Day 3, a day to forget. As good as yesterday was, today was as bad, The day started with us in full wet gear, with France giving us a wet send off. Switzerland greeted us with a spell of dry weather and the temperature at 23 degrees. Not what you want with the waterproofs on. I was sweating buckets and on the verge of taking them off but Grizzly said it was forecast to rain again later on, so I kept them on. Contributing to the decision was the fact we were going up the St Bernard Pass, where the temperature was sure to drop drastically and the waterproofs would help keep wind and chill out.
I became clear to me today, that bears don't like the rain. We had a chat about this last night but it's pretty clear Grizzly doesn't have a lot of confidence in his tyres, when it is wet. Up until the rain arrived we've stayed pretty close together, mainly due to me taking things a little slower, but with a wet road, Grizzly is noticeable slower through bends. To my mind, if you don't have confidence in your tyres, try some different ones. I have no such worries with my new michelins, The only twitch I've had from them, was just as we left Calais and there was fuel on a roundabout. In the rain, they've been perfect.
Besides the weather, we had a couple of diversions. One, I hadn't seen the Deviation sign, before coming iup behind the workers relaying the surface. As I turned round, I lost my footing. Ginny lurched to the right. Luckily for us both, my foot gripped on some fresh tar and I was able to wrestle her upright again. Phew!
The second deviation, was at the St Bernards Pass. It was shut for maintenance work. After some toing and froing and weighing up the options of adding who knows how many kilometers to the journey OR taking the toll tunnel, we bit the bullet and took the tunnel. At just shy of €20 each (thieving b'stards!), it was an unbudgeted for expense but did get us back on track. Both of us had wanted to stop at the summit but this time we were thwarted.
Entering the tunnel, we had 11.5 degrees. Exiting the other end it was more like 20 but it wouldn't be long before the heavens opened. Grizzly had called it right and I was grateful I hadn't taken my waterproofs off.
We had one stop scheduled, to see a section of Roman road. This was the second time I'd planned to visit. The first time, back in 2022, we were running late and decided to skip it. Today, it was torrential rain that put paid to our visit. One day maybe.
We arrived at the hotel about 17:30. It has an underground garage, a free one, which is a bonus, so Ginny and Shadslow should be safe. Dinner was taken in the hotel restaurant. I had something called Catalan Shrimp, which basically consisted of chopped red onion, halves of cherry tomato and 4 massive shell on prawns! One of my pet hates, is having to remove the heads, legs and tails of prawns. The chef had scored the backs to make them easier to open up but if I'd known what I was getting, I would have ordered something else. Just as well I had a side of fries and had eaten loads of home made olive breadsticks!
As we've not really done or seen anything today, the only pic I can share, is one on the wall outside our room.
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| Think I'd have to be Fonda! |
Tomorrow we are heading east, finishing up in Bologna. It's just a riding day, with only one planned stop but you never know, we may see something else interesting along the way, worth a photo.
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