Motorcycle Tour Ireland to Croatia 2019 Ep 7 – BRAS TO LES MISERABLES & MOUNTAINS OF SNOW – WTF ?
Motorcycle Tour Ireland to Croatia 2019 Ep 7. CASTENEDOLO TO FOSSANO VIA RODDI, POLLENZO, BRA, SAVIGLIONE, VILLAFALETTO, STIGLIONE, PIASCO, VENASCA, COL D’AGNEL & CHIANALE.
Episode 8 – After we left Castenodolo, we suffered the motorways to get back in to France. We thought that if we tried to cross the Alps further south, we could may be avoid the snow that we found in the Northern Alps when we crossed Mont Cenis. We plotted a twisty course for St Véran in France and hoped that would be hassle free and decided to stop in a town called BRA – couldn’t believe it was twinned with a town in Argentina called Corral De Bustos and even better was when we were walking around Bra centre to find a coffee shop, we walked past a shop selling Bras, so a photo had to be taken. It was when we were taking photos there, that a lady in her 70s, was walking with her shopping trolley, stopped and spoke to us in Italian. The gist of it was that she insisted in phoning the shop owner to come back from lunch early, so that we could get in to the shop. We eventually convinced her that we did not want to buy anything and asked her to step in for a photo with us. She refused as she said her hair was a mess ( it wasn’t of course ), but she offered to take our photos….and that was how we met Ophelia – great fun.
The weather was poor when we left Bra and we travelled through vast agricultural regions, accompanied by rain, but when we got nearer the Alps, the weather turned worse and a lot colder.
We stopped on the roadside up the mountain, as the weather was getting worse, but decided to keep going as we have got to be near the top of the mountain at this point ( turned out to be the Col D’Agnel ), but we were met by snow falling heavily, then the road turned white, then we saw the road closed sign across the road. Turned around and retraced our way to the nearest hotel, which was in Fossano – 35 miles south of Bra, where we had set off 5 hours before. We booked in, and the night porter arranged for our gear to be set near their drier, ordered pizzas in for us ( restaurant long shut ), and served us craft beer of the rocket fuel variety. A great way to finish a day that nearly broke us, with such weather and conditions.
BACKGROUND.
After watching umpteen videos of people riding the Croatian coastline, I thought it looked fantastic – sweeping bend after sweeping bend through stunning scenery and that set the wheels in motion – literally… A trip was born !
I was joined on the trip by John ( Triumph Tiger 1200 ) and we have been lucky to have travelled many trips together over the years and Oisin ( Suzuki 650 V Strom ), who at 21 was heading for his first European trip, where we would do a mix of camping and hotels, and try and get through France and Italy as quickly as safely possible ( bearing in mind that it was Oisin’s first time riding abroad, so a bit of time was factored in, to let him acclimatise to riding on the right hand side etc, which we knew he’d be fine with ), and then ride through Slovenia and start riding down the Istrian Coast, where a friend had recommended visits to – Poreč, Rovinj and Pula – before continuing along the coast to Rijeka and heading south to Zadar ( where I had seen a harmonica had been built into the sea wall, so it played music sounds as the sea came in etc), and see the coastal towns of Spilt and on down the beautiful Dalmation coast to visit Dubrovnik and maybe see where some of the Game of Thrones series, had been filmed.
I had picked May to go thinking that June, July and August would be very busy……I soon learned that snow doesn’t leave the Alps until after May, and that we ended up riding through some amazing scenery and although it wasn’t cold, it was not what we expected at all. We saw places where Hannibal had come through the Alps with his elephant, saw stunning lakes surrounded by snow, camped in Italian farmhouse/restaurant sites – amazing local dished and wine, experienced the Bora winds, multiple local kindnesses, had the wits scared out of us, stopped by police and redirected, to the motorway as the road we were trying to return through, was now closed to motorcycles as it was now too dangerous with the winds, sent to a central motorway, where we had 3 degrees and a sleet storm, torrential rain as we tried to get through the French alps, turned back with roads closed by snow, – all character building stuff, but what a trip !!
I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride, and may be inspired to try this for yourself – (we are going back there in JUNE / JULY 2026 with the aim of getting to Albania if possible …and seeing the places we missed out on.)
Cheers
T