Travelling again 2022!

A week in Sydney a month in Brasil and now in Europe where we bought motorbikes in Holland ready to hit the road. Massive shout out to the Antonissen family for having us and helping us get organized!

Coffee stop in Saines les Bains, France.
This is our third day on the road, leaving Holland we headed to Luxembourg to a campground I found my new favorite website “Pitch Up” it has a range of campgrounds all over Europe that are less commercial and a little out of the way, we have bikes it is perfect!

A mixture of roads, we have decided to avoid toll roads and some motorways.  This is unavoidable when passing major city’s but most of time works.

We rode thru the national park, it was quite high up so we hit the fog and rain.  Made an interesting ride on the twisty turn roads!  We made it down to sunny Geneva and stopped for lunch at the famous Bain de Paque, Geneva

Back into France to visit Jana in Mieussy, France for a traditional French raclette dinner then off to Italy!

Funny thing is it takes a couple of days on the road to understand what all the road signs mean in that country then you change countries!! Just when i think i have it sorted I have to move into full concentration mode again..

What can I say about our journey to Italy… words cannot describe.. scenery was sensational! Km on mountain passes as we traveled from the French Alps to the Italian Alps.  I lost count of the tunnels we went thru, some were 3 sided, nestled in the the side of the mountain where u got amazing views and others were Km’s long in the dark.  One thing I did figure out is there is clearly no speed camera’s in the tunnels! As soon as you entered it was a free for all (especially motorbikes and fancy cars) the left lane is for passing only and no trucks allowed, so vehicles move quickly in and out.

We arrived in Ponte de legno about 2pm and checked into a hotel. Beautiful mountain town known for hiking, mountain biking and skiing.  We hooked up with Wolfgang and Gerlinde from Pirongia who were 2 up on a KTM 1290.  They are originally from Austria so know all the passes we need to ride.

Next morning we climbed, climbed and climbed up to 2600m.  I have never riden roads like this, very narrow, no road markings and a steep drop down… not sure how many hairpins later but we made it to the top!

Then we had to get down… then another pass, the Stevio Pass! Very famous for bikers and cyclists.  Hairpins were much sharper and traffic was crazy with cyclists, motorbikes and cars.  I followed Bindi and he let me know about traffic at hairpin turns.  Let’s just say it was an experience of a lifetime! Views were amazing with glaciers and mountains all around us.

Only one small near miss (about 1 inch) I came around a very sharp bend going down when a car was also on the bend coming the other way.  He moved to pass a cyclists and I very nearly crashed into him! Our friends were behind me and couldn’t believe it.  I was shaking like a leaf and had to do some deep breathing in my helmet! A few shakes of the body while riding to release the tension and I was ok. 

Temperatures got up to 35 degrees today, I was thankfull to be riding.  Passing apple orchards and vineyards we made it to a town called Brunico near the boarder of Austria, only accomodation we could find was FLASH AS! ( great for my sore ass)
What an incredible day, never thought I could do anything like that on a bike.