“BACK”
Plans are always good, but most of the time they didn’t work. This ride showed me that fact well. First the accident of my riding and support buddy, second: due to the heavy winter remaining and route blocking snow in Friuli’s heights and here on the last day of the ride: the real bad weather. But hey! No reason for wailing around –> When things go wrong the adventure starts and each step out of the comfort zone is gaining the riders abilities.
The route of day no. 4: From the village Lateis in Italy back to Vienna in Austria via Slovenia.
After heavy rain showers the last night the weather in the morning got better in Friulis Alps. After enjoying this great morning view a bit …
I got up, did the morning toilet and settled the black pony. Due to the accident of my riding buddy Чернотa and I had to make a good amount of mileage this day. If not the TET Slovenia wouldn’t be possible to ride within the left amount of time.
Чернотa and I started with easy gravel trails near the village Lateis. On our way down into the valley of Sauris we stopped …
at this spring for fueling up the water reserves. Down in the valley …
is the commune and the lake (Lago) Sauris located. There at an …
interesting tunnel my black beauty and I made a short stop for having a …
glance at the impressive dam wall. We went on along …
the equal named narrow valley Sauris.
We passed some spooky buildings, …
and had to make some detours due to street construction works through unplanned …
gravel tracks including a …
slippery river crossing. After that the ride went on …
along finest Italian tarmac roads.
My trusty black beauty brought us further south through …
the forests …
of Friuli.
In the north of the city Udine we passed …
this impressive gravel-river-bed which leads into the opening Italian flat lands of northern Italy. There …
real heavy rain started and forced us to make a quick snack break at this bus hut.
The rain …
escorted us til Slovenia and didn’t stop.
Sadly the rain got much heavier. At a stop near …
the entrance to …
the Slovenian TET I checked the weather forecast. Due to ongoing heavy showers the next days in the west of Slovenia I made the decision to skip the TET Slovenia. Bad weather and resulting bad track conditions, while lacking a support riding buddy forced me to do so. Adventuring is one part, recklessness another. So Чернотa and I turned the direction from south to north and skipped about 400km of the planned route.
The ride continued …
til we reached the entrance to the valley of the Soca river. Totally drenched it was …
time for a meal. After a hot mushroom soup and …
a big greasy Pizza mhmmm Чернотa and I rode on and followed the …
Soca river northwards. Therefore, we used some …
tracks and …
trails along this …
impressive valley with the …
emerald blue river.
The valleys northern end …
the Triglav-Mountain-Massive is rising. There the road is leading along 50ty serpentines over the pass.
…
The weather didn’t get better. At the …
pass height we had to deal the third time this trip with remaining snow.
Uncountable small troll hills …
haven’t also been able to frighten away the bad weather. Through the rain we passed a few Slovenian industrial cities …
on our way back to Austria. Along the Seeberg Saddle …
which is the border between Slovenia and Austria, the weather got better.
Now we had great riding conditions …
along Styrias flat lands.
Along the famous motorcycle route called “Soboth” …
Чернотa and I did some …
woody shortcuts.
When the …
sun was finally reaching the horizon …
we took some high speed tarmac back to Vienna.
Late in the evening I put Чернотa in its familiar stable …
after a total daily distance of 735km or 450mi.
The last 4 days we traveled 1600km or 1000mi. Sadly the most interesting part of this trip in 2018 – the TET Slovenia (about 400km or 250mi) – was cancelled due to accident of my riding buddy and the bad weather conditions. Maybe, … no …, surely next time.
Overall I have to say that this little escape from the daily routine was more adventurous as estimated. ^_^