French Signs

Still not sure if the sign said enter at your own risk or do not enter. Ignorance is bliss so I rode on, on what must be a track to service the numerous ski lifts in the Autrans Valley in France where we are currently camped. Its not often you can get a motorbike to the top of a quad chairlift, so I could not miss taking a photo to prove it. I only saw one man on 40 kms of track, working on a ski lift tower. He seemed disinterested so I carried on. Gordon is doing the healthy thing today & gone for a tramp in the hills. The valley must look great when the trees are in autumn leaf & the first of the snow arrives. Tomorrow we leave & cross into Switzerland to Lake Geneva & hopefully if the weather behaves across to Zermatt to the Matterhorn, another bucket list icon to tick off.

More To Come

• Just a quick update, we rode 480 kms today & ended up renting a ski chalet for the next two nights in the alpine village of Autrans, high in the mountains out of Grenoble. To be honest we had no idea that was where we were headed. The ride up out of Grenoble is just hairpin after hairpin. Just what every biker dreams of. The ski lift starts just behind our chalet. It looks kind of strange to see an all grass ski run cut out of the surrounding trees. Tomorrow if the predicted storm is not too bad we will ride out up another pass to another ski village & field. This is the first night that we have not tented in Europe but with thunder storms &
  
   4 deg, just a bit much for the old timers.

Millau Viaduct

It was on my to do list & did not disappoint. The Viaduct is a huge suspension structure spanning a valley  on the motorway just out of Millau. As you can see in the attached pic, it is higher than the Eiffel tower & the largest of the pyramids will fit below the deck in the centre.

It cost €4-50 to ride over but well worth the cost. The scenery here in the south of France is unique & very different to our NZ mountain scenery.

The ride out of Andorra over the Pass de La Casa started with a visit to the biggest booze supermarket I have ever seen. All because of the duty free status of Andorra. At the border into France the customs were checking vehicles for those buying in Andorra & re selling in France. Did not give us a second look. Must look like genuine travellers, on the bikes.

Looking up Andorra Valley

About to enter 3.9km tunnel under mountains.

Millau Viaduct.

Scale of viaduct compared to Eiffel Tower.

A Day In The Mountains

Today we left all our panniers & gear at our camp  at Gerb in the mountain area of northern Spain  & did a 150 Km loop up over the Col shown in the photo Needless to say I led Gordon up the garden path & got  onto a track that was not made for me or a V Strom with fully inflated tyres. We back tracked out of there through some spectacular mountain scenery including views into the Andorra mountains that we intend to visit next. We could see the rain & probably snow on the tops falling in Andorra. Our day was a little windy but sunshine all the way.
Rock climbing is very popular in this part of Spain & there are several climbing parties staying in the camp as well as a group of geology students from the Netherlands studying the limestone formations here.
Weather permitting we are off to the Andorra area tomorrow.

Hello From Balaguer

Try & find that on the map.It is about 140kms south of Andorra in Nth East Spain. Tonight we are camped beside a lake in the mountain area. It never ceases to amaze where people live here & the fact that every prominent rock outcrop on the ridges has a castle or fortress built on it. Presume that the purpose was to see invaders coming from all directions. The weather is a hot 33 deg at the moment with low humidity. We had stopped to have a look at our maps when 2 police stopped to have a chat. They gave us good advice for the most scenic route & could not believe we were from NZ. They did not even check our licence or carnets but were pulling cars in for a check.
Not sure how I am going to convert back to the left hand side of the road when we go back to the UK. All going good, Northern Italy here we come !

Every Village Has A Castle

Today we left the town of Santa Pola on the coast as we were getting tired of the end endless Surfers Paradise type towns that populate the Mediterranean coast line & headed inland to the small mountain village  of Albarracin just west of Tuerel. This is a popular spot in summer & winter for hikers, bikers & skier's in winter. Temperature today is a very warm 33 deg. On the way in from the coast we passed numerous small towns that all seem to have a very old castles built on the highest point. There is literally thousands of hectares of grapes in the hills & numerous piggeries.  Tomorrow we will visit the Castilla La Mancha,
See my Spanish is improving.  The locals find it difficult to understand our NZ accent  which  they believe is very strong. Other than the occasional wrong turn in the town because the GPS struggles to keep up with the numerous roads & alleys, navigation & riding on the right is not too difficult.

V Strom On Top Of The Rock

Across the straits of Gibraltar, you can just see the North Africa coast in the distance

This is the top of what is British Territory. I had to produce my passport to gain entry to the  Rock.

Barbary Apes, not far from the top feeding on food scraps from the British Military installations on The Rock.

V Strom on top of the The Rock. This is the view into the very busy port of Gibraltar. The military have their own port, that had one warship tied up. The British also have a very short landing strip for military aircraft.

The view of Gibraltar across the road from our camping ground. The rock is 1380 ft high. Formed from limestone, it stands guard over the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. 

l  received a few black looks but managed to get within 30 metres of the top on the Strom. They are an adventure bike after all.