Day 5 – Wednesday –
Saint-Pierre D’Argencon to Saint Martin Vesubie (and
a mad dash to the sea and getting lost in Nice and Monaco!!)
So, Day 5 was on us and we had the Alps in sight and the prospect of hitting the Med in only 5 days of cruising across France. We had learned again that the twisty roads are knackering and very time consuming so it was up and at them, pack the tents and bags and get going. We were getting very fast with our campsite admin..could get it all up or down in half an hour and on the bikes.
It was bloody hot, again, but we were not quite learning to sack the leathers as we were still sensible enough to be scared of falling off.
So, down through Aspres and into Gap again…some more awesome roads and a bit more kilo delta action for me. I was loving the riding and the roads. Great holiday and strange to think that less than a week ago we were getting soaked in Sheffield and now we were about to start into the Alps and end up only 50 miles from the sea!!
Some serious lovely scenery…
This is the large lake/reservoir at Savines Le Lac – we crossed the bridge and rode down the sides of it..
We then hit the valley and was on the road to Barcelonnette and the scenery and the roads were just getting more and more mental.
We arrived at Barcelonnette an stopped for some food and petrol. Getting very excited about the prospect of the Col de Bonet which is a 2800 metre pass in the Alps. Famous shit..
Riding up the roads were just too cool…flowing corners and around hairpin to hairpin. We stopped on the way up for some pictures.
Walking to the summit was a killer…
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m38/ ... CN2940.jpg < too tall
This is the other side of the mountain…the Mediterranean side!
I did have some bother on the Col as when we wanted to get going again the Ninja was not having it. Tried to bump it and ended up rolling down over a mile seeing if it would bump. The altitude was playing havoc with the carbs and so it did finally get going the lower I went. After that, I just caned it as Grandad had already fecked off and was on the top….Once on the top the bike did restart and we got radical and hoofed it back down the hills…heading to St Martin Vesubie!
So…we arrived in St Martin Vesubie and set up the tents. It was now 6 O’clock an we’d been riding on the roads from 9 that morning. In a fit of immense retardedness I persuaded Grandad that as we were close enough to the Med then why not just get radical and ride to Monaco without panniers. It was 50 miles away..so we could get there in an hour or so?? Surely! What could go wrong….??
We set off and without the gear on the bike we had a great time. It was cool Like a computer game with little tunnels hewn from the rock and rivers an slow coaches in the way. We were riding like fools but it was such a buzz and we flew down the mountain side and onto the main drag into Nice. Holy shit…what a ballache. Traffic was slow, the heat was intense and because Grandad is a regular meals kind of guy he was slowly turning into a murderous hungry dude…
Once in Nice town centre (or rather massive city) we followed signs for “Nice: Cote D’azur” as I was thinking this would lead us the right way.. As it happened we ended up at the sodding airport which is the wrong direction to the planned Monaco session. We stopped for fuel and a bit of an argument about this being a stupid idea and where the fuck were we going to go…
By a trial and error basis, in what seemed 50 degree heat, we managed to land on the A8 toll road..signed for Monaco!!
We paid the couple euros to get on the road and whizzed down
The Grimaldi Palace…Monaco.
Even better..
The Mediterranean!! Woohoo..from Sheffield to the Med in 5 days. Awesome.
So, we were now in Monaco, starving to death, sick of riding and ready to kill each other. It was now nearly 8 O’clock and we were thinking what we might do for food…we blagged a table, dressed in sweaty leathers, in a posh restaurant and without talking to each other we ordered some food. I had some Veal…Grandad a steak and a beer.
We ate in silence…as Grandad was about to kill someone as he had no ciggies too…but when he got a pack of Marlboro red he was chilled and once the food and a pint had taken effect we began to worry about finding our way back into the mountains as it went dark.
Looking at our shit map we thought going back via Menton on the Italian side was a better idea than getting lost in Nice again…. So at about 9 O’clock we set off…and promptly got lost and decided we had better go back the way we came. Arse biscuits.
More riding along the coast roads and we somehow got on a road to Nice that was not the road we came in on. In Nice we didn’t have a clue and ended up riding down into a toll road which we knew would take us back the wrong way. We turned our lights off, turned around and pegged it back up the slip road…sketchy and worried about the rozzers and being crashed into! We got back out and decided to find some people and ask them.
First couple we saw were on a roundabout having an argument….a guy and a girl having a proper domestic. So I butted in and asked how we get to Vesubie..the dude laughed and gave us the crazy finger gesture. It was now 10 O’clock and we were mightily pissed off. He told us to get on the road and keep going until we see a sign for some village..and then turn right. That was the road to Vesubie and it would be 2hrs travel. Bollocks! As it happens, we got lost again and asked another couple who told us we were on the right route.
Again, we rode like totally stressed out idiots…carving the roads and with main beams showing the way we had the frustration of being miles from a warm sleeping bag and a cold beer.. We made it back to St Martin Vesubie at 2355. There was a local bar in the village and we caned 2 Stellas in the 5 minutes before it closed. Trying not to wake the rest of the campsite we rolled back down and got set for some kip.
That day was a very high point in seeing the sea but a low point as I had taken us on a stupid trip to Monaco and wasted 6hrs. We were in Monaco itself for maybe 1 hour..the rest was riding about being angry and lost. The worst part….the next morning we were going to Monaco anyways so we should have left it….