[tlsgazza]

after getting up at 3.30 Am and meeting my friend Richard at Baldock services on the A1 we headed down to Dover.
waiting for the ferry,

once in France we nipped over the border for **** and tobacco and headed south after about 7 hours of riding we stopped at a nice campsite in Verdun-Sur-Meuse, there were some major battles here in the 2 world wars and there are massive war cemetery's everywhere, quite humbling to see,

next day we headed for switzerland and stayed at a hotel on the shores of lake geneva
view from hotel window ,slightly overcast

WE left early next morning to finally get in to thae Alps, headed round the lake via Montreaux to the Grand st Bernard pass
here we are at the top

bernie was duly purchased and travelled the whole trip on the back of Adrias 800

we opted to ride over the top of the pass but they were digging up the road all the way down the other side, glad we had the BMW suspension as it was like a farm track on most of it.
this is the exit for the tunnel on the way down.

we then rode the petit st bernard pass and after endless hairpins arrived in Bourg St Maurice in the heart of the skiing area

had a couple of cans of beer, :yum

we then went up to the Col Du L'iseran above Val Dis'ere

I think the altitude affected my eyes

 

[tlsgazza]

Adri

a off roading
mad german on a little moped

Col De Vars

col De Guillestre

Col De l'izoard

Col De Mont Cenis

col De Bonette which is officially the highest road in europe

me and richard on top of col de Bonette, it was a long walk to the top

Col de castellane Adria and Richard on the way down

this lot took about 4 days and we must have gone round about a million hairpins, we were now on the south coast of france in monaco

ferraris everywhere

 

[Posh Johnny]

Nice scenery Gaz, keep the ugly bikes out of the shots next time though uke

 

[tlsgazza]

view fron the campsite near Nice

Nice was very beautiful in the centre

we went there for the evening to eat, It was only 5 miles away but upon leaving we couldn't find our way back to the camp site, we rode around for nearly 2 hours before we found it, I have now bought a sat nav for our next trip to avoid having this problem again, :banghead:coocoo:laugh
we went along the coast to Port Grimaud and stayed for 2 nights at a campsit eon the beach, was fackin hot there but it was the first day we had without riding and was a welcome break, we could see St tropez across the bay, and we found Borat

Adria was drunk when we got back to the tent and fell over landing on the gas lamp, got a little burn on her arm

next day we headed inland to the Gorge Du Verdon, it was a gentle day on lovely roads,

Bungee off the bridge half way down,

put up tents and went down to the gorge to hire canoes
we went out for 4 hours paddling right up the gorge did some body surfing in the rapids, did i mention it was bloody hot,

the following day we hired caoes again and spent another 5 hours paddling up the gorge, wish i'd took more photos of it,
daytime

sunset

more beer

 

[tlsgazza]

headed back into the alps after this towards Digne-Les-bains
it was on the way to here where adrias sidestand started hitting the ground
It had bent and we couldn't stand the bike on it, as it was hitting the ground on lefthanders i removed it abd wired up the switch so that it wouldn't cut the engine whilst on the move,
We called BMW assist and they sent a bloke out to meet us, he came all the way from the south of france where we had been just 2 days ago, it took him 2 and a half hours to get to us but unfortunatly couldn't do anything to help, so we arranged to have it fixed in switzerland 2 days later,

the next 2 days were spent trying to find walls and trees to lean the bike up against as it had no centre stand,
more mountain passes and a couple of more days in the alps and we were in switzerland to get the bike fixed

withtthe new stand fitted we left but her bike started to missfire, the shop had closed by this time so we found a hotel and started on the beer again, BMW assist sent another bloke out to pick up the bike, they said he would arrive between 8.30 and 9 in the morning, At exactly 8.45 he turned up , they are right everything does arrive on time in switzerland, she went off to the shop and they replaced the sidestand switch which was faulty and we were on our way again,
we headed up into germany and followed the reine valley untill we could ride no more, found a nice hotel in the middle of a small village which was stuck in a timewarp, nice toilet

very good food though and the beer was very strong, pissed again we went to bed, breakfast was meat and eggs which was a welcome change after croissants and jam for over a week,
we left here and headed up towards Luxembourg, we had the first rain of the holiday here and it pissed it down, waterproofs on and lunch done, we left luxembourg and headed into belgium then back to france where we stayed for the last night at a place called Givet on the river Meuse again,
had more beer

there are some amazing buildings in france in the middle of nowhere

and adria had the backup caravan follow us round the route

it was dry all the way back to Dunkuerqe, but as we got to within sight of England it started to rain, in fact it was like a monsoon for the whole 150 miles back to northhamptonshire, welcome home,:banghead
we rode the
Col De Grand st Bernard
Col De petit St Bernard
Col De L'iseran
Col De Mont Cenis
Col De Telegraphe
Col De Galabier
Col De lauteret
Col De L'izoard
Col De Vars
Col De La Bonette
Col De St Martin
Col De Turini
col De Castillon
Gorge Du Verdon both sides
Col De Mont Genevre
Col De Mont Cenis again
Col De L'izeran again
Cormet De roseland
Col De saisies
Col De Aravis
and Col De Colombieres
thats not counting all the passes in between,
2,720 miles and 8 countrys if you include Monaco,
some days we were riding in temperatures up to 37 degrees bloody hot on a bike where hardly any breeze is actually hitting your body, i have done similar trips 5 times on the Tl and can honestly say i wouldn't have been any quicker on it, I avareged 52 miles to a gallon over the whole trip as well,

 

[Steve TLS]

Sounds like a great trip :thumbup

Thanks for the pics too :hail

Couldn't find the camp site :laugh

 

[Tankslappa]

Oh god, My eyes!!!!
It burns,it burns!!! :laugh

Great write up Garry

 

[wreckah]

great great great!!! :thumbup :hail

sounds like you had loads of fun :yes

 

[ben curtis]

top write up gazza, id like to do that one day

 

[timr]

Great pictures (apart from that one - no need!uke)
Looks like spectacular roads, scenery and weather. How long did you go for and how many miles?

 

[wullie]

done lots of trips like that years ago usually taking in the Bol D'Or looks like you all had a very good one.

 

[tl1000lasse]

seams you had a good time :hail

 

[BikePilot]

Great writeup and pics:thumbup

 

[paul.haydock]

Great write up and some really good pictures:hail

 

[tls-moose]

done lots of trips like that years ago usually taking in the Bol D'Or looks like you all had a very good one.

:stupid

I thought he'd been through my photo albums :laugh:laugh

the gorge du Verdon is beautiful - we've camped down by the lake in our camper a couple of times now, and stayed in a lovely hotel in Moustiers st Marie

glad you had a good trip :thumbup

 

[Sam]

Looks great fun and some brilliant scenery :hail

Great Pics, and pissed myself at Adria's little incident :lol

 

[paul.haydock]

Great Pics, and pissed myself at Adria's little incident :lol

You might regret laughing at Adria when you see her at the weekend:laugh

 

[MotoTiller]

Looks and sounds like it was a great trip. I'm green with envy here over that scenery. :hail

 

[Tuckshop Ted]

I am envious too..............

What a lovely trip....

and now you have the all grown up GS... :laugh

I bet you can't wait to do it again...

 

[1crock]

Mere words cannot begin to express the hate I feel for you. Especially for that picture Tankslappa pointed out.:lol

Thanks for the pictures, it's always nice to dream...