Monthly Archives: May 2009

Slovenia, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Looks a bit like france. And someone seems to have left a williams formula one team truck in a lay-by. It was wierd crossing from france in to italy and seeing all the road signs suddenly change to a totally different language, but it’s even wierder seeing then change to unpronunceable gibberish…

Beer and Pizza, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Might not look like much in the photo, but this was the best pizza i’ve ever had! Mind you, anything would have tasted great after a day spent trying to fix a bike at the side of the road 8000 feet up a mountain…..

Top of the Stelvio, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Made it, at the second attempt. 9043 feet above sea level. People have cycled all the way up here!

delay, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Somehow i convinced myself we were ahead of schedule last night, but now i realise that we were in fact only just on schedule. So as we sit here with dave’s bike broken (again), now getting behind schedule, i’m realising that we will need to cut some corners off the route and go a more direct way to make up some time. Our mileage targets are too ambitious, and it’s hard work doing so much time on the bike every day. So were going to cut the corner into the balkans, aiming directly for the top corner of croatia. It will cost more using the motorways, but we have to stay on schedule for the visas. Still a long way to go, but as long as this bloke can fix dave’s bike, we have a good chance.

drama on the stelvio!, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Dave dropped his bike at the top of the stelvio. He’s fine, but the bike won’t go into gear. Tried various things at the side of the road at 7000 feet, no joy, so then a freewheel ride back down to bormio, where we now await the return of bobo at bobomoto. Called dave lambeth, if reckons maybe a bent gear selector shaft, so we could be stuck here now for days. And it was all going so well!