Day 5: Wed 10th June 2009

 

Ride: Brescia (Montechiari) to Arabba - 197 miles

 

This years motorcycle touring holiday saw us heading to Italy and the Eastern Alps to tour the Italian Dolomites. We've wanted to do this trip for some time but hadn't, mainly because it’s 1,000 miles to get there - of which 950 miles is motorway - and also the cost of transporting or hiring bikes has always seemed expensive. However Phil came across a guy named Chas Mortimer who specialises in motorcycle transportation to Europe and his costs seemed reasonable.

 

In 2007 when we motorcycled around the Pyrenees we had two start dates and we've opted to do the same again in 2009 with some of us flying out to Italy and some of us riding out there.

 

The "Ride-out" group would start on Saturday 6th June and initially make their way to Hotel Sonne in Andermatt, stopping off at Hotel Le Clos du Montvinage in Etreaupont and Hotel Grand Hotel du Tonneau d'Or in Belfort on the way. The "Fly-out" group would start on Wednesday 10th June, flying out from Stansted to Brescia (Montechiari), with the two groups meeting up in the Dolomites on Wednesday evening.

 

As we were flying to Brescia to meet up with the bikes we decided to drive down and use Long Term Parking for the week, as the cheapest and most convenient option. Taj volunteered to drive as his Saab could carry 5 in reasonable comfort.

 

At the allotted hour - 7.00am - Phil was still waiting for Taj and a phone call elicited that he “was on my way and I’ll be there in a minute”. 15 minutes later he arrived. No surprises there.

 

After picking up Cat, Kyle and Bob we were on our way via the M6, A14 and M11. Despite back ups caused by a couple of accidents on the opposite carriageway we arrived at Stansted in good time. After checking in some - Bob, Cat and Taj - aka the food element - opted for the full English, whilst Kyle and Phil - aka the non food element - opted for a cup of coffee.

 

After joining the scrum that passes for boarding a Ryanair flight, we were on the plane and looking forward to take-off. Then the Captain came on air to apologise for the usual case of people who had checked their luggage in, headed for the bar and hadn’t arrived at the gate to board the flight. So there was a 30 minute delay while their bags were located and offloaded. Thank you, you tossers, whoever you were!

 

 

 

An uneventful flight was followed by a crap landing from the Russian pilot - he probably thought he was still flying a Mig 22!

 

Through passport control and we were faced with a man bearing a card with “5 bikers” on it. Clearly he was our contact - no copy of the Times and a red rose in his left buttonhole for him!

 

Ken, as was his name, took us over to the car park where 4 bikes, Bob’s,Cat’s, Kyle’s and Phil’s, waited for us. Taj’s was at the depot, some 20 minutes away, so after changing in the van - all out kit had been transported with the bikes - we followed Ken back to the depot.

 

 

Bob was complaining about a strange noise from the rear of his bike. A ride around the car park at the depot confirmed that when he had his bike serviced the previous week they had tightened the chain far too much and the noise was the wheel bearing, Luckily he had only ridden 15 miles so the tools were found and the chain slackened off.

 

 

The flight delay, having to ride back to the depot and dealing with Bob’s chain meant that we were at least an hour behind schedule, so it was time to crack on. Phil lead, as he had the route programmed into his Garmin, but only a few minutes into the journey Taj gestured to him to slow and stop. Pulling into a filling station, the reason was revealed - Bob’s tailpack was on the point of falling off! “Bloody tour novices” Phil was thinking, but after a bit more strapping provided by Cat, we were on our way.

 

After skirting the southern shore of Lake Garda we picked up the signs to the Brenner Pass and joined the A22 toll road - at least all 5 of us entered the Autostrada but only 4 of us picked up a toll ticket, Cat deeming it beneath him to pay for his trip.

 

After stopping for fuel near Trento we rejoined the Autostrada for the final run up to the exit near Chiusa where we would take the SS242 past Ortisei, and over the Sella and Pordoi passes to Arabba.

 

At the exit toll booth Phil became aware of shouting to his left. Cat had shot through without paying and the attendant was having none of it. On the attendant’s side was (a) the fact that he had Kyle trapped behind the barrier and (b) more importantly he was holding Kyle’s credit card. He was also refusing to buy Kyle’s story that the biker on the big Yamaha was nothing to do with him.

 

Net result a 10 minute delay while Cat had to ride back behind the barrier and cough up. Luckily he only had to pay the 10 Euro we had paid. We wondered if the toll started in Sicily so the aggregate fee would be about a 1,000 Euro!

 

At last we were on the last leg, running along the Gardena Valley, past Ortisei, Santa Cristina and Selva to the start of the Passo di Sella.

 

This was our first sight of the Dolomites, and it was breathtaking. As John Hermann puts it in his exellent book Motorcycle Journeys Through the Alps and Beyond:

 

“No matter how many mountains you’ve seen, no matter how many times you may have seen the Dolomites, that first glimpse - maybe as you emerge from a tunnel , or maybe as you accelerate out of a hairpin - will be an almost religious experience.”

 

Riding up the Sella was a pleasure and the view from the top great with the sun highlighting the mountains on either side so we stopped for the obligatory first pass animation, then it was down the Sella and up the Passo di Pordoi.

 

 

The ride up the Pordoi was good but at the top we were faced with a bank of cloud stretching down the valley to Arabba. We dropped below or at least out of the cloud layer as we descended the 32 hairpins to the bottom and a couple of minutes later - just before 9.00 pm - were at the Hotel Evaldo, our base for the first 4 nights.

 

We were met by Gaz, Mark and Pete who had ridden over from Andermatt that day. We parked the bikes in their spacious and secure garage, then it was a quick change and down to a lovely dinner and a few beers. After a discussion we agreed that the next day we would all head off for the Grossglockner.

 

As for the Hotel Evaldo the consensus was that this was the best hotel we had stayed in during all our tours. Lovely rooms with a good breakfast included for about 70 Euros a night. A 4 course dinner with proper home cooking was yours for an extra 15 Euros a night. All in all a great bit of research by Kyle.

Ride: Andermatt to Arabba - 244 miles

 

Fluela Pass & Ofen Pass & Passo Nigra

 

The group now were ready to make the final leg for the BBOT meet up in Arabba. Tuesday had been quite miserable, with intermittent showers, low cloud and feeling quite cold. By contrast waking up on Wednesday it was a sunny and fresh morning, setting good spirit for the ride ahead.

 

With a reasonable set off time following a good breakfast, good pace was made during the day. Apart from repeat of the above and the great scenery and roads the only point of note during the day came when the three were looking for a coffee stop, passing several building that could have been “bars”, they finally came to a stop at a building where there was a covered terrace with around 5-6 people sitting around, smoking with bikes parked up outside. Helmets off and up the steps, they looked around and returning the European “nod” - meaning “good morning whatever your language” the found a spare table.

 

The terrace was little scruffy for a commercial operation, but having seen worse, they sat, lit up, and waited for the service. 5 minutes later, a man came over to the table and asked us what they wanted.

 

“Three coffee’s please.”

 

“Three coffee’s…..”, came the response

 

“Yes please”

 

“But you are not in a café…”

 

[dumb looks all round]

 

“….you're in our holiday home” the man continued!”

 

Fits of laughter ensued, and once it died down, it became apparent that the “terrace” was in fact the terrace of a holiday let and that five or so couples had rented the house for their holidays.

 

The unknown group were very nice and offered coffee, and even pulled out maps to compare routes. Coffee drunk, hands shaken, payment offered and refused, Gaz, Mark and Pete headed off to meet the BBOT’ers at Arabba.

 

Of note are differences in road conditions, where French roads are generally good, with well marked roadwork’s and hazards, Switzerland as good as France the Italian mountain roads can be sometime quite treacherous, with gravel on bends and in some cases complete sections of tarmac missing exposing the roads sub structure - normally sand / gravel.