North East Alpine Adventure 2016

[Sand Dancer]

Sounds like an adventure!!

[Andy - a15cro]

Good old cable ties! An essential item.

Looks like a good time being had by all though.

[tex]

Try using a food tin modified by cutting out the top and bottom of the tin. Sleeve it over, maybe find some of that metal putty to fill the gaps. If its too big snip the tin from the edges every inch then wire/ metal tie wrap it tight.. Might support it better. Keep it supported with wire. Might help

[Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative]

The BBC did a news report this morning about the opening of the Gotthard tunnel today and it showed you the Swiss Alps. If your view is anything like that, then, well, it was, er, a bit nice.

[Kingster]

Well we're back (mostly) and it was a journey full of highs and lows.

Will fill in more details over the coming days as I get time in between work and family but as well as some unbelievably fabulous roads and scenery we had horrendous weather to go through. For example I reckon I actually witnessed the lighting strikes that took 80 people to hospital from the Rock Am Ring festival on Saturday!

We also had only 4 out of the 6 cars on the ferry back - all will be revealed soon!

[Andy (Sycho)]

That doesn't sound good but as long as you had more high than lows!!!

I'll look forward to the tales though!

[Kingster]

Plenty of tales to follow and no injuries

[Sand Dancer]

Stop teasing!!!

Who are the two missing in action??

[Kingster]

Sorry no spoilers

[Sand Dancer]

Do we need to organise bail??

[Kingster]

Do we need to organise bail??

No but there was a lot of bailing out of the seats!

[Andy - a15cro]

Sounds interesting, don't leave us in too much suspense.

[Kingster]

Sounds interesting, don't leave us in too much suspense.

 

I'll try not to, but just simply have no time to write the account of the trip for a bit. I have a business to run and a wife to keep happy first

 

Here's a few taster pics though...

 

[Kingster]

I've got 15 mins spare - so here we go [note I've since had more than 15 mins and updated this!]

 

Day 1 - head to North Shields Ferry in plenty of time an load everyone up. Overnighter to Amsterdam is uneventful and we don't want to overdo it like the many Stag and Hen do's are.

 

Day 2 - Set off from Amsterdam after a fairly slow disembarkation in decent weather and head for the 1st reccy point in Eindhoven. SatNav takes me to the wrong Maccy Dees, so another delay while we wait for my mate (and senior navigator) Tony to arrive on his bike.

 

We eventually all head off for Saarbrucken to meet up with the other two bikers. As per Chris's post - we had another delay due to his main live feed to the battery shorting out. Luckily we were able to "MacGyver" it to get him going again.

 

Stopped off for a brew at a nice little roadside cafe

 

Still, progress was slow and the weather started to deteriorate and we soon learned the meaning of driving whilst sitting in a puddle! We had to bypass our planned stops at places like Bastogne as we soon ran out of time and eventually arrived in Saarbrucken but it was after 9pm by the time we got checked in! Didn't look so far on the map...

 

Day 3 - this was supposed to be easier - a nice run through the northern Vosges forest and on to Lake Konstanz. Started off well enough but again, as Chris mentioned, it was MacGyver no 2 for him and as his exhaust link pipe snapped in two. We also had to keep an eye of Mick's Dax as that was not charging up properly and needed bumping to get going.

 

The bikes were well ahead by now and after fixing things we had a great run through the forest before the rain hit again.

 

I soon discover that waterproofs - even full Gimp suits - are useless when you are in a seated position and you inevitably get a very wet bottom.

 

 

We catch up with the bikes and eventually all roll in to a rather posh hotel in Konstanz where a hot shower, change out of soggy clobber and a decent meal await!

 

[Kingster]

So - more tales.

 

After a good night's kip at Konstanz, we needed to divert to the nearest bike accessory/dealership to try and get a Hayabusa battery for Mick's ailing Dax before heading off on a long run across the b roads and mountains to the Alps proper.

 

My mate Tony - the keeper of 'the route' - eyed up my Sat Nav and agreed we were programmed to go in the right direction.

 

Now, my Sat Nav wasn't really a Sat Nav - it's an iPhone with both CoPilot and Google Maps on it (and I had 500mb of data per day to use) - and it had led us all a merry chase on more than one occasion by now (including the night before sending us to the wrong Hotel Sternen 30 miles away), causing delays and frustration (mostly me being frustrated i have to say - the lads were very good at not lynching me).

 

So I was also keen to get to the bike dealers to see if i could grab a decent bike (ie waterproof) "proper" SatNav that we could actually load pre-planned routes onto (which the %$&*ing iPhone simply won't allow you to do and Google maps constantly tries to be helpful and re-route you!).

 

So we follow the iNotNav to the bike shop - and of course it takes us to the wrong place - cue yet another round of 6x cars try to do an about-turn on a narrow street scenario. This had happened quite a few times by now and was getting tiresome and leading me to compare the iNotNav with a Frisbee. However, it would be a very expensive Frisbee, so I refrain from launching it.

 

After a bit of time at the shop we emerge with new Li-Pol battery (weighs nowt!) for Mick, a Garmin Zumo 390 for me and a waterproof suit & assorted exhaust clamps for Chris. I think there were a few more purchases too - the shop did brisk business for sure!

 

Again, the bikes were off long before us as we were fitting parts and doing roadside MacGyvering so we once again set off relying on my iNotNav due to no time to load up the Garmin.

 

We decide to stop off for coffee after an hour or so of fighting through little towns and lots of traffic and then set off once more.

 

After a few miles we are back on single track roads that looked just like the other single track roads we have used and then as we pass over a rickety wooden bridge it dawns on me that we are going back the way we came! With nowhere to do a six car shuffle it takes a few miles to finally pull over and admit defeat with the iNotNav - so I ask Peter to be Red Leader as I can't follow my useless bit of pants tech another mile!

 

Now - yes, i know you should not rely on SatNavs and should use proper maps, but the plan was always to follow my mate Tony (with proper maps & routes and knowledge) and use SatNav as backup.

 

We turn around and head over the rickety bridge yet again and follow Peter's TomTom Rider. However, little did we realise that he'd set it to not only 'avoid motorways' (good) but also put it in "find windy roads" mode - so while we were heading in the right direction, we were also going through every little town, village and farm road on the way!

 

Needless to say, it took quite some time to eventually get anywhere near our destination - and despite the fact that we did get to blat along some rather lovely roads, it was getting late and our old buddy Mr Torrential Downpour was waiting for us.

 

We finally neared our destination and when we pulled over at a toll plaza I asked Peter if he had the actual hotel programmed in - which was a 'no' - so I used my mate's "location" sent from his iPhone and got it to plot the destination. Well, you know what's coming and yes, you are right - the iNotNav took us close, but not quite close enough - then my mate then phoned and said he could see us and we were heading the wrong way. So yet another 6x car about-turn up a single track lane ensued! Then to top it all, my mate then said we were heading the wrong way AGAIN - so another about turn was needed.

 

By this time I had had it with technology and was about as approachable as a Russian football fan with a Kalashnikov. 

 

After I'd wrung out my wet pants, showered, changed and sank a few beers, things were looking slightly better and so it was off to bed to see what the next day would bring!