Saturday 23^rd June,

Arrived in Italy yesterday via the Grand St. Bernard Pass. After a night of severe storms and heavy rain the day had dawned heavy, with low cloud and high humidity, but whilst partaking of a leisurely breakfast the sky slowly started to improve. So by the time we were ready to move off at about 9am the cloud was broken by lots of nice blue patches and it continued to improve all day, culminating with temperatures in the very high 30s by mid afternoon.

The riding was spectacular for this our third day in the Alps. We had gone against tradition and ridden the Grande Route Des Alps from south to north which had been quite beneficial to us as most of the crutch rockets and cyclists were going the other way so we had a relatively easy and hassle free ride. Hairpin bend after Hairpin bend.. climb after climb.. stunning vistas at every degree of the compass. Although I have been through the Alps a few time, with the exception of the Grand St Bernard Pass road we didn’t ride  single road that I had previously ridden.

After years of riding without, I seem to have finally convinced Joel of the dubious benefits of GPS !!! Although not without some trials and tribulations !!! Yesterday was our longest days ride by far with camp sites few and far between in this area of northern Italy we ended up finding a suitable wild camp (another first for the indubitable duo!) but not until about 6.30pm. Whilst not perfect it had the advantage of being right by a river so we were all able to take a nice cooling plunge before dinner.

So today we head across toward Bardi to seek out the families of the “Welsh Italians” and the weather is again looking good !