Fair Weather Bikers

Nig slept very well on his new air bed, but I awoke early as mine had gone flat! We were not having a lot of luck with our air beds!

It was another warm sunny day and again we had relaxing morning packing leisurely between sausage sandwiches. The sausages were a little odd, bright red but tasted OK and made for a good breakfast. While we were packing we got talking to the nice Danish couple camped up next to us - it turned out they were the parents of the drummer from the band Alpha Beat!

We set off at around 10:30, filled up and then headed east to a place called 'Die'. From here we turned north towards the mountains heading for the 'Col De Rousset'.

The road we had been on was quite nice with fast flowing bends, but as soon as we turned off the road became amazing, certainly one of the best roads of the trip. It initially twisted it's way along the valley between then mountains, then started to climb and climb up the side of one of them. In between the many hairpin bends were sections of glorious twists and turns, all the while with stunning scenery which got better and better as we climbed.

I'd seen pictures of this road before setting off, so I did have a fair idea as to what to expect, but the pictures I saw, and indeed the pictures we took, do not do it justice. We stopped at the top for some pictures, then continued on.

I had also seen pictures of another area further up the road we were on, but unfortunately the GPS got very confused, maybe because of all the mountains surrounding us or maybe the map was wrong, but it could not figure out which road we were on. Consequently we ended up taking a wrong turn, but luckily it just took up back up the mountain a little, through a couple of very small villages and then back down onto the road we had turned off. Soon after that we found the road we were looking for - it was cut out of the rock into the side of the mountain.

The road forked in two, and we debated for a while which fork to take. We decided on the left fork as it looked the longer route but fairly soon after we took it the road seemed to be heading out of the mountains. I thought we'd blown it and gone the wrong way, so on a hunch I took a turning to the right hoping it would take it back into the mountains. Sure enough the road soon started climbing. It climbed and climbed and the temperature got colder and colder.

We rounded a corner and were on another road that had been cut out of the side of a mountain, but this time we were high - very high. We stopped to admire the view - and looking back I think it was the best view of the entire trip. We honestly could not believe how high we had climbed, it was a glorious clear day and we could see for miles. It was also a pretty sheer drop from to road we were on to a long way below.

Just after where we had stopped the road obviously used to go around the mountain, but for some reason, maybe because the rocks the road was cut out off had become unstable, a tunnel had been dug through the mountain. It looked like it had been dug with pick-axes, and there were no lights of any description in the tunnel. Even with out high beams on it was pretty exciting!

After the tunnel the road started to descend, but as we were such a long way up the road down was quite long and it took a while for us to reach the bottom again - not that we were complaining, the road very enjoyable.

Once we reached the bottom we rode through Grenoble which is a very pretty city. Then we started looking for somewhere to eat as it was around 2pm by this time. As per usual on this trip we could find nowhere open. We travelled for 30 miles away from Grenoble without seeing any open cafe or restaurant.

Our plan for this day was to travel half the distance towards Aosta then find somewhere to camp. As we had done just over half the distance so we decided to look for a camp-site rather than somewhere to eat. This proved to be far easier as in France there are camp-sites everywhere. We soon picked up signs for one and followed them.

The camp-site (Camping L'Escale) was very nice and the people were very welcoming. The owner didn't speak a great deal of English but her son did, and both were very helpful. It was also very reasonably priced costing us 11 euros; 5.50 each. They also had a bar and restaurant on-site which was fantastic.

We got pitched up and had a quick shower. The showers were amazing; they had around 8 shower heads which were directed at different parts of your body and you could direct water to come out of various ones!

Then we went for something to eat. We both had burger and chips and it was one of the best burgers I've ever had! While we were eating our food another English biker checked in. He was called Dave and was from Wigan. He was touring on his own on a BMW bike. He had ridden down through Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and had pretty bad luck with the weather, getting wet and cold for a lot of the journey. He was very pleased the finally see some sun and finally be warm!

After lunch we relaxed by the tents for a while. As the evening set in a few locals turned up and started playing Boules. We went for a few beers and had a nice chat with Dave, then turned in for the night.