On to France

I hope you enjoyed the previous post photo dump. I didn’t have much to say about riding the area but the photos told the story.

We woke in the morning to cloudy skies and the promise of rain. As we broke camp we decided to head a little south towards Italy and pass through a corner of Switzerland. As this was all new area to us, we wandered over a couple more passes during the day. I swear, in this area it is impossible to pick a bad road. The passes ranged from good, narrow two lanes tracks to narrow single lanes, some tar and some dirt. The traffic was very light which was great as some corners left us very exposed. We didn’t travel very far every day, preferring to just enjoy the riding. We camped everyday preferring that to the expensive rooms in Switzerland.

We had found a campground near St Moritz, Switzerland. St Moritz is a luxury Alpine resort town which has hosted the Winter Olympics twice. It is right on a beautiful lake. If you are lucky enough to find a hotel you either face the lake or the views of the ski resorts stretching to the sky on the mountain behind you. The campground that we wanted to stay at was full of wind boarders. There was a competition going on that weekend and they said we were welcome to stay if we could find a spot. As is in Europe campsites are basically find a space and pitch up your tent. The problem was that every square inch was occupied so we decided to move on further which turned out to be a fantastic decision.

We asked around and found there was some beautiful camping on the south side of the third lake, Silsersee. It was here we discovered that we were trying to find a place on July 31st. The following day was Swiss National Day. The founding of the Swiss Confederation was in 1291. Since 1891, the first of August has been celebrated as Swiss National Day. This is like the United States 4th of July and all the people come out to celebrate. The campground we found was Camping Maloja Plan Curtinac. Our plan was to camp here for one night. On our arrival we were told that the next day being Swiss National Day they were having a big celebration, so we decided to stay two nights.

St Moritz is a high Alpine resort at an altitude of 5,978 ft ( 1822 m ). Even during the summer they experience very chilly nights, plus it had been raining for several days. The place to put the tent was almost like a tundra. They had what I would describe as a mossy lichen grassy area which was totally saturated with water. When you placed your foot down it would sink in and the water would cover your boot. We found an area high up the hill that was dryer than most of the areas to pitch the tent. The lake, being high alpine and snow and glacier fed, remained very chilly, even on the warmest of days, and that did not dissuade several hardy Swiss folks from taking a daily swim. I can splash in cold water but then I like to warm up. It was chilly here and there was no warming up to be had.

The next day tents were going up as they prepared for the celebration. The cooks would have traditional potatoes and sausages for the meal that night and then a special treat when the sun set. After dinner, and as the sun was setting, the children all lined up with paper lanterns with a candle inside. The owner of the camp would then guide the children through a path up into the woods as the sunset. He had been doing this for as long as he had owned the camp. You could watch the kids by lantern glow as a traversed the hilly pass around the camp and then back down to the lake. At that point they would start a huge bonfire on the lake to celebrate their National Day. We had a wonderful time chatting and drinking with people taking part in this celebration. It’s always wonderful to learn of different traditions.

After packing up in the morning within 2 km we were on Passo del Maloja. What a road! With perfect asphalt this road twisted back and forth on itself as it came off the mountain. What a fantastic way to start a morning. We were headed Southwest crossing into Italy, then again into Switzerland and back into Italy and and finally we would end up in France. But on the way there were many sites to see and incredible roads to ride, and who knows what else.

We wandered for a couple days through small villages with lanes just barely wide enough for one vehicle, past castles and fortresses perched high above the valley where we rode and saw many terraced vineyards. Crossing from Italy into France we took one of our favorite passes, the Petite Saint Bernard pass. We were headed to Avignon, a beautiful city on the Rhone River, where we would camp. But more on that, and the rest of France next time.

Cheers,

2WANDRRs