I'm finally "privileged" to be treated with some proper summer by the weather here South of Munich so I load my bike to move on South more carefree than I did previously. You know you experience a proper summer when you aim your stops under the shade of a tree like here at Bruckmühl:
I think you can judge for yourselves whether it's a sweet day or not:
Things get even more scenic as I enter Austria but as I climb the Tirolian Alps at Ampass East of Innsbruck my camera mount breaks. Here's what happens when low quality meets several thousands of km on a motorbike:
You can see the funny result of this crack on the video I will embed at the end of this post.
FYI, the bump stickers you see on the camera are a result of an effort to make her shockproof and reduce the wind noise. The former was a success, the latter not that much.
So, time for some repairs. The problem is that I have my tools and parts under my seat which now lie under my luggage:
Can't complain about the repair spot though, typical Austrian beauty:
As for the repair, I went with a zip tie considering it the easiest way that will be good enough till I make it back home in a week:
In such cases one can only feel glad carrying various bits "just in case" and I am one of these guys:
The camera is ready to get back to work:
If you see my windscreen being blurry it's only because...it really is. Believe it or not, it inherited those gross scratches during very long heavy rains while I was on the Serbian toll roads just because I was wiping off the water to allow the camera some more view. The rain had dust from the Sahara (or I don't know what else was this muddy mix) and it treated the windscreen as if I was holding a sandpaper. Crazy...
After all that plus a beautiful lady walking past me with her super gorgeous horse (again, watch video later) I load my bike and I am ready to hit the road again:
The option "no toll roads" brings me to some rather questionable tiny backstreets around here which some of them I assume they are cycle trails but I make my way anyway, just feeling the need to apologise to a cyclist at one point where he responded with a smile (all on video).
I pass the border to Italy at Brenner pass which is the most common way to make it to Italy but a touching moment for me as it's been many years since the last time (it's not only you COVID19 to blame but fuck you). The Dolomites are a well known mountainous beauty and after some good time on nice winding roads I make a stop near Longega :
Now you know why I guess but it's not just for the eye, humans need to pee from time to time...
As far as I can tell this sign here is in Italian, German and the local dialect? Not sure what's that on the left text:
What I'm sure about is that the place is lovely and not just for peeing - see for yourselves:
An hour later the near Salesei the beauty is still on if not even more intense as I stop to admire the view of the local valley:
And of course the cute local houses like this:
However, there's a plus reason I gotta stop here:
My Italian are poor but still it's not hard to tell this means that the road is closed at some point till 6pm and it's still 4:30 - kinda too much to wait and too risky to rely on an Italian estimate:
I meet a French family in a car speaking perfect English (how rare!) and we all share the same "so what we're gonna do?". After a while a postwoman in her car shows up so I tell the guys I'd go and ask her in my almost non existing Italian. After I confirm with her that the road is closed I ask here how to deviate. She asks me where I go, I tell her "Belluno" and points me to go back up the road again and take the next one down. I share the info with the French guys which are more than thankful and take my last shots of this beauty:
Goodbye Salesei, see you next time!
Back up I go:
Around half an hour later I arrive at Lago di Alleghe. The parking at it's North end offers some view to the lake,
and the surroundings,
but it is obvious that I have to move down South to enjoy more. And I really do:
It's not just the lake though, all the buildings around are a beauty, unsurprisingly most of them being hotels and BnBs:
After all this awesomeness peppered with minor setbacks I arrive at my destination which is a farm near Belluno. Stay tuned cause the place looks like paradise cause it kinda is and I'll be more than happy to share this heaven with you.
Till then you can watch my ride in 4K,
and see you on the next one!