The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
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- locost220
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
Have a good one guys
Locost book chassis, Undergoing testing post rebuild
Robin Hood 2B, keeping me sane
Sylva Leader, stuck to the trailer
Robin Hood 2B, keeping me sane
Sylva Leader, stuck to the trailer
- Rob E
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- Tony B
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
So, a brief brain dump of what happened on the trip, as always trying to remember everything that happened is so difficult once you've got back - and especially this week as my body tries to recover from this endurance test!!
I love the Alps, the roads are so special, stunning scenery and its like driving a track from 7am to 5pm everyday - this trip again was no exception and if I had to sum it up I would say it met the usual standard - fantastic roads, scenery, mates, banter and fun - only spoiler this time round was the weather and cyclists and traffic on a couple of the days!
First day uneventful getting to the F1 hotel in the Vosges mountains - only issue was a bolt snapped on my exhaust manifold which was easily fixed, 2nd day the fun started as we took the "long" route through the Vosges into the Black forest and eventually working our way into Lichtenstein for the evenings camping and welcome swimming pool before eating our meal - which arrived in a wheel barrow!
Monday saw us take 6 major mountain passes - Jay screaming all the way round "this is the best days driving Ive ever had!!" - unfortunately just before we got to Bormio Rob had an issue that couldn't be fixed and needed to be recovered - real shame but we forgot about him pretty quickly
Tuesday saw an early start - up a damp Bormio pass and down an equally damp Stelvio before the traffic started - absolutely love these two passes and although they were damp they were incredibly grippy - another load of passes saw us arrive in the Dolomite region that evening - all the time Jay screaming "forget yesterday, today is now the best days driving ive ever had"!
Wednesday say another 8 passes, Jay was besides himself, however at about 3.30ish the heavens opened and ive never driven through rain like it - we were at the top of the pass at the time and driving down was incredible scary, torrential rain, 3 inches of standing water on the road, at least an inch in the footwell - visibility about 10 feet if you kept wiping your goggles and sheer drops on the hairpins - we worked our way into a town a filled with petrol when Lees clutch cable broke - luckily the garage was the same one that fixed Steves alternator issues 2 years ago and the owner let us shelter in his garage while we fixed the problem - he then arranged a hotel for us and took us out for dinner - it was like being kidnapped by the mafia at one point but what a fantastic and bizzare day!
Thursday saw 8 passes, however it was raining on and off and all passes were impacted by a cycling event - millions of the lycra clad bastards, and loads of traffic trying to get round them - it was so frustrating - however we arrived at the Zip wire at 3pm and afterwards decided to "crack off" the last of the mountains that were scheduled for Friday morning
Friday - as we were now ahead of schedule we left Innsbruck at 7am - the route was direct to Calais with the intention of stopping somewhere to finish on Saturday - the route said 1057 km to Calais and me, Kenton, Jay and Chris did the whole lot - got hope at around 11pm - Lee and Steve decided to stay and get p1ssed in reims!!
So - my exhaust manifold - fixed, Robs car unfortunately bailed out but the recovery company did a temp fix to allow him to drive home, Jays exhaust broke and we found a garage who did a repair, Lees clutch cable was an easy fix - no other serious stuff to report!
Will there be a mega trip next year? - who knows, I sooo love those mountains though, other roads just don't compare!!
I love the Alps, the roads are so special, stunning scenery and its like driving a track from 7am to 5pm everyday - this trip again was no exception and if I had to sum it up I would say it met the usual standard - fantastic roads, scenery, mates, banter and fun - only spoiler this time round was the weather and cyclists and traffic on a couple of the days!
First day uneventful getting to the F1 hotel in the Vosges mountains - only issue was a bolt snapped on my exhaust manifold which was easily fixed, 2nd day the fun started as we took the "long" route through the Vosges into the Black forest and eventually working our way into Lichtenstein for the evenings camping and welcome swimming pool before eating our meal - which arrived in a wheel barrow!
Monday saw us take 6 major mountain passes - Jay screaming all the way round "this is the best days driving Ive ever had!!" - unfortunately just before we got to Bormio Rob had an issue that couldn't be fixed and needed to be recovered - real shame but we forgot about him pretty quickly
Tuesday saw an early start - up a damp Bormio pass and down an equally damp Stelvio before the traffic started - absolutely love these two passes and although they were damp they were incredibly grippy - another load of passes saw us arrive in the Dolomite region that evening - all the time Jay screaming "forget yesterday, today is now the best days driving ive ever had"!
Wednesday say another 8 passes, Jay was besides himself, however at about 3.30ish the heavens opened and ive never driven through rain like it - we were at the top of the pass at the time and driving down was incredible scary, torrential rain, 3 inches of standing water on the road, at least an inch in the footwell - visibility about 10 feet if you kept wiping your goggles and sheer drops on the hairpins - we worked our way into a town a filled with petrol when Lees clutch cable broke - luckily the garage was the same one that fixed Steves alternator issues 2 years ago and the owner let us shelter in his garage while we fixed the problem - he then arranged a hotel for us and took us out for dinner - it was like being kidnapped by the mafia at one point but what a fantastic and bizzare day!
Thursday saw 8 passes, however it was raining on and off and all passes were impacted by a cycling event - millions of the lycra clad bastards, and loads of traffic trying to get round them - it was so frustrating - however we arrived at the Zip wire at 3pm and afterwards decided to "crack off" the last of the mountains that were scheduled for Friday morning
Friday - as we were now ahead of schedule we left Innsbruck at 7am - the route was direct to Calais with the intention of stopping somewhere to finish on Saturday - the route said 1057 km to Calais and me, Kenton, Jay and Chris did the whole lot - got hope at around 11pm - Lee and Steve decided to stay and get p1ssed in reims!!
So - my exhaust manifold - fixed, Robs car unfortunately bailed out but the recovery company did a temp fix to allow him to drive home, Jays exhaust broke and we found a garage who did a repair, Lees clutch cable was an easy fix - no other serious stuff to report!
Will there be a mega trip next year? - who knows, I sooo love those mountains though, other roads just don't compare!!
- ChrisL
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
Great trip, well organised and in-spite of the torrential rain great fun. Actually the rain turned it into quite the adventure and it was great to meet up with Sandro, although it would be good to drop in on him without a broken car, for a change!
Thanks again Tony
Thanks again Tony
Yes I've been drinking, what of it!!
- DJ.
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
Sorry to hear Rob had trouble, but otherwise sounds good
It isn't just the UK where it rains, it was dry for us for the first time so someone somewhere was bound to catch it!
By the way Tony, bad news, someone has nicked that new number plate you fitted.
It isn't just the UK where it rains, it was dry for us for the first time so someone somewhere was bound to catch it!
By the way Tony, bad news, someone has nicked that new number plate you fitted.
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
come on then, where's the pic dump with all the twisties
pity about the weather, but hey, banter & beer soon make up for that !
pity about the weather, but hey, banter & beer soon make up for that !
- Tony B
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
DJ. wrote:
By the way Tony, bad news, someone has nicked that new number plate you fitted.
By a strange twist of fate it fell off again - bizzare
- Weathers
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
Glad you had an excellent trip and relatively trouble free one at that other than poor Rob and Tony losing his number plate again.
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Re: The 2017 Mega Trip - 24th June '17- Italian Alps - Dolomites
Cracking trip, full of laughs. Video diary sometime maybe
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