Dubrovnik, Dalmatian Coast

o5/07. Split to Dubrovnik

153 Miles today from Split, a fabulous old city seemingly populated entirely by gorgeous women. Which was nice. Kind of seemed like I imagined Venice would be, lots of lovely old buildings and Piazzas. Lovely winding roads following the coastline up and down the landscape. One minute perched 500 feet above the Adriatic, next minute skirting the waters along a harbour village. Bikes behaving perfectly so far, save for the concrete seats. Not seen much, or any of Dubrovnik yet bar our skirting manouvre trying to find camp. Back here now on the bus but in a proper thundery deluge. Probably not the best night for sight seeing. Dropped my bike today. Stupid drop at that. Taking it off the centre stand after a fuel-up and chain lube and it just sort of got away from me. No damage done at all, thanks to the crash bars. Took 3 of us to pick it up though (thanks to the guy at the petrol station), Steve and I couldn't get near it on our own. Got into our "routine" now, up around 9 (well, I am, Steve's up around 2 hours earlier and does a cracking job of brewing up the rocket fuel coffee which powers us for 5 or 6 hours at a time), ride to destination, get lost, find campsite as near to the sea as poss, make camp, and leg it into the sea as soon as we can. Does the job and beats using the campsite showers. Lovely barbecued dinner tonight of spicy sausage, unidentified meat patties and sardines.
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04/07.

Somewhere near Starigrad, Croatia. Left campsite near Muggia just outside of Trieste, and about 200m from the border with Slovenia. A gorgeous, lush green, rolling landscape, more winding roads perfect for the bikes. Sadly we blazed through in about 40 minutes and before we knew it were in some weird kind of no mans land between Slovenia and Croatia. First time I had to show my passport on the trip so far!! (Accidentally missed the one at Dover...oops)The only thing being there was a little portacabin type shop and a Beaureau de Change where the chap kindly taught us 90% of the Craotian we now know. On into Croatia and the scenery changed from green rolling hills and forests into mountains and cliffs along the coast. Low lying islands were off to our right (West) all the way as we went with names like Rab, Krac and Pag. Pulled into a little campsite running right onto the beach. Most of the sites we're finding seem to be in the owners garden. This guy not only had a gorgeous sea front house with garage, but his own private harbour for his little motor boat too! Sweet. Camp was hastily made, and we legged it to the sea for our cooling swim. There was a ladder leading from the harbour wall into the crystal clear azure sea, fortunately I noticed an abundance of "Spiny Normans" littering the sea floor and managed to stop Steve skewering himself on them. However, the water itself was proper proper freezing! Heart stopping stuff, almost Ice Cream headache making. Weird. Nice though, if only for about 80 seconds. Chatted to a guy on a 650 BMW bike, who it turned out was from Morningside in Edinburgh, about 3 miles from where I was brought up. He was 79 days in to a 4 month journey, and like most people ( well, the very few people) we've chatted to was surprised how far we had come in such a short time.
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03/07 Jesolo to Muggia (Trieste), Northern Italy

Left Jesolo refreshed after our horrific Rush Hour experience around Venice the night before. Long straight, smooth, shady, empty tree-lined roads alongside vineyards and canals reminded me of France, and such a contrast to the mayhem of the night before. Nice easy ride, and a short one too. Only d3 hours or so was enough as we were still spinning from Venices' gridlock. Pitched camp, had a swim and a mooch about. Did a load of washing, hand washinhg I might add, and got it all up to dry before heading out to the supermarket for some more unidentifed meat products. Damn tasty though. That Primus sure burns things nice.

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02/07 Lago di Como to Jesolo

Horrible horrible horrible day. Lost bike2bike comms, lost each other temporarily, stupid hot, mental traffic nose to tail HGVs. We'd decided after Frances Paeages to stick to the A roads. Nightmare. We did 56 miles in 3.5 hours and then had to do a section of toll road as there was no other way. We decided to stay on as it was a little clearer, but almost as soon as we had committed, it ground to an M25-esque halt again. Totally what we wanted to get away from. The itenerary showed us overnighting in Venice and I think we were both quite keen to see the place, but when after the last toll we were literally gridlocked for 90 minutes in 30c+ heat we decided enough was enough and pressed on to Jesolo just North of Venice on the coast. In hindsight arriving in Venice at 5.30pm on a Friday night probably wasn't the best idea anyway, but the thought had never crossed either of our minds at any time. However, Jesolo was an oasis of calm, had a sandy beach, warm sea and a Supermarket where I bought a folding chair which does the job nicely. Few beers, early night!
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01/07 Val d'Isere to Lago di Como

Woke up ffffrrreeeeezzzing cold and unnaturally early at the Le Fornet end of Val. Steve had the coffee on and it went some way to warming us both up. Neither of us had slept more than a fewminutes at a time through the night and no more than an hour in total. Packing the wet tents away though warmed us up and as soon as we were on the road all was forgotten. This was what I had wanted to do for 13 years. The Col d'Iseran, closed for more than 6 months of the year, we were doing it. Straight away it was amazing. Val disappeared behind us and we really were in the mountains. We stopped on a little stone bridge for a photo opportunity and I saw Marmottes! How cool...been wanting to see one of those for 13 years too! Sweet. The road climbed and climbed and twisted and turned like a twisty turny thing, The bikes lapped it up. Huge drops faced us around every hairpin, this was great and challenging stuff. Steve freely admits to crapping himself most of the way! We reached the top at 2770m and it was a strange and desolate place. Loads of other bikes, most coming up from the other side, and loads of ski lifts that I recognised, very weird. We descended an equally fabulous road, with Steve cutting one corner too fine and running off into the "Off Piste". After a brief stop to change briefs we continued our descent. Awesome road. Both of use were tempted to turn around at the bottom and do it all again, just like a rollercoaster. However, as the Frejus tunnel was closed due to a fire a few weeks earlier, we had to cross the border to Italy via the Col (??TBC??), an equally fantastic and thrilling ride over more mountain passes. Blazed through the border into Italy, barely noticing it was there..again! Descended again down some freshly resurfaced roads which were sweet. Steve reckons he got his toe down. Arrived in Turin around lunch time, previously a scheduled stopover but cancelled after our "30 days hath September" oversight. A good thing anyway we reckon as it seemed very hectic and industrial particularly after our couple of relaxing days in the Alps. Not a bad Pizza though for lunch (even if it was Vegetarian).

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29/06 - 30/06 Tignes/Val d'Isere

Arrived in Tignes late afternoon after an nice ride up the hill. Stopped in at Les Brevierres for a photo opp of the Dam and realised I had parked outside a restaurant I'd been to many times in the snow at the foot of "The Sache". The realised that the road in front of us was never usually there. Usually it was a Blue run. It had to be done. :-) Up we went, round some serious twisties, some of which I remarked were just as good on a bike as they were on skis! Passed a campsite halfway up but thought there was another in Val Claret. Rode on up past Hotel Le Dome and our old digs, lots of memories there. Arrived in Val Claret to find nowt but a golf course where I had always imagined there to be a campsite. Damn them. Back down the twisties again to the campsite above Brevierre to find it deserted. Found a chalet at the far end with some guys drinking beer on the patio (onto which, with hindsight, we rather rudely rode) who told us they were closed for another 2 days. We could stay if we liked but would have only cold water. Nah. Rode back up the twisties again (Steve "loving it") and over the dam towards Val. Stopped at some roadworks in La Reculaz halfway there around the reservoir and noticed a sign for rooms to let. Ended up in a little room overlooking the reservoir. Had a lovely Steak dinner in Val and slept like proverbial logs. Woke and left fairly early, rode 10 minutes through Val and found the campsite we had feared would not exist the night before. Felt like arses. Made leisurely camp and then headed back to Tignes in search of the white stuff. It had been an easy day, but our intention of snowboarding on the Grande Motte glacier disappeared when we discovered it was only open 7am to 1pm in the summer. It was however great to mooch about Val Claret and spot out all the old haunts, look up and still be able to recognise the slopes even though they were green instead of white. We had had the heaviest thunder storm that evening with grape-sized hail stones and about 3 inches or more of rain in a couple of hours. A couple of hours we spent huddled in the doorway of the gents in the campsite. The river which ran alongside us swelled during the storm and the owners of the camp kept nervously looking at the rising waters and probing the drains around our pitch which had rapidly become something of a lake.
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28/06 Beaune - Val d'Isere

Lovely ride over empty Paeage and eventually onto windy roads leading us to Annecy and the lake. Blazing hot along the lake so we stopped for a swim. Fantastic scenery and surprisingl warm water, though the right temperature to cool us off. Watched 5 or 6 Paragliders thermalling on the mountain opposite, made me more determined to finish my licence. Spotted some diving boards around the corner with loads of kids hurling themselves in to the lake. Just the job, lets have some of that! The "top" was 5m, and there was a gaggle of kids edging up to the drop and daring each other to go first. This was no time to lose face. It may have been a few years since I had "tossed myself off" a high dive board but it was no biggie, literally. I dove off and surfaced, turning around to watch Steve. Beckoning him down there was an expression of unease on his face as he strode to the edge. He leapt off, grabbed his nose with one hand and "rodeoed" his other to maintain balance as he plunged towards the water, trailing one foot in attempt to change his mind at the last minute. On sufacing he asked if I was trying to kill him. I've got bigger things to jump off in store. ;-)

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27/06 Home to Beaune

0230...still packing and still fancying that last beer in the fridge. Best not though! Still have to make the bed and clean the flat to leave for Matt!
0345... think I've got it all done. Bed's made, flats clean(ish) and my bags and panniers "cannae take any more captain", dont want to sleep in the frsh bed so crash on the sofa, settin my alarm for 4.15. Wake at 0353, completely refreshed after 8 minutes sleep! Nice. Put the kettle on and start taking stuff down to the bike. Feels weird. Doesn't feel like I'm off for a long while, not like it used to. Feels weird not saying goodbye to anyone as I lock the flat up. It's light already, bikes loaded to the gills...cannot drop it now!
0501..... I'm off, blatting down the '316, onto the M3 and round the M25, to meet Steve, customaruily late at Clackett Lane services. He takes a picture as I ride across the forecourt, looking like he half expected me not to be coming! We leave straight away and head for Dover. Steve hits a bird on the way and is picking feathers out of his bike and gear as we pull up at Dover. Somehow I blazed past Passport Control. Oh well, they didn't seem that bothered! Everythings shut. We're 1.5 hours early and cant even get a coffee. Finally roll on board and enjoy our last "Full English". Roll off at Calais and hit the Paeage. Its easy goin all the way. Towards Dijon, our first designated stop, the weather turns and a heavy electricla storm closes in. We eventually pull into a picnic area and draw the bike under a sort of huge wooden Gazebo.
We stand about for a while listening and watching the storm close in around us, eventually deciding to brew up. I have "the kitchen", but have no idea where anything is. I dimantle half the bike looking for the Primus when we hear through the storm "OI! You lads wanna cuppa tea?!" Salvation. There was a brit camper pulled in behind us with a busted wiper being driven by a biker and his missus. We drank our brew as the storm crahsed around us. Lightning hit the ground about 30 feet away in the trees and it was the loudest thing we'd heard. The rain eased and we pushed on, stopping again and asking some Dutch bikes for camping using the intertnational language of mime. They directed us to Beaune where we picked up signs for the site. The weather eased and we made camp in the dry before wandering into town for a fulfilling steak and chip baguette and a well earned beer.