stella alpina

[kevinhancock750]

firstly i did'nt manage to get off early on friday so left aups at tea time for the 150 mile journey up there through riez and through the countryside to briancon....
nothing much happened on the way but a few nice views....




nice little spin up but as you can see it's starting to get dark


so its up to briancon in the dark now

[kevinhancock750]

arrived in briancon late and there we're no cheapy hotels.....
hotel ibis was full and at 78 euros i'm glad it was....
so we stayed at camp kevin...........

[Paul-S]

Come on Kevin - eagerly awaiting the rest of yer pics ....

[Kjell Lindberg]

Oh!!!! Yes more pictures please!
/Kjell

[kevinhancock750]

sorry guys, as you know i'm wifi stealing so sometimes i'm a little slow....
left briancon after buying a tent and a supply of alcohol and fruit for the night....
and on i went..

stopped for a drink of water from the the fountain....
thought it was a bidet at first but it tasted wrong.......

and on i went.........

[kevinhancock750]

straight into bardonacchia or however its spelt......and parked next to this nice and clean twin. the guy was nowhere in sight and he left the keys in the ignition!


off then i went into the train station opposite for coffee where i met up with theses guys....the lady is ali and she been doing the stella for the past 25yrs. BUT the man is mario...(he dont have a brother and he dont race go-karts) but him and another guy called michael set up the stella rally all them years ago!


after talking with mario for a while and having the full history of how it all started i explained that it was my first time, he then invited me to go and eat with a bunch of friends of his to which i accepted with a great privelige.
the restaurant....


and the tribe.....
after god knows how many courses of food and red wine

[Stubbsie]

Fab report so far Kevin, fab pics too.
Looking forward to the rest of your adventure.
Thanks for sharing

[kevinhancock750]

and the tribe...
i'm the fat one


off i went up the hill on my own after here to find a not so badly placed bunch of campers.....



and after putting my tent up next to mrbeezer we started a drinking session with these french guys....
it got really messy and i'm not drinking again....
mr beezer is second from the left
glad to say though i'm not the fattest here


to be continued....
sorry but i got work at 4am and the uploading is slow

[Paul-S]

Great stuff Kevin

[boboneleg]

Brilliant, I love the Col dr L'echelle. That's the best way to get into Bardo