Up and down, around and around

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So now I was going up to the not so pretty Col de la Bonette, it being the highest in Europewas enough incentive for me and a lot of other motorbikes and bicycles for that matter as well.

I won't say that the roads were packed but definitely a fair number of people about.

Going up I could see the temperature going down and as I hit the Col it was down to zero!!

Crystal blue skies and you could see mountains very far away, I imagine even Mont Blanc , it was like in the Andes, what seemed to be just around the corner was a couple of hours away.

It was so cold that I put on my winter gloves.

Not much to see really and the sinuous mountain roads beckoned , so after having spoken to a couple of Italian blokes I followed the roads neverending curves all the way down passing an abandoned little hamlet and various little villages on my way down.

The GPS is great but does not indicate nice roads even though I've got a "motorbike GPS" I stoped to look ate the map and guessed a bit and then asked a bloke.

I was going to do a loop and double back to Barcelonnette.

Saint Sauver sur Tinee was the spot where you could hit a raod going back to B.

Mssrs Garmin had another suggestion, a very narrow winding road that ended up as a goats track in the middle of nowhere, the local village must have laughed themselves silly I can't have been the only one to hit that road, well it was pretty anyway.

So back down again.

Amazingly pretty and very good riding; I didn't have to go anywhere and really no destination.

Valberg, Guillaumes and Col de la Cayolle nice names and very Ungermanic as opposed to the Austrian alps.

Anway thoses little niches are graves high up in a mountain village, the painted door was nice and I had a very nice sandwich with locally made cheese.

Barcelonnette was crowded and it took me a while to find lodgings.

One settled Miller time, basking in the afternoon sun.

Dinner was great honeyglazed duck's breast with a sauce made from red berries and some plonk.

What a lucky bastard I am.

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