After our road trip last year in Italy, marked by the meeting with Schaaf, I wanted to push the experience and continue to discover the Alps, concentrating on both unexplored areas while riding again some places that I particularly enjoyed.
So, I decided to go to ride in the Tyrol area, Alpine region of Central Europe, stretching from Austria to Italy.
A talk with my buddy Schaaf was needed. he said to me, where were the spots which we must ride in this region, because he knows it very well. At the same time I wanted to invite him to join the adventure. It was a good start, but unfortunately due to many problems on its CB500, we could not ride together this year.. But don’t worry about it, we’ll have more opportunities to do it later.

Trailer

Day 1 : On the road to Austria

The first step was to do Paris / Innsbruck, which was the starting point of our trip. But following a late start and some truck management problem, we have, by the way, change our plans, find a room for the night, and negotiate with the locals if can we keep our 2 trucks and trailers, during one week.
Luckily, we did not have to search as long as we thought. A couple has kindly agreed to stay for the night, and above all, keep our vehicles, all for free! What could we expect more ?! Nothing of course, but it meant starting our journey with an extra of 70 kilometers, which is not much in itself, but regulars know mountain roads 70 km longer, it can sometimes take much longer than we could think !
Fortunately for us, we have earned some times because of the German highways … if you know what I mean! Anyway, tomorrow, direction the town of Mayrhofen!

Day 2 : Going to Bolzano and the first shit of the day

The night is ending, and was short. But it is time to prepare the stuff, charging methodically the bikes and start the day most quickly as posible, because not less than 300 Kilometers We Await Today.
Program of the day, going to Mayrhofen up to Bolzano through the East and taking the legendary Stelvio Pass again, mountain I especially love, more for it incredible colors than for the road itself. In fact, the side you have to take to access to the mythical road, is much more interesting, because de the ground is perfect and the road is sinuous than the mythical part.
Departure from the town of Mayrhofen, just the time to put some gas in the motorcycles and decide to take Highway in order to catch up the 77 Kilometers Who was not initially the Scheduled in the program.

The highway .. Far from being something cool to ride, especially when you’re coming from Paris to ride the mountain roads. But it was a wise choice because we had a total of 377 km of roads to do before the end of the day. After this long and monotonous part (which is, by the way, not the best for my brand new Supercorsa SP). Finally we arrive to the first cool mountain road. Just the time to quietly warmers the tires on the edges, and we begin to wrap these beautiful Austrian roads.
First stop, the time to share a little of our first impressions about the landscapes, checking our stuff on the bike, and eating something. A bit of mechanic was also needed on the 848 Evo, but … You know what it is my friends, we are talking about a Ducati!

The road to the gates of Italy is relatively well placed. It was expected that we go through the reschensee to see the famous tower which is half-submerged by the waters; but i took thewrong road… that’s why we missed it. Nothing serious, because the view and the other one we took was really great too.

Good grip, overlooking a huge lake with the preview of the Stelvio away, and most importantly, these huge big curves both left and right, with a huge visibility. Perfect to ride with a good speed and beeing sure that nothing is going to broke you during the ride. Good feeling guaranteed. We made a break at the end of this point. It was a good opportunity for me to try the MV Agusta F3 of my buddy Thom!

OWe back again in the direction of Santa Maria, the last checkpoint before riding the Stelvio. Crossing the Italian border, last break just to switch on the gopros and here we go!
Welcome to one of my favorite section, this is complicated trying to stay focused on one thing at a time … The landscape, or the road? We’re trying to do both. My buddy opens the road with his 990 KTM. Just behind I follow the beast with my Daytona, and right behind me, there is Etienne with its 848 evo. Alexis and Thom are slightly recessed. Enjoy just a few pictures of this rise of the mountain.

Reached the top, everyone turn off there engines, except me. We put down the helmets and gloves and start to talk about this crazy riding ! We’re smiling and laughing a lot. WIth all of this, I
didn’t didn’t notice that the Daytona is extremely bad … Clement makes me also noticed it. I approach to my bike and actually … the noise is disturbing. It looks like a constant dry clutch noise, you see .. Mixed with a dove cooing.
There I started to be seriously worried about this. The first day is not even finished, and the Daytona begins to slam in my hands. I wipe some teasing from my friends, without really paying attention to it. I notice that the bike has an extremely high temperature, something which seems odd given because of this altitude, it does not exceed 8 degrees. The temperature doesn’t back down, so i decided to cut the engine and allowed to cool. I took my drone want to get some shots of the mountain.

Next, I’m checking all the levels ont he bike: Oil, cooler … And everything is perfect. I try to start the bike again. The noise is horrible. We have about one more kilometers to do to arrive at the top of the Stelvio and enjoying this special view. I decide to start the bike and going to the top of the mountain with it. unfortunalely, a thick fog lifts and we can’t see anything. The bad news keep coming.
I want to understand what’s wrong on my bike, so i called my mechanic man Morgan, a.k.a « Twisted », who worked for a lot of motorcycles brands, Triumph included. I put the phone near the bike and start it again, in order to try to listen to my friend the engine noise, and yeah, he thinks that’s sucks too. We check if it’s not a problem linked to the chain tensioner… i unscrewed the tensioner and put a screwdriver in the hole. The tension is okay, this is not the problem at all. I start the bike again, and the noise seems to be subdued. Time is running and we have to continue.
Calling the tow truck was racing through my mind, because clearly, my bike is sick. But i can’t accept that my trip could be done right here, right now, at the top of the Stelvio, on the fist day ! I can’t accept it.
We’re smiling a bit, because on my case, there is an alternator and a regulator that i brought just in case ( little thought for my man Alexis, in Italy last year).
I decide to try to go down to the Stelvio with the bike. Just before cleaning my stuffs, i see my noise reducer. I put it on the exhaust in order to listen how the engine is running when i’m going down to the mountain. The idea is trying to ride as long as possible, and if the engine is becomes increasingly bigger, i’ll resolve to abandon.

The truth is i really want to go to Slovenia, because it’s a really new country which is totally unknown to me. If i fail, it’s going to be a big disappointment.

I screws my noise reducer in the exhaust. And just at this moment, i drop the screws into the exhaust … There is no noise at the top of Stelvio, execpt the noise of the screws falling into my exhaust. We burst out laughing because problems continue to arise ! One more ! But how was good to laught a bit ! The pressure went down a bit !
To take this screws off the engine, i started the bike and i accelerated a blow. It cames out of the exhaust. Yeah, i know, not the better idea when you’ve got a problem on the engine but .. we had no choice !

The descent of the Stelvio, the magic is happening

It’s about 8:00 PM, and we’ve got approximately 100 kilometers to do. My engine is sick, but i try to put this problem beside me because i want to enjoy this ride of the Stelvio. The fog is lifting, let’s go !

I’m riding slowly, and my friends are rushing in front of me. Perfect, i’m going to film them. We arrive at the corner number 26, this is where my mates @Cafeine Crew fucked up a few years ago because of his brakes !

The Stelvio is done ! It’s time to find a gas station, and take the road again in direction of Bolzano. No worries, because i know where we can find one, so let’s go !
I’m the first to refuel, so i started to watch around me. At this moment, the magic is happening. I remember that i was just here one year ago with the mate Alexis and we were riding hard the road beetween the vines in direction of Bolzano. At this time, Alexis was still with the GSX-R, and it was a great moment, that’s going to happen again in a few minutes. The other thing that i really love this place, is the brightness and the differents colors offered by the Stelvio. Here, everything is purple, blue and green at this time of the day, and this is just amazing. It makes me feel like if i was at home.

Refuels done, we take the road again in direction of Bolzano because we reserved a Airbnb for the night. We took about 1 hour to arrived on it. Despite my engine problem, i loved taking this road again with the team. Going ahead places we took last year, this brought me so many memories. Nostalgia gripped me again. Nothing has changed here, and i’m loving it.

We arrived at 00h30. I’m glad to finish this day. I’m going to take a shower and sleeping a bit. Because tomorrow, this is a new day. And i really hope that my bike is going to work.

Jour 3 : What a view !

It is 9 o’clock and everyone opens the eyes.Etienne is already awake for more than an hour and is already gone for breakfast. We go on the terrace, which is facing on East side. Sun is shining, perfect to start a new day in Italy. In front of us, we can see the Dolomites. Time to drink our coffee and eat our croissants, watching the view a bit more, and it’s time to take the road again.

I go first because I want to be alone in front of the bike for the first start. I’m not really okay..
The engine is cold, and I’m afraid about this first start of the engine. I put the keys, I wait about the initialization and the start of the pump. I disengaged and pulled the trigger. Daytona starts perfectly. The noise is still present, even more than ever. No improvements, but it’s not worse than yesterday. So I am a bit confused. I put all my stuff on my bike. It represent about 50 kilos of material. Over the half of this weight represent my video equipment.
I tell to my team that, because of the situation, the trip can end at any moment for me. I really hope i’ll can reach Slovenia.

The sun is shining, and people are going to work. We cross the small valley to go up in the direction of Merano. The goal is to reach up to Giovo Pass. This pass is awesome. So manye curves: long, tight, wide … It Hits for all tastes! IWe filmed good things on this road. This rush is going to be a future « RAWDS » on my YouTube channel by the end of the year.

To be honest with you, we rode hard on this pass. And it feels so good ! Daytona works pretty well. I felt a defeciency of power on a lot of occasions but it was not really a problem in fact. The panorama at the top of this pass is so beautiful.
When we arrived to the top, we didn’t cut the engines. Etienne shook the hand of Clement, mine, and i shook there hands too and we were all smiling and laughting about that crazy riding on this road … What a race on this mountain road !

We took the opportunity to take a short lunch break. The food isn’t that great at the top of the pass. There is not so many choice for relatively high prices. But it is ok, this is not a problem for us, we eat something, enjoy the view and we leave again.

In the afternoon, we chill over a lot of beautiful landscapes. The ride at Jaufenpass has dried us. In the second part of the day, the weather turns bad, the sky becomes black. At which point the rain began to fall heavily. We decide to stop at the first gas station. Bad luck, the station is too small for us and our bikes. But the cleaning station has a relatively large roof for all of us. It starts below and wait for a better weather. The rain is falling since a long time… , so long that I fell asleep. But it is actually stopping.
We decided to hit the road until Rasin di Sotto (Italy). No luck for us, rain is back. However, it decided not to make breaks and riding until our next airbnb booked for the night.

Just arrived in our book, I put my stuff, took a quick shower, and I take the road with Clement and Thom in direction of the Braie’s lake. This is a lake that I had spotted a few weeks ago. The place seemed really nice and I really wanted to go there. I had read that there were a lot of tourists during the day. So, I hope we’re not going to have a lot of people right there. But it’s 7:00PM, I think we got a chance to be relatively quiet. I load the drone in my bag, all my batteries and my cameras. The sun seems to come back, perfect, I take a light sweater, my bag and here we go.
To go to the lake, you pass through a valley along the main road. I said no more, I post some photos just below .. check this out guys ..

The Lake of Bled

Braie’s Lake … one of the best surprises of this trip. This place left me completely blew my mind. This is a lake that is located at 1495 meters Altitudes near the mountain of the Croda del Becco. We arrived in the early evening at the lake. Luckily, there was absolutely no one. I find myself here, just in front of this wonderfull place. I have no words to describe the beauty of the place. We are facing this lake which is totally enclosed by the valley, the forest is everywhere around. This a really quiet place.

It’s beautiful, too beautiful. Iwas almost like being in front of a picture, because the landscape is completely frozen. The sun sets, making the mountain a little darker. The purple hues gradually disappear, giving way to an extinct mountain top.
We landed at the lake, I could make some shots with the drone and some pictures.

We then took advantage of the place, we chilled near the pontoon until night falls. I remember that a light rain beginning to fall from the sky. The tiny drops struck the lake. The place was even more beautiful, all the reflections on the water were in motion, accompanied by a small pleasant soundscape provided by the sound of rain falling on the lake. A nice moment that I am not ready to forget.

I would have loved to stay longer, but the rain is falling harder and it’s time to return to our apartment. The return has been slightly less enjoyable. I find myself doing the 15 km under a heavy rain with a little breeze. It makes the thing a little more unpleasant. But this is not very important. Braie’s Lake is in my mind and made me forget the cold and humidity.

Back at the house, another small shower is needed to warm up. I also prepare me a small cafe, you know the relationship beetween me and coffee if you follow me on instagram. Clement takes care of dinner tonight, I help him a bit. The evening continued around the table, laughing and remembering the good times of the day on the road. You know the debate when talking about riding and we know that it is filmed, we always drop videos on the table to watch it again.

The clock is ticking, it’s already almost 2 am and everyone falls asleep. I still have to put all the batteries from all cameras to load, and of course as always I need more plugs. This is the eternal problem when you bring too much material on a road trip. After resolving this, I went into my bed, and i started dreaming about the Lake of Braie. It is time to sleep, because tomorrow we are going to ride in direction of Slovenia.

Jour 4 : “Surprise Mother Fucker” !

It is 9 o’clock in the morning, everyone wake up. Etienne and Thom brought the breakfast, everything is ready and we just need to put our feet under the table on the balcony, between the geranium. The sun beats down, it feels so good ! Sunglasses, hot coffee and a firm desire to return to the Lake of Braie. After we took the breakfast, I stayed in the garden with the drone. the place is so beautiful.

I was so focused in my flight, I didn’t even notice that the property owner was just watching me with dark eyes because of the drone. I quickly took my drone back. Anyway I captured what I needed it’s not a problem.

We cleaned our stuff and the room. We have to bring the keys of the room released until the end of the morning.
We decided to return to the lake of Braie during this beautiful morning. But when we arrived there… it was the disappointment.
Hundreds of people are there, all the parks are full of cars. It was crazy !
Disappointed, we returned to take our stuffs in order to take the road again in direction of the Slovenian border. Just time to say “Goodbye” to my friend, and go!

The first step of the day is to reach Staller Satter. This step was suggested to me by my friend Schaaf. The road to reach this place is really different from those we are used to take before. The ground is perfect, but it is so narrow. That’s why the traffic lights were installed at each ends of the road, to create unique meaning. We passed in front of a lake, but I decided to not stop because we have to move forward.
Seen the hour, and the number of kilometers we have to do, we decided to quickly eat something and then drive the next 200 kilometers, and only stopping when we will need to put gas.
The time we spend to buy some food, I took my drone to do some shots of Staller Satter.

Unfortunately for us, weather is worsening. Water waterspouts begin to fall from the sky. We all know that the afternoon will be complicated. This avoids too trainer, and we team with the few cases that we have to face the rain. On the road and flip to the other side of the Staller Satter, welcome again in Austria.
Despite the rain, I love what i’m seeing. I’m partial to the “dark” scenery, and there, with the weather in addition to the environment, im’ totally loving it. Even we are witnessing the formation of micro climates. Indeed, some roads plots are completely dry, but it is very short. The rain intensified again and again, to the point that becomes difficult for us to continue. We decide to stop again so let the rain to subside a little.

On the road again, and trying to reduce the lateness as we can. We’ve got luck, the road is wide and the curves are very progressive and dry. we ride this over 120/130 km / h and finally leaves the Staller Satter and these surroundings.

Unfortunately, the next interesting section to ride isn’t nearby. And to get there, we must ride relatively straight line for a lot of kilometers. And as it was not enough unbearable, rain is back. But hey, no choice, if we want to achieve our goal of the day we can’t stop, we must continue.

The weather opens, suddenly a little is accelerated pace. As a measure of our advanced, dry road becomes more and more curvy. It feels good, smile is back!

After consulting my GPS, I realize that we approach an area that will allow us to have a good ride. I wave to my friends to pass in order to try to capture some good videos. Etienne and Clement passed me quickly, and I ride behind them with the camera turned on.
Little bit of pressure during the ascent, because the bike Etienne slid, which it almost felt down. But don’t worry, the guy stayed on his bike and we continued again.

Finally an interesting and relatively dry section! To celebrate it, we stopped in a hotel / bar, just to get something to drink (for guys who no longer wanted to do a break …). We started to talk with a server, which is also riding bikes. He told us also that the hotel where we are located has a habit of welcoming bikers, and even offers various circuits to do by motorcycles. He advises us even a small section to take before joining Slovenia. Once finished our drinks, we take the road towards Pontebba, the SP110.

A new nice road is in front of us. The road is not perfect but this is not a problem. Clement opens the show and I’m right behind with the sick Daytona. But when the road is so good like that, this is the kind of details that we forget! Some road sections are rude and we are shaken at the point that we loose our stability on the bike, but Clement and I are glued wheels on wheels and really cool shots keep coming one after the other! Clement even allows some signs to express his happiness.

Arrive up the euphoria, we catch us in every way, and smile a lot. The kind of good times, that only those who ride a motorcycle can understand. The joy and satisfaction of having riding a veyr good section like a boss.You know what I’m talking about. So, another little break is needed.

It is almost 8:00 PM and the sun has gone. We are ready to go to Slovenia, our goal is reached soon. It remains to us 100 kilometers before reaching the town of Bled, in Slovenia. We’re just in front of a small point of water, with beautiful mountain right in front of us.
I wanted to take out the drone to capture it all. I pick up my bag and begins to prepare the material. WHen i turned on my drone, I realized that the zenmuse is no longer electrically powered …
Bad luck follows me during this trip, I understand very quickly that my drone just let me go … Again … So I quickly go out the GH4 to capture the last lights that late afternoon gives me. A kitten is coming, asking for some hugs. I love animals, so this kitten has good luck.

After i have taken my shots, we hit the road and going down to the pass, in good condition. The weather is good, the road is dry. Unfortunately the quality of the ground is not perfect, we even see that some sections were literally broken by falling rocks.

Even we continue, but at a much slower speed, by security.
I’m a little behind, but i finished by catch the group. After passing under a tunnel, I see all my friends stopped in the middle of the road. The road is closed due to refurbishment of the roadway. It is nearly 21 hours and we are officially stuck.
I consult the map and makes me realize that we can’t get around the problem. The only alternative that remains is to turn back, go up the pass, down the other side and turn around the entire mountain to reach Slovenia.
It’s a disaster . Our minds are down because we actualy won an extension of nearly 100 kilometers of mountain roads, and I haven’t announced it to the team yet. I approach me from the closed tunnel to see if we can’t cross out the barriers, but it’s impossible. Recognizing this, I talk to everyone about the situation in which we find ourselves, and we will have to take on us because it’s going to be long, very long.

An hour later, we stop at a gas station. We decide to eat something before going back to the road. The gas station food is discusting. But we had no choice. We ate what we could and go back again.

As if the situation was not quite as hard as that, the rain is back and we still have more than 100 kilometers to do. I open the road, and I don’t see anything with my dark glass on my helmet. I have to roll with my visor open in the pouring rain that’s slapping my face every seconds. It’s hell, but it’s important to stay focus.

A new break is needed because I’m done with this. I don’t feel my hands and my face. I get out of my bike a few minutes, stretch a little, and we go back again in this shit.

We finally crossed the Slovenian border! It is more than 10:30 p.m. ET we meet some bikers which we discuss with at the border for a few minutes. They come from Poland, and go ride in Italy. The conversation was not really interesting, but it was good to talk few words with other people during this mess. We motivate each other and we went back to the road. We enter on a forest section with a very curvy road. The rain is still there. I begin to really tired, and it becomes increasingly hard and dangerous. I nearly lost control of the bike and falling down. But all is well, I concentrate harder in order to not have any problems during the ride again.

Minutes are ticking, time is running slowly … as the kilometers. We are now at 22 kilometers from our destination.
pluie.jpg We stopped under a bridge, because I want to try to call the person who whose going to host us. Oh … I forgot to tell you that I was trying to contact the person since 9 :00 PM and I had no aswer from her. So I tried one last time under this bridge. If she doesn’t answer, I think we will sleep in the lower side of the bridge. I seriously considered this as an another solution because we don’t have any news about the person. The heat was enclosed by the structure of the bridge. It would have been a good for this night and because of the weather and the situation.

Desperate, I tried again to call the person. Suddenly I heard a small voice, i no longer believed in it! The person is waiting for us, I explain the situation and the pain in which we are, the person fully understands. She is waiting for us, and no matter what time we are going to arrive. Finally something positive! Slovenia, I’ve never been there but I can tell you the kindness of this lady really cheered me up and gave me a positive opinion on these people.
Back at it again, more motivated than ever! Rain is falling again more than ever, but we are motivate to come “home”.
DO you want to know the best? We are 1.5 kilometers from the finish, and we engage in a road that suffered huge work. As if that was not complicated enough like that, we go in enduro mode. But the more one engages in this area over the road is bumpy, and mecanical digger stand in the way. I decided to go watching if the road is passable, but I am faced with a hole of more than 4 meters deep … Both say that I think I have no chance of passing the Daytona here !!

I begin to crack and insult everything that moves. Best of all, we lost Thom and Alexis! We tried to find them. We lost them in an intersection encountered before. Once the group is ok, bypasses the work area by another side of the city. FINALLY ! here we are ! Our host is waiting for us outside, at the gate of his house. It’s good to finally reach their destination. The lady who welcomed us was happy to meet us, but not as much as us! I told him a little of our pain encountered today, and I apologize twenty times for the delay. But « it’s okay » she said with a huge smile. It offers us food, making us coffee and we even pulls out a bottle of red wine. In just 5 minutes, all my problems linked to the weather and all the problems that we have wiped disappeared! Like what a real smile of a person brings a lot.

I’m exhausted, exploded. Time to take my shower (last, thank you guys, there’s really no privilege to open the road!) And I realize that everybody is snoring … I, I still have to empty all GoPro and charging all batteries. Despite the fatigue, I put myself, all in front of a documentary on Jacques Chirac, yes … I fell asleep, happy because my goal of going to Slovenia is reached, and with my sick Daytona. Good night, friends. And see you tomorrow !

Day 5: rain, rain and more rain

The sun is rising in Slovenia, It’s good to have recovered from yesterday. Even though I did not much sleep, I‘m good. I look outside and it’s cloudy. But it is good.
Today, a ride of 77 km is provided, without bags! Perfect for riding in some passes and film a bit.
We go shopping after breakfast, and we decided to go swimming in the lake before going to ride. Guess what … The rain is back! And so always as intense as the previous day. I laugh … because this weather is a curse. Those who follow me on instagram know I don’t have any luck with the weather this year … All my trips are dotted with heavy rainy days… it’s incredible. Both say that the ride of 77 kilometers planned is going to be canceled. We hope the weather is going to be better soon.. Meanwhile,let’s visit some places in town.

The Lake of Bled

It’s 6 :00 PM and the rain stops. We decided to leave, and even take the swimsuits in case of… We stop at Lake of Bled and enjoy the view.
Life here is cool, the lake seems to bring a lot to people here. Many activities are available, but by watching the weather, not today. It does not matter, I observe people live, sitting on my Daytona. Some are watching the view, others are canoeing on the lake. Life is quiet here, no stress.

I decide to take the temperature of the water, and then, surprise! It is really hot! Etienne is motivated and we’re going to swim on the lake. It’s nice to leave border to the rhythm of the lake’s current, the calm and serenity reign.
A rare moment of relaxation during this road trip by motorcycle, but so good. Night is falling and we are still in the water. Thom Clement return are coming back from there motorcycle ride. They stop and join us in water. Alexis’s come later too. The team is united and we’re enjoying this relaxing time in the lake.

It’s dark night now, it’s time to go to prepare the evening meal. We originally planned to stay quiet tonight. But we went out in town and we ended up in 2 or 3 different bars.
After many drink we were hot and lasted well into the night, laughing until we‘re falling, us, and all of people we met that evening in the streets and in bars. It’s good to let it go a bit, especially after our pain since the beginning of the trip!

Day 6: Two in one

Oh ! The sun! Incredible ! We’re preparing our stuff and put them on motorcycles. We thank to the lady who greeted us, for everything she did for us, and we took the road. Remember, it was expected that we make a ride of 77 km the day before, to explore the Mangart Pass and Lake of Predil in Italy. Frustrated at not being able to do it, I refuse to give up the idea of discovering these places. Especially when I find myself right in front of Mangart …

So I motivate my team to do an extension of 140 kilometers to see what we could not see yesterday! It was not easy (to motivate them), but it’s ok ! Mangart, here we go!

The Mangart

The Mangart is a mountain situated in the Julian Alps, located on the border beetween Italy and Slovenia with an elevation of 2679 meters.
First step jsut before the Mangart, the Lake of Predil! The weather turns bad (again and again), but it’s not raining. The road is dry, curvy and good! So let’s ride! The gopros turned on and knees down!

We arrive at the Lake of Predil. Since we extended our step, we can not stay because the road is still long until the end of the day. We continue towards the Mangart pass. Clement passes and I’m just right behind. Arrival at 3rd corner of the ascent of the Mangart, Clement attacks severely, but I notice something’s wrong, the angle it makes on his 990 is much higher than usual and the position he adopted on the bike doesn’t seem familiar to me. Clement loses grip and falls. The fall is impressive enough that the rate wasn’t very high. The bike falls on him and finds himself stuck half below.

I hurry up to get out to the Daytona and help him up. We did a quick tour of the bike and it’s doing extremely well. The suitcases amortize almost all the bike. Everything is fine ! Clement also too. It checks these suitcases and realizes that Chocapic are crushed … Disaster .. The next breakfast is fucked up!
The pilot goes well, Chocapic less. This is serious .. But we still decided to continue the road trip! To our surprise, we spotted a dam during assention of Mangart. We claimed 5 euros per. We pay and continuously.
The road is narrow, parts of the ground is made of antique cobblestones. The views are amazing …

It makes tunnels and landscape scrolls. We quickly reached the top of the pass. The temperature is very low! But we decided to stay here and eat our sandwiches prepared the night before. Time to enjoy a little of the view and going down. I stopped occasionally to capture some pictures of the landscape.

Just arrived downstairs, the rain is falling on us. It’s not even a surprise, you deal without flinching now. Next step towards the Grossglockner!

The section to rally Lake of Predil to the Grossglockner is not very interesting, the constant changes of temperature and rainfall are factors that play heavily on the physical and mental conditions. We decided to stop in Austria in a small bar to take a break, drink a big coffee, eat something, and I also want to get some sleep.

On the road again. We took a road which we taken a few days earlier. It was not planned, I made a mistake in my itinerary.

The Grossglockner is coming, we climb the mountain slowly.I’m worried about wiping a new rain just before this legendary Austrian pass.

The Grossglockner

We reach the Grossglockner doors. Surprises, a toll stands before us. And it isn’t less than 25 euros per person, we had to pay. It’s a lot. I checked on the card if there is no way to dodge this pass, but it is already 7:00 PM and we must pay these 25 euros. Of course, impossible to dodge. The only alternative is to add 110 kilometers route to bypass the mountain. It has already given enough when we tried to reach Slovenia by the mountain. So, we decided to pay the 25 euros.

Start of the climb to the pass. The ground is perfect, the view too! In the distance we can see the Austrian Alps full of snow. The temperature drops sharply and the sky darkened.

We are not yet aware, but we’re going to wipe a really bad weather at all.
A thick mist is forming, and the rain is going back. We’re not going to ride this pass like we could, too bad .. I thought to be disappointed, for know that this pass is a real track on open road …

But in the end .. Once we past the peak of the mountain, the magic happens again. The scenery is breathtaking. We stop and cut the engines. You hear dozens of streams flowing for kilometers around. The view is spectacular, and the fog more beautified the landscape. My only regret is not being able to bring you pictures of qualities of this place. The drone is down and GH4 has no batterie. But it’s always like that, the best moments are not captured, they live and remain etched in our minds forever.

It’s difficult to put words into what I feel at this moment. Nothing works, we’re late, and we’ve got a lot of kilometers to do again. I am faced with this natural beauty for over an hour with Alexis and Clement. What a memory. Especially because we were alone, no tourist, no cars, nothing .. Just us and the mountain. Here are some pictures I tried to capture with my Gopro, but you have to know that they don’t make half the beauty and magic that gave off this place in reality. This is the sort of places that I travel thousands of kilometers, that kind of feeling between nature and myself.
Nothing goes as planned from the start (especially from a weather point of view), yet even when we get to enjoy what nature has to offer.

The night is coming, and it’s time for us to continue down the pass. The road was wet and we are so cold. Because riding and shooting is not possible, I wave to Alexis to cut his engine during the hill and enjoy this amazing beauty.

Arriving downstairs, arestaurant is open. We decide to stop eating. Prices are high but this is probably the first opportunity that we share in a real restaurant together and eat something substantial and warm! So we don’t hesitate a single second!

After finishing the restaurant, we finish the last 50 kilometers in order ton go to our new home in St Johann in Tirol for our last night.

Day 7: Time to go back in France

Last awaken far from our home. Today is our last day in Austria.
We’ve got about 150 kilometers to reach trucks. We decide not to take our breakfast quietly, in front of the mountain and enjoying the sun. It became so rare during this trip …

A ping pong table was installed jsut behind us, so we played a bit with Clement and Etienne. I let them play and then I start to do some mechanic on the drone, just to understand what happened last time at the border of Slovenia. After some fiddling, the drone starts again. 4 motors are running again but the zenmuse still doesn‘t answer. I am reassured half anyway. This story may cost me a lot of money again… About 300 euros … The problem is that it’s going to make my 4th zenmuse … I let you do the calculation.

On the road with nothing exciting though, since it returns in the section where we arrived on the first day, with the long straights Austrian roads crossing the valleys. This situation reminds me a part of a trip in Italy last year, when we went to the lake of Domaso where we had a straight road with more than 80 kilometers under a heavy sun. That time was long!

Before arriving to the trucks, we had the right to some curvy roads, just to ride a bit more in Austria before returning to France. Obviously … (No, the rain is not going to fall this time!) We are lost again, and we have 70 kilometers more to do.

Once recovered the right road, we still have about 75 kilometers to get to the truck. Something I had totally forgotten that we have one Pass to do before returning to the trucks, and that is good news! The weather is perfect and we can it’s going to help us to empty the tanks before leaving the country. Except that once again things did not go as planned. Prepare yourself for this story…
Our dear Etienne, literally broke the 848 evo’s frame … on both sides! Yes ladies and gentlemen, look at that …

Finally we come to the trucks, and we are happy to see that the two trucks are still there, undamaged, and my trailer is also where we left off.
Time to reload everything quietly, we decided to take the road directly in direction of Paris, and back through the German highways to have no speed limits.

The way back was fine. We arrived at home the next morning around 6:00AM. Thom Clement and myself took a coffee with me and we stayed quiet to watch the sun rise from my window.

My conclusion on this road trip

It’s over, 7 days have passed since our departure and it’s difficult to express what I’m feeling right now. I will try to be as honest and objective as possible.
I am forced to notice that it wasn’t my best Road trip. Paradoxically the weather isn’t the problem. But the problems on my bike is a reason that I couldn’t enjoy 100% as I would have liked. Well, I didn’t complain too much because I was still able to finish this trip, despite my engine problem. Since the first night at the top of the Stelvio.
I still keep nice memories, the Grossglockner, the Lake of Bled and especially the Lake of Braie, which is, for me, the best part of this trip.

Slovenia is clearly a country where I would like to spend more time. The people here are very nice. Their happiness provides me a good feeling, and that has become rare here in Paris.

The weather coupled to the pains makes me a little afraid about the final video of this trip. Yes, I also think about that, because they are the only memories I relate my travels: pictures and most beautiful video possible. I hope to make something cool despite everything.
Regarding the riding, the weather has spoiled a lot of really nice areas to ride, but hey, it’s not really something disappointing because with the experience of the road trip, we know that it’s a part of the game. And I learned to appreciate this stuff in a different way when the weather is not with us.

I’m still in love wtih the Italian Alps. The atmosphere and the memories that I had left last year remained intact. Everything is the same right there, nothing has changed, and this is just awesome.

In my opinion, there are several types of road trip in motorcycle. Those who do know what I mean. When all goes well, we get to enjoy these trips directly, and only the positive points emerge. But when one follows many pains as on this trip just there, and it takes time to appreciate them and coming to the following conclusion: “Ok, this trip was really cool.”

I think I need to digest a lot of things. During that year, I really wanted to discover new horizons and I would have liked to ride much more than the 1700 kilometers traveled during this trip. At this , I have already repaired the Daytona. And for those who are not aware, the craziest in this story is that I broken my engine at the Stelvio without specific reasons.

My load balancer jsut broken up, which literally destroyed the main ring of the crankshaft, the load balancer itself and the clutch. I replaced my old engine by another one, almost brand new, with only 4,000 kilometers. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have traveled more than 1500 kilometers with a broken engine and exactly 53 crowns’s teeth crowns, down the sump.

In other words, 53 chances to tighten my engine at any time. If I had known this before, I would have never continued the trip because of the danger that this could create. I think I had a lot of chances on this one.
Unfortunately for me, the costs in purchasing the new engine forced me to cancel my next vacation during the month of August. I had to join other friends in the Pyrenees, and ride the mountain with the Daytona, but this is only a postponement.

Other trips are planned, don’t know where yet. I still have time to think about it.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who follow me and read me.
Feel free to ask me questions if you have, and see you soon for new adventures friends!

The final video

BLKMRKT.