Day 22 - Fiera di Primiera

Friday 14th July 2017

All the luggage is back on the bikes by 8am. It's time to move on again. Today will see us traverse the Dolomites and see some of the most spectacular views the Alps has to offer.

Typical Dolomites road (alt. here is 1531m)

The day dawns bright and clear. Our first stop is for coffee at a small bar in Forni di Sotto. Mick is concerned about a noise from his gearbox so we also stop at a garage and repair shop to see if they have a gear oil additive. Sadly our limited command of Italian proves inadequate to explain what we need.

Coffee stop in Forni di Sotto

We have been steadily gaining altitude all morning. Lake Cavazzo lies at 184m above sea level and by the time we reach the rifugio San Sebastiano high up on the Duran Pass we are at 1611m.

From here it is a steady run down a spectacular valley to our overnight stop at Camping Castelpietra near Fiera di Primiera.


This is a pleasant site, quite high as campsites go, at 1036m a.s.l. Temperature drops somewhere between 6C and 10C per 1000 metres of height (depends on humidity) so it is always wise to check on the altitude of camping sites.

 
rifugio on Passo Duran

However it is July now so although the nights can be quite chilly at this height the sun soon warms things up in the mornings.

The site is quite busy with a lot of permanent huts as well as the usual touring vans. We are shown to a quiet corner behind the kiddies playground. 

 It has been a long day and as night falls we repair to the camp bar for beer and schnapps.
Camping Castelpietra
Fully laden GS

And supercool Flying Brick
Mick revisiting his mining roots

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 19 - Opatija

Image
Tuesday 11th July 2017 We have spent enough time on the Croatian Adriatic coast. The Alps are calling. Croatia is a very long country and it is still over 200 miles north to the Slovenian border. Packing the gear So we decide to head inland and get onto the E71 motorway. There are some tolls on this route but it is cheap enough and saves us a lot of time.   We turn off near Senj and find ourselves on the same road we rode in the other direction when we were first heading for Bosnia. Was it only 8 days ago. It feels like a month. Fuel stop on the E71  We crack on up the coast through Rijeka and round the northernmost reach of the Adriatic to Opatija to a camp site we have used before, Camping Opatija. Perhaps because we have been there before I don't seem to have taken any photographs.  It's an uneventful stay, just marking time before we get back into the mountains. We find food in a local cafe down by the beach and turn in before it is fully dark. NEXT POS
Read more

Day 18 - Primosten

Image
Monday 10th July 2017 Monday morning and another week on the road begins. We are well rested after our two days in Zuljana but now it is time to begin the long trek following the Croatian Adriatic coast north back to the Alps. We are on the the west coast of the Ston peninsula, a long strip of land that runs 80 kilometres northeast into the Adriatic. About 30 kilometres north from here on the eastern side of the peninsula lies the small port of Trpanj where the map shows a small ferry route that will take us back to the mainland coast, about half way between Dubrovnik and Split. On the coast road heading for the Trpanj ferry We are eager to be away and so we wave goodbye to Camp Sunce and are climbing into the central montain range by 6:30 am. The mountain air is cool and the road is empty of traffic. Boarding the ferry for Ploce We are soon in Trpanj and find our way to the ticket office for the ferry. The next crossing is not until 9am so we have time for a croissa
Read more

Day 12 - Sarajevo

Image
Tuesday 4th July 2017 On the road to Sarajevo  American Independence Day dawns bright and clear. We bid farewell to the Stari Grad (I think it means Old Town) after a breakfast of cheese omelette, bread and jam and Nescafé. We are on the way to Sarajevo. It is only around 100 miles and at first it is a very pleasant ride along the banks of the river Pliva, in and out of the sunshine with a high rock wall on the left and the rushing river on the right. We emerge onto a broad plain. After a brief coffee stop in a small village the traffic gets heavier and the last 50 miles into Sarajevo are tough, a series of conjoined villages like one continuous suburb with constant speed limit changes and busy junctions. Coffee stop on the Sarajevo road When I was last in Bosnia for my cousin's wedding in 2004 it was very obvious that there had been a recent war. In some towns every building was laced with heavy calibre machine gun damage and half the houses in the countryside were
Read more