Autostrada

25/09/11

We left our Hotel near Venice at about 09:00, and wobbled our way onto the Autostrada hoping we could work out how to use the ticketing and payment systems for the toll, hopefully improving after our trip into Venice!!  I had the GPS try and route us quite a long distance, but once into the GPS it came up with “Not Enough Memory to compute Route” messages.   We’d seen these a few times and I figured that with all the data present in these ‘ Europe Map Set’ this model GPS is too small to ‘plot’ Aussie size routes (distance wise). So we just set the GPS to compass mode, and we were on one of Italy’s busiest  Autostraders so it was easy to point us to the west. It only got a bit trickier when passing over/around/through a city. But the basic ‘Head West Young(Old) Man idea worked.

With that it put distance between Venice and ourselves nicely  ”thank-you-very-much”! We did decide to get onto the Autostrader and ‘tour’ Northern country Italy and rode through fields of corn and other crops I did not quite know. Saw grape vines and fields with harvesters working. We stopped in a small village at a pub.  After the normal bumbling along for language we got our foccacia (which was yum) and Deb finely got milk for her black tea…

Later on we passed through bigger towns that we think were like the ‘Dubbo’s (etc) of Italy, a bit dusty, and very rural. We steered back onto the Autostrader once more. Remember, I told you about how we’ve not quite known how to pay for these tickets you get to drive on the ‘fast’ Autostraders in Italy (we knew /were told this). But, as different companies manage different sections of the Autostrader the payments is sometimes only credit card, sometimes cash, or an electronic device -which we certainly don’t have. So as we approach these often BIG (like 10- 12 lanes wide) array of booths and gates, we try to pick the booths that have cashiers in them.  Cos’ that way we have the best luck in paying.

Several times when we’ve tried to pay in credit card only stations, the machine just ejects the card and does not accept the payment. Which ends up with the operator (in some distant control room, maybe in Bangalore) printing out a receipt for an unpaid fare.  Unfortunately,  we know we have to pay these somewhere, we only hope that online will be easier.

So towards the Italy / France border we zoomed (100 – 110kmh) not so much zoom, but chugged. Any overland traveller crossing the Alps is sure to have passed through several tunnels. Thinking of tunnels in Australia they are small in scale to the length and size of some of these that cross the Alps. Well, today we’d traversed the longest that  I have yet travelled on, the “Fréjus Road Tunnel”.

It’s about 13kms long and we would enter over into the border of France before exiting the other end (ie about ½ way through it). There are strict controls on the distance between each vehicle progressing through the tunnel, and traffic is 2 way. I had an Italian driving close behind (5m -10m, instead of 150M) and he got several warnings about being too close (big fine & lights flashing ) so he soon decided to use the bright blue side markers which are set at the correct distance to stay behind.

Once into France we stopped for fuel and a coffee break. The weather had been hot crossing the open plains of Italy, and had cooled off as we climbed into the alps. But was not that cold that we needed liners in. The time was about 16:00 by now and we checked our route on the GPS (It was working now). We had plotted a 600Km plus day, doesn’t sound much by Aussie outback scales. But it is in Europe,  traffic delays, constant stopping at toll booths, getting lost (sometimes…) and our slow if not steady pace of 100 – 110kmh means we don’t get to cover so much ground.

One thing we have (quickly) learned is that any delays all the bikers head for the emergency lane and head to the front of the queue, before merging and passing the accident / road works etc. This has saved us several times already, and is a quick way to pass the delay (sometimes 10 km long).

So back to France and our coffee break… We were headed to Alp D’Huez one of the classic end stages of the Tour de’France push bike race.  I’m not a super push bike athlete, but have enjoyed watching “The Tour” for many years and I wanted to visit this end stage location. But as we were about to leave the motorway and head to a smaller mountain pass I was not sure we’d reach this destination tonight. After several hours of winding small roads it was getting cold (1700+metres) and getting darker as we crested the top ridge line on our way down the other side of this pass. About 2 kms down we entered a small village and were surprised to find a small Hotel/Bar open for business, she also offered the use of her garage to park the bike in. Great meal and we slept well.

Next morning we rode the short distance plus a few wrong roads in to D’Huez the village ½ up this climb and on and up to the top and the ski village.

The link below is video of us riding along this 'goat' track (we had just passed a herd of goats, into Huez and then up to Alp D'Huez.

 Riding into Alp D'Huez

This is the track from the GPS we took into Alp D'Huez.

Larger scale image og the GPS plot in the Frence Alps.

Views from out the hotel room we stayed in the French Alps.

We stopped and had a hot drink; Deb sorted out some post cards and I set a new destination, then it was time to head back down the hill.

The views are/were stunning

To Alp D'Huez, and a 'goat' track road.

We’ve been doing a bit of a Check List to tick off the sites/attractions we’ve wanted to see:

1.        Berlin Wall

2.       Alps de’ Huez

3.        Chalet

4.        Free camp site

5.        Red Wine

We rode south towards Montpellier, but I did not plan to stay there. With some banking jobs to be done, lunch and a few rest stops. We got as far as Alẻs.  Wow, what a busy place this is, there were cars, scooters and people moving everywhere. We’d thought the Italian’s were crazy when it came to round- abouts, well the French are sure up there with them. There doesn’t seem to be any rules about give way to the left, just drive in and try to not hit anyone.

We shopped for dinner and headed to a camping park, only to find that it was closed. Looking on the GPS for another camp close by we headed to the one we are at now, but yes they had also closed. BUT, the owners were motorbike nuts too, and they insisted that we stay in one of the cabins for FREE, “no tent” he said as if we did, it would be more energy to power up the hot water service in the larger toilet and shower block than the smaller one in a cabin. So this is where I type this blog, also free Wi-Fi, a rare commodity in Europe.

The great cabin

"the maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes".....

Olinda & Frederic our fine hosts from the Camping Le Bel Ete D 'Anduze
email address for this great camp site in Southern France : contact@camping-bel-ete.com

Today we head for the Pyrenees and buy some cheap fuel (we hope) in the small Andorra La Vella region.

Cheers,

Stephen and Deb.