MooN
Tour Pro
Yeah, the only one that makes any sense, tks. Pics you want?
Can't wait for the juicy stuff, aye?
naah, everyone's desperate to get to the bit where I appear! the rest is just so much prologue...
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Tornanti_3...ABRACADABRA!
- Thread starter glitch
- Start date
naah, everyone's desperate to get to the bit where I appear! the rest is just so much prologue...
robbieb
Tassie Daddy
naah, everyone's desperate to get to the bit where I appear! the rest is just so much prologue...
Epic prologue, though!
Nature's early morning lightshow…we're in for a good one, baby!!
Tacking south into the Val d'Herens….a quick view over the shoulder into the Valais valley.
On the cards is a day of bouncing around the lower Valais and its side-valleys…and there's LOTS of stuff to discover. Let's use the solitude of the early morning to get this crazy zigzag started…first up, the Barrage de la Grande Dixence, Europe's highest dam and the World tallest gravity dam.
"Le Ritz" Hotel is at least as ugly as what that dam wall is like…looks like the place used to be the workers quarters during construction.
And there's even a pique-nique area for the summer-guests…
The last 10 k's or so have been in the shade of the high mountains and it's BLOODY COLD!
Heated grips roasting on full, or not…the fingertips are white. Let's go downvalley for a little sun…and those mud-pyramids at Euseigne.
Oh boy…this is turning into a cracker of a day!
Coming out of Euseigne…
…there's no sign, no warning, nothing but the distraction of a quick look down the valley to see the perfect "hairpinned" driveway…and personal vineyard, of course! Check the little patch below the buildings.
Then it's a lefthander with a little road branching off to the right and BANG!!...there they are!!
Tacking south into the Val d'Herens….a quick view over the shoulder into the Valais valley.
On the cards is a day of bouncing around the lower Valais and its side-valleys…and there's LOTS of stuff to discover. Let's use the solitude of the early morning to get this crazy zigzag started…first up, the Barrage de la Grande Dixence, Europe's highest dam and the World tallest gravity dam.
"Le Ritz" Hotel is at least as ugly as what that dam wall is like…looks like the place used to be the workers quarters during construction.
And there's even a pique-nique area for the summer-guests…
The last 10 k's or so have been in the shade of the high mountains and it's BLOODY COLD!
Oh boy…this is turning into a cracker of a day!
Coming out of Euseigne…
…there's no sign, no warning, nothing but the distraction of a quick look down the valley to see the perfect "hairpinned" driveway…and personal vineyard, of course! Check the little patch below the buildings.
Then it's a lefthander with a little road branching off to the right and BANG!!...there they are!!
Towards Evolene a little, then zag north again to St. Martin.
A few superb k's here, stunning k's there…
Views across the Valais again…
From here things get a little tricky…and very, very scenic!!
....trying to find the right track/ road to get us around the base of the side-valley and along the balconies of the Valais into the mouth of the next side-valley…call that impossible when faced with a steepening gravel track dropping rapidly into the Valais with a sheer rock wall on the right, negating any quick slip-across into the next side-valley.
But the views…oh maaan!!
Today's juice-controller…Andrew, the man at the schnozzle.
Filling up a half-dozen bikes has become a 5min job at worst…with petrol paid out of the group-pot, it's a one-lane, one schnozzle affair, bikes getting filled and pushed out of the way immediately to make room for the next one, two, three. Everyone keeps the flow going, the group-banker pays cash out of the common pot and we're back on the road in no time at all.
It all looks like a bit of a military operation to the locals…but it's the fastest way to get the job done and back to the important stuff.
Despite the hour, the down-valley commute past Martigny to Bex isn't too bad, where we trip over the Salt Mines (and more!) just where the road starts to climb up the valley towards Gryon and Villars.
It also looks like the mines were used as a storage facility for the "Etat de Vaud"…the region's riches and wealth being stored in those mines and tunnels from 1700 to the mid-1900's.
The buildings certainly look period enough for it.
Don't really have to be a French-speaker for that…LOVE the sign for being that much less sterile than our own here in Oz. They make you LOOK!!
Another artistic rain spout.
Out the back of the place…
I think I just found a little backroad….
Looks like they're generating their own power to run this place...now that roaring whitewater out the back makes sense!
Filling up a half-dozen bikes has become a 5min job at worst…with petrol paid out of the group-pot, it's a one-lane, one schnozzle affair, bikes getting filled and pushed out of the way immediately to make room for the next one, two, three. Everyone keeps the flow going, the group-banker pays cash out of the common pot and we're back on the road in no time at all.
It all looks like a bit of a military operation to the locals…but it's the fastest way to get the job done and back to the important stuff.
Despite the hour, the down-valley commute past Martigny to Bex isn't too bad, where we trip over the Salt Mines (and more!) just where the road starts to climb up the valley towards Gryon and Villars.
It also looks like the mines were used as a storage facility for the "Etat de Vaud"…the region's riches and wealth being stored in those mines and tunnels from 1700 to the mid-1900's.
The buildings certainly look period enough for it.
Don't really have to be a French-speaker for that…LOVE the sign for being that much less sterile than our own here in Oz. They make you LOOK!!
Another artistic rain spout.
Out the back of the place…
I think I just found a little backroad….
Looks like they're generating their own power to run this place...now that roaring whitewater out the back makes sense!
A few k's up the road…and we're in "$$$$-town". This is it!
Villars sur Ollon, the place where "new money", including the former and current greats of the Formula1 and MotoGP circuses spend their spare time, go skiing, spruik themselves to the Paparazzi for the annual snow-bunny and family shots for the trash-mags and otherwise enjoy their mountain tax-haven lodges.
Make no mistake…this is one hell of a scenic place with all the right bits in the right places. Including their own 4km long scenic tramway that runs along the "sun-terraces" of the bigger private lodges terminating in the shopping hub of the chalet-village. Neat!
OI, DOUG!!
It's a bit of an effort leaving that Patisserie…
Villars sur Ollon, the place where "new money", including the former and current greats of the Formula1 and MotoGP circuses spend their spare time, go skiing, spruik themselves to the Paparazzi for the annual snow-bunny and family shots for the trash-mags and otherwise enjoy their mountain tax-haven lodges.
Make no mistake…this is one hell of a scenic place with all the right bits in the right places. Including their own 4km long scenic tramway that runs along the "sun-terraces" of the bigger private lodges terminating in the shopping hub of the chalet-village. Neat!
OI, DOUG!!
It's a bit of an effort leaving that Patisserie…
…climbing back on the bike for a slow crawl across the short Col de la Croix.
Trying to stitch some accommodation for tonight, I'm faced with a waterfall in French that make the little Nokia pop its rivets.
The friendly and excited female voice on the other side is somewhere near Martigny and finally I get my 3 words in, asking for the chance to stay a couple of nights as the weather looks like it could hang in for another pearler.
I get another serve of how to find the place, a tiny B+B in a typical local house in the vineyards above Fully, across the valley from Martigny.
Renovated and modernized recently with local timbers and materials and enough space to hold the 6 of us. No worries, we'll find the place…found everything else in the past.
With that sorted, here are the next 17k's into the town of Les Diablerets then…let the pix do the talking.
Trying to stitch some accommodation for tonight, I'm faced with a waterfall in French that make the little Nokia pop its rivets.
The friendly and excited female voice on the other side is somewhere near Martigny and finally I get my 3 words in, asking for the chance to stay a couple of nights as the weather looks like it could hang in for another pearler.
I get another serve of how to find the place, a tiny B+B in a typical local house in the vineyards above Fully, across the valley from Martigny.
Renovated and modernized recently with local timbers and materials and enough space to hold the 6 of us. No worries, we'll find the place…found everything else in the past.
With that sorted, here are the next 17k's into the town of Les Diablerets then…let the pix do the talking.
Biking's BIG HERE!! Pushies, that is…it's become a real summer rush similar to the traditional skiing through the winter months. Road, dirt, mountain, downhill…any type of biking you like…in the most exhilarating surrounds one could imagine.
The Swiss AutoClub (Touring Club Swiss= TCS) have got their own marked-off and guide-booked track network.
…as well as the local tourist board and communities, who offer more of a local-area network of roads and tracks.
Impossible colours you say? Bloody real they are, believe it or not!
The "old"...it's hard to resist the call of just walking up to the place, open the door, sit down in a cozy, timber-lined corner, have a cuppa..and feel "at home".
This one's got way to go…at least 50 years of mountain sun to darken the timbers somewhat to give it that "cozy" feeling.
Barely 4k's west is a tiny backroad signed to Les Voettes to get us onto the Col des Mosses….and this one's a stunner!! A real gem-in-a-shoebox type of find. Don't like super-tight single-lane roads? Too bad!
If we only could, I would....there are home-made cheeses everywhere, a little fridge or cooler-box under a cover, an honesty-box or rattle-tin for the payment.
I could guts myself right across those Alpine paddocks
Using the map, it's between points K+L
Next it's across the few gentle sweepers of the Col des Mosses direction Chateau d'Oex before the tack to the west towards Lac de l'Hongrin. Closed to the military, the road is only accessible to the public on Saturdays+Sundays…as the well-hidden, but still public, info goes.
Supposedly it runs along the lake via 32 bridges, snaking along the high-paddocks, a time-regulated rough-hewn and pitch black tunnel, before dropping sharply into Aigle in the Valais again…all single-lane, all narrow, all tight…all sealed!
Sort of…add the breathtaking scenery and you've got a STUMPER!!Hmmmmm…guess what??
Nahh, Pete…no bloody talking your way through that one, buster.
He DOES try for us though…but his CIC told him to tell us to bugger off.
Same goes for a couple of locals who rock up while negotiations are in progress…
The Swiss AutoClub (Touring Club Swiss= TCS) have got their own marked-off and guide-booked track network.
…as well as the local tourist board and communities, who offer more of a local-area network of roads and tracks.
Impossible colours you say? Bloody real they are, believe it or not!
The "old"...it's hard to resist the call of just walking up to the place, open the door, sit down in a cozy, timber-lined corner, have a cuppa..and feel "at home".
This one's got way to go…at least 50 years of mountain sun to darken the timbers somewhat to give it that "cozy" feeling.
Barely 4k's west is a tiny backroad signed to Les Voettes to get us onto the Col des Mosses….and this one's a stunner!! A real gem-in-a-shoebox type of find. Don't like super-tight single-lane roads? Too bad!
If we only could, I would....there are home-made cheeses everywhere, a little fridge or cooler-box under a cover, an honesty-box or rattle-tin for the payment.
I could guts myself right across those Alpine paddocks
Using the map, it's between points K+L
Next it's across the few gentle sweepers of the Col des Mosses direction Chateau d'Oex before the tack to the west towards Lac de l'Hongrin. Closed to the military, the road is only accessible to the public on Saturdays+Sundays…as the well-hidden, but still public, info goes.
Supposedly it runs along the lake via 32 bridges, snaking along the high-paddocks, a time-regulated rough-hewn and pitch black tunnel, before dropping sharply into Aigle in the Valais again…all single-lane, all narrow, all tight…all sealed!
Sort of…add the breathtaking scenery and you've got a STUMPER!!Hmmmmm…guess what??
Nahh, Pete…no bloody talking your way through that one, buster.
He DOES try for us though…but his CIC told him to tell us to bugger off.
Same goes for a couple of locals who rock up while negotiations are in progress…
SHIT!!
Second time today that we can't make it through…and this is one I'm NOT quittin' on; I spent hours digging up info about this thing.
At least I get enough info out of the guard to know how far the military part of the road extends and to where access is possible from the other side.
Back across the Col des Mosses on the main roads and down into Aigle, hoping to find the "entry hole" through the maze of tiny roads lacing the vineyards. The one to Corbeyrier looks promising….and from there we'll just follow our noses.
Plenty of choices…
Looking good…
Is that the Ferrari-crèche?
Doug carving the vineyards
Zoom for some detail…no fakes around here. STUNNING work.
A big sign with text worth half a Sunday newspaper puts a temporary stop to the climb which is getting steeper and steeper, narrower and twistier by the minute.
The little corner of Lake Geneva shows the feed of the Rhone River into the lake, the mountains to the left are French.
Same goes for those…
The Valais
The perfect kit for our kind of riding…
tbc
Second time today that we can't make it through…and this is one I'm NOT quittin' on; I spent hours digging up info about this thing.
At least I get enough info out of the guard to know how far the military part of the road extends and to where access is possible from the other side.
Back across the Col des Mosses on the main roads and down into Aigle, hoping to find the "entry hole" through the maze of tiny roads lacing the vineyards. The one to Corbeyrier looks promising….and from there we'll just follow our noses.
Plenty of choices…
Looking good…
Is that the Ferrari-crèche?
Doug carving the vineyards
Zoom for some detail…no fakes around here. STUNNING work.
A big sign with text worth half a Sunday newspaper puts a temporary stop to the climb which is getting steeper and steeper, narrower and twistier by the minute.
The little corner of Lake Geneva shows the feed of the Rhone River into the lake, the mountains to the left are French.
Same goes for those…
The Valais
The perfect kit for our kind of riding…
tbc