Sardinia Part 1

 We decided to go to Sardinia for a tour this Summer, the second of the large Italian islands we have visited. The plan was to ride down through France and Switzerland into Italy and get the boat from Genoa before returning through Rocchetta Nervina my old home town before running up through France again and home.

The plan changed a few times but the Chunnel was booked months ago and as always it was the detail in between that changed to suit circumstances. I suffered a pretty serious Stroke on March 1st so even though this was all booked early in the year I was keen to get back to some kind of normality. In my opinion there is no point in waiting for life to pass you by, you have to take the opportunities while you can. In the words from a Book by Guy Martin " Live life, it'll kill you in the end anyway"

I already did a mini Euro tour earlier in the year to see if I was up to it, tiredness is the main thing following a stroke and I proved I could overcome it. The other thing that affected me was a total loss of Speech and the ability to read and write, this is slowly coming back although tiredness and stress makes me speak like i'm drunk (those of you who know me will have seen this before I had a Stroke)

The point of the telling of my medical encounter is to make it clear a longish Euro trip is within the bounds of any motorcyclist, take the bull by the horns and enjoy the ride!

We set off early on a Thursday morning for the ride down to Ashford, just over 500 Miles from Perth and the longest mileage I've done in a day this year, it went without incident, breakfast and Fuel at Penrith, then fuel again near Peterborough and then the M25 and that was it , just over 500 miles on day one, the fuel range and comfort on the V85's made it seem easy .

A earlyish start on the Friday for the 20 miles to the train at Folkstone, it was busy but not crazy, the V85's were both struggling to find neutral which was a proper pain in the stop start  of the queue. Passport control was fine on both sides but a reminder the French still insist you have proof of vaccine within the last 270 days! The guy and woman behind us were sporting Indian plates which I thought was unusual, chatting to them they had ridden up from South Africa on a 400 Bajaj, fair play and were now going to Nord Cap to finish their journey before heading back to India. The guy reckoned the fuel prices in Europe were killing them financially. They had been on the road for 8 Months which made us a tad envious.

Sun Coming up

Breakfast

Fuel stop (and water)

Fellow Guzzi rider heading South

Long distance guys

In the train

Our Indian friends

As always when you roll off the Chunnel you are ready to go so we took the toll roads to Chalons-en- Champagne for our first nights stay in France. Chalons is a nice town to stay in and there are Hotels in the square that aren't too expensive.There was a stage in the centre of town which in this case was given over to a terrible band, the cafe we were sitting at lost at least two tables full of people (who had reserved)  due to the noise, so it wasn't just us! Apart from the din it was a pleasant evening. Saturday we headed to a place called Dole , it was starting to heat up and our Mesh Jackets were pushed into service. We had booked into a Campanile on the outskirts of town (in an Industrial estate) but it had beer and food, all that is required. It was also overrun with Harley riders heading to a nearby Rally, None of them seemed particularly friendly, not even to each other.

Sunday got us off the Toll roads and heading up the Alps to wards Switzerland crossing the Border at Valorbe and contributing 40 euros each for the privilege of using the Swiss roads, its high time we started charging them back! We headed down Lake Leman (or Lake Geneva) past Montreux  (There was no smoke on the Water) and up to the San Bernardo pass , we missed the turn off and took the tunnel road instead and got charged another 17 euro each for our mistake. We eventually rolled into Aosta for our stop for the night. Normally a Ski resort it means the Hotels are cheap in the Summer, nice place to stop.

   

Cool

Sitting inside for a cool beer

Chalons

Not my music choice

Dinner Al Fresco

Our digs for the night

Nice old buildings

Ready for another day

Hot Hot Hot

Nice bikes

Fi with her phone mast hat ( I did that on purpose)

Not sure what was going on?

Lady on a Motorcycle

Nice services in Switzerland

Can you feel the heat

No scarves or balaclavas required

Aosta, Hotel parking

Braw view

Braw view 2

7pm, it was cooling down

Mountains

Nice

Nice

Monday was ferry day so we rode down near Turin and headed to Genova, arriving in Genova hours early we found a cafe next to the port for lunch, it seemed to be frequented by office workers so it was a good choice. We then had to find our way into the ferry, it seemed very busy until we realised  the Ferry for Tunisia was leaving soon whereas we had 6 hours to wait but always better early than late for a ferry.

When we eventually got through security we parked up and were left to fend for ourselves for the afternoon, its a bit like an airport, you can leave the secure area and go to the big shopping centre, or in our case the bar. 

We came back to the bikes at 5 o clock and lazed in the sun, Fiona gave me a pedicure whist we waited and eventually we loaded.

Beer

Sugar anyone

Fi praying for good weather

Relaxed

Ready to Rock

Hiding in the Shade

TRUE, any neutral would be good

This Belgian Chap was taking wood over to build a Porch for his Holiday house

Getting organised

Cheeky beggars put their own bed and dog basket up


End of Part one, see you soon for the next exiting episode!