the average speed that could be managed easily! It was a fair old schlep down, again some little diversions en route, some most enjoyable scenery and then into Baden Baden. Fuel for man and machine was taken, and then off I went up onto the Shwarzwald Strasse. Seriously good roads, lovely scenery and thank the Lord, it got cooler above 1500metres. I was never going to get as far South as I had intended so about half way down, I looked for a campsite with the sagnag and came off the main drag. That was a fun descent for about 3 miles and then I found a quiet little site near a small village. No idea what is was called! J Cheap nite @ €7, cold beer at €1.20, just what I wanted I thought, as I pitched my khayam by a stream, plenty of distance from the road for some P&Q, hah, that was before I realised that there was a railway 50yds from my tent over the river!! Happily it all went quiet after 10pm. I woke about 7am to a big –twin getting full handful on the nearby set of twisties adjacent to the site so I got moving eating after my muesli. And boy, was it a good job I did not hang about.
Thursday was the killer day…. Too many miles, appalling traffic near Lac Bodensee and temps hitting 40C. Not nice at all in many ways. I used the A’bahn to get south and had planned a route along the coastline of Bodensee, forgetting that I was in Europe in August and all of Germany was heading South…. I did have a nice little spell of roads to the highway in the morning, then it was hit Bregenz and head for Innsbruck. I had decided to use the old road across the Brenner Pass, and so it seemed had a lot of others. I did have a nice route given to me by Maurizio for after I crossed into Italy, but it was pretty late by the time I reached the village of Vipiteno and I was knackered after a long day and so I decided to head on down through Bolzano and to the Hotel. Another hour later, I reached Laives, 5km S of Bolzano and reached the Hotel Steiner.
I called Maurizio on the mobile and much to my surprise, I was in fact met outside the Hotel by Jason, who had arrived a day early. A wise move on his part in the light of the scorcing weather in the South of France!! A quick shower, a beer and some grub and then I headed for a real and much needed bed.Local Wildlife. Attractive enough in a bovine sort of way, but ooh, are those bells anti-social when you are trying to get to sleep,,, Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, all bloody night!
Friday bode well, dry and clear and the Mountains were calling after a buffet brekkie in the Hotel and none of the rubbish "Croissant and coffee only" type grub found in many Continental hotels. Sadly, we were only 3 as the Italian contingent had shied off, possibly due to awe at the impossibly brilliant riding they would have witnessed from us 3, more likely the realities of work in a recession! A shame, as they missed a super weekend.
I serviced the ‘alp chain and dropped the tyre pressures, removed all the baggage and panniers and Gertrude was once again a lithe and agile girl instead of the Trans-Continental HGV of the previous 3 days!! Maurizio took us out on a gentle, easy couple of routes West of Bolzano that morning to give Jason and I time to slot into the riding, and later in the day we did Timmel Joch up as far as the Austrian border, and then came down again! Magic, and I remembered how much I enjoy descending as much as climbing mountain nadgery.
WW1 buildings on Timmel Joch. A bleak place indeed to fight a war!
The roads were all dry and grippy, such that even the odd bit of poor tarmac was no issue. Jason was having a bit of hard time initially on some of the really tight hairpins but as the day went on, it all started to gel for him too. I loved the whole day.
Gorgeous Twisties....
We got back to the hotel early and after supper managed a walk around the local town. Not the most attractive because of the busy main road running through it, but warm and dry!! Off to bed early for a long day on Saturday.
A work colleague of Maurizio, the dashing and somehow, very Italian, Andrea was going to join us today, so we were a little later pushing off as he had a fair old run from Verona. He arrived around 10 on a TDM 900, we had a quick introduction and then Maurizio pushed off out of the town, heading east into the Dolomites.
The lads, dwarfed by a lump of Dolomite Rock!
I cannot give a blow by blow of the roads as they all just melded together into a seamless, stunning days riding. There are, in theory, routes saved on my Zumo, but extracting them is too much hassle for me… Sad innit?
Nice, innit?
The scenery as we got higher just got better and better and the air also got thinner…. Once again, Gertrude started getting all asthmatic and wheezy as we got above 1700metres, coughing and gasping for air if I gave it a handful in 3rd/4th gear accelerating away from the bends.
The 50kph seemed to be optional.... 20KPH was hard in some hairpins!
It didn’t matter though, as we all had a whale of a time. This was a different day as we stopped a bit more for piccie taking and we got into a routine so that each of us was riding at the pace they wanted to go. I had some pottering, view taking moments, but a good slice of the day was playing silly buggers. I particularly enjoyed one long pass (name??) when Andrea and I took off and I had an absolute storm trying to keep up with him, the bike was handling well and seemingly capable of keeping up with most of the other bikes on the road apart from the real big sports machinery. I cannot in all honesty say I got all the “hero bumps” off the new rear tyre, but I tried, I REALLY tried !Probably one of the best days riding I have ever had in my life. The descents were again as good as the climbs as the “feathering” the rear brake technique really came into it’s own. No moments apart from the odd bit of gravel. The car drivers were on the whole cooperative and moved over quickly, and if they didn’t were dispatched on the next mini straight, some as short as 50m! We stopped for lunch on one of the lower passes and had a Panini each and a soft drink in glorious sunshine, listening to the bikes and the occasional car blatting up and down. Pictures and vids cannot do the area justice, you NEED to go!!
The day was over all too soon and as we headed back to Laives, Andrea said goodbye and headed off South as we did a last small descent before the highway back. However, a mile down the road we had to turn off onto a filling ststion as the Mother of all Hailstorms descended upon the valley. In 5 mins, there must have been 15-20 bikes sheltering and even cars were getting off the road. Now I realised what the netting that covered many of the apple trees growing on wires was for, as the hail would have caused serious bruising! After 20 mins, it was safe to move on, and I was wearing my waterproofs for the only time during the whole trip J
Sunday was always an unknown as Jason was intending to stop another night, but I had made the decision I needed to head North as I really needed to be near the port for Tuesday night and if I wanted to avoid too much Motorway work, I really needed to crack on. However, I woke up with my cheeks below my eyes looking like I had gone 10 rounds with Ali. I was struggling to see, so Maurizio kindly came with me to the local Hospital where after a modest wait, I saw an Occulist (no, not an Occultist!!) who diagnosed an allergic reaction and prescribed Cortisone cream. Thanks again Maurizio, you made what could have been a real pain into a relatively painless morning!! On our return, Jason was waiting and he had decided to move off with me as Maurizio was going back to Verona that afternoon. So after packing and loading Gertrude, we said our farewells and thank you to Maurizio and then Jason and I after an attempt to get the cream, set off for Austria via Merano on the pass heading across the border, and on towards Lech. This was a super ride, less demanding but a pleasure once again. Both Jason and I looked VERY longingly at the signs for the Stelvio Pass, but prudence and time said "another day"....Some really interesting roads that afternoon as we headed North east and the old covered bridge/tunnel on the road near Lech was very unusual. Lots of Ski resorts on the route too, and we were halfway across Austria when we decided to grab some grub and fuel and look for a campsite around 7pm. Another stunning location and the site had yet more Dutch campers on it. I swear that Holland must have been empty that week, they were all “down South”!
Jason on being told he was getting the beers... It may have helped that the girl in the filling station down the road was tall, blonde and attractive!!
Morning was as camping mornings so often are, an early one, but this was good as we wanted to get well into central Germany that morning if possible. Again the route took alongside Bodensee after a spell of some good roads in the morning. However, it was both cooler and less crowded so we got past Bregenz and were heading NW pretty quickly. South of Stuttgart, Jason and I stopped for fuel and lo and behold, there was a Subway outlet, manned (womanned??) by a pleasant, English speaking lass. I had my first ever Subway meal…. While waiting, I was amused to hear a broad Geordie accent on the phone behind me, discussing tyre deliveries! Jason had decided to head on into the Black Forest so we split up 20 miles up the road, Jason going west and I headed North.
As ever, the Autobahns were easy riding, it was warm but the roads were empty and there was a risk of rain later, so I kept on the motorway all the way into the Sudeifel mountains and then I found a bed for the night at a pretty little village called Irrel, not far from Bitburg. Very Welsh in feel with the hills and forests tippling down to the valley bottoms and the pitter patter of rain in the early hours on my tent was even more like Wales!!
Seemed a lot like Wales..... Damp!! Notice please, the colour co-ordinated bike and Tent!
I had an early breakfast to get a shower before the Germans on the site! Then as I was packing up, the mountains around me started to darken and rumble with the occasional crack of lightning in the distance. This was the cue to “pull out the finger” and get the tent packed before it got wet again which I just managed. The panniers and gear were all loaded again, wet weather troos pulled on and I tootled off gingerly, not really trusting the roads at that stage of the trip as there were a lot of wet leaves about.
As I pushed on into the Ardennes I had some smashing little routes planned, the two off-road excursions were my being nosy. One day I will found out what the sign with 2 little white circle dots supporting a Pyramid means. From my experience it means a green lane…
I then followed the road towards Bastogne that runs along the Our River, a little too many speed limits and cameras for my liking though. Pretty mind.
Halfway through the day I got to thinking about the last night and was it really worth spending 30 quid or so on a B&B purely to catch an early ferry the following morning. In the end, I called the Ferry Company and rebooked for the 4pm crossing and then flew to Dunkirk, stopping briefly for fuel and food and a pee!! A slight fuel detour North of Lille saw me lose 10mins followed by contraflow and the last 30 miles was polished off extremely quickly to get to the port for 3.15ish. Can a laden Transalp crack 150kph? I DO believe so….. I do not yet have any proof from French Gendarmerie I am happy to sayI got to the port at 3.30pm to find a small queue so I was soon on the ferry and off home to Blighty once more. I then had a trouble free blatt back to West London apart from a slight detour as there was a crash near the Blackwall Tunnel. Thank goodness for satnav as I was truly lost after 5 mins!!! I do hate London traffic.
Because of the character limit on the forum, the final part of the report is further on down the thread!
Message #11 at the top of Page 2
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Originally Posted by Lutin
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