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Day
2 (Zell Am See to Arabba)
The morning was chilly. After a nice breakfast,
we were ready to roll.
Our B&B owners
Loading
the cases
Adjusting
my intercom
Today’s
plan was to first visit the world famous Grossglockner
and then proceed towards the Italian border. We
had told that to our guesthouse owner Mrs. Porsh(pictured
above) and she immediately tuned in the TV weather
channel and there comes the party-spoiler. The
live pics show there is rain, fog & snow.
She immediately calls the relevant weather office
& they confirm that the Grossglockner is closed
for today to motorbikes- too dangerous. Well this
really put me low as this was to be one of the
highlights of my whole trip. Anyway, this meant
that I would have to follow a new route &
different border crossing into Italy. We say our
goodbyes & thanks to Porsh and back track
towards Mittersill that we passed the previous
day.
Looking
here for some thermal gloves for my lady…
A
mirror reflection of the riders…
Ofcourse,
light rain is accompanying us constantly on this
route, but we carry on. Before Mittersill we take
left towards Felbertal on road B108. The road
is awesome,
but
we have to ride with caution as the rain still
continues. We pass thru some mountain side tunnels
and then as we are nearing the 9km long Felbertauer
tunnel, we experience the first snowfall of our
ride. Its light but I can see the snow flakes
sprinkled onto my windshield. I was tense, as
this tropical animal has never ridden in snow!
As we reach the tunnel entrance the snowing gets
heavier and within minutes, there is snow all
around outside the tunnel.
My
bike’s dashboard displays the snow sign and
shows temp is 2 deg C. Wow!
 Meanwhile
the bikers coming in the opposite direction from
other side of the tunnel are all lifting their
hands in despair and decide to stop here till
the snowing stops. I ask one of them about the
condition on the other side & to my delight
he tells me the weather is gorgeous with light
sunshine on the other side of the tunnel. Well
in the Alps a 9km tunnel can make such difference
in the riding conditions. Anyway, all thru the
trip, my Cramster K2K jacket, DewRex gloves &
Olympia pants kept me very comfortable with temperatures
varying from -1 to 25 deg C as well as easily
confronting some light rains along the way. Also
the Wolfman tank bag for my 1200GS easily fit
the RT- just that I had to turn it around 180
degrees to fit the tank shape of the RT. But it
was a valuable companion for the trip. We bid
farewell to those bikers and enter the tunnel.
Its all well lit and all vehicles follow the rules
inside the tunnel and surprisingly it is more
colder inside the tunnel.
We
come out on the other side and it’s a bright
& nice day. Some more bikers have stopped
to take in the scenery. There is some left over
snow on the hills but the roads were all dry and
inviting us to taste them…
Me
posing with a nice new VFR1200
From
here again we had a spectacular ride descending
downwards with long sweeping curves and mind refreshing
scenery. We maintained good speeds and finally
arrived at the Austrian city of Lienz.
Had
a nice lunch of Grilled chicken and potato salad
with a soft drink. Soon after we take right onto
road B100 and ride on scenic roads and also pass
the Loacker Wafer biscuit factory (I am a big
fan of Loacker wafers-Vanilla flavour)
Time
to gas up and then we reach the Italian border
at Sillian.
Here they sell 91, 95 & 100 grade petrol
Well I told you earlier that Europe doesn’t
have borders now, then this time we were even
more surprised to see that there were no border
guards either at the Austrian-Italian border,
and more surprisingly along a narrow street, on
the corner wall of a building, it seems somebody
has but a small blue board saying ‘Italia’.
So we are now officially in Italy.
Well the scenery & landscape continues to
enchant us, but the roads although good are not
as silky smooth as Austria & Germany. ‘Most’
people follow traffic rules here but in general,
the Italians drive more aggressively.
Here would be the next highlight of our trip-
we are going to ride the famous & mighty Dolomite
mountains in Italian Alps. We ride to Toblach
and then turn left on road S51 towards Cortina
di Ampezzo. At a distance the majestic Dolomites
are slowly coming into view. They are absolutely
stunning. Cortina is a bigger sized city in this
region located right in the middle of the Dolomites.
It is also home to some of the most prestigious
names in fashion such as Bulgari, Benetton, Gucci
etc and the nearby mountain slopes were used to
film the hair-raising ski chase scene in the 1981
James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only. The movie
Cliffhanger was also filmed here. From Cortina
somehow my GPS started showing me the distance
to Arabba as 47 kms whereas signboards on the
road were all showing 31kms to Arabba. For once
I decided to follow the roadside boards and here
I was climbing the Dolomite mountains into Arabba.
 On
the way we cross the Passo di Falzargo- a gorgeous
ride with steep climbs, sharp hairpins and deep
frightening drop offs several hundreds of feet
without any guardrails. I just noticed that my
wife was not chatting on the intercom like before-
Yes, she was a lil tense with the heights and
sharp curves and steep climbs. She would just
nod when I remarked about the beauty of the valley
down below etc. Naturally, the cameraman refused
to take photos on that stretch!! Anyway, the roads
are nice, but you have plenty of tight, twisty
& narrow stretches and hence these 31 kms
consume more time than you would plan looking
at maps. Ofcourse, with a pillion rider and a
fully loaded touring bike, there is no room for
stupidity in these high passes as they could be
very unforgiving and even a little misjudgement
could have fatal results.
Mrs.
Haroon having fun with snow…
 We
pass some more beautiful sights including thick
snow at one point pictured above and finally arrive
into Arabba, which is a very beautiful & serene
town located with mountains all around. Shoot
pictures in 360 degree directions & you have
breathtaking view all around. Arabba could be
an excellent base hub for doing different loops
and passes in the Dolomites. Upon arriving here,
we searched for a few B&Bs including the well
known Evaldo, but finally settled at Garni Monika
that
is run by Pio & his wife Monica with excellent
mountain views. Price Euro 35 per person and with
a nice parking space in the basement of the building.
Total 197 kms traveled today.
Arabba
has a few nice Italian Pizzerias serving mouth
watering food. Well once you taste these authentic
Italian Pizzas, then Pizza Hut would be a thing
of the past…. So naturally had a dinner of
authentic Italian Pizza and grilled chicken breast.
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