Incident on the Malojapass

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It was difficult getting out of bed this morning to get the day under way.As the sun came up we opened the shutters of our room and lay back in bed enjoying the view of from our hotel room high up on the hill above Varese.Eventually though a shower and breakfast beckoned and we went downstairs to partake in what was on offer.
Out short stay in Italy was to come to a temporary end today as we head back to St Moritz,Switzerland for a couple of nights.We started out on route #342 heading for Como looking out all the way for a Renault appointed garage as RR was now due for her 20,000km service.Yesterday we had passed three Renault garages on our way into Varese but we thought we wouldn't have had time to have the service completed in the time left in the afternoon.
We arrived into Como with the lake of the same name and had not intended to stop here except that I spotted a Renault service depot and we pulled in and arranged the service which would take up to 4 hours.We could have picked a worse place to stop as Como turned out to be quite interesting.
We took the backpack together with the laptop with us after we left RR behind to have her oil changed and service completed and walked into the city.Like a lot of places in Italy we have passed thriugh the city looked disorganised with no central plaza to orientate from.
Although it wasn't quite lunch time we spotted a McD's sign pointing to where the store was located and we needed a place of relief so we followed it.However we never found it and ended up using the facility at the station at €0.50 each!!
We brought some lunch from the Mercator store before it closed like all the other shops for the 2 to 3 hour middle of the day siesta and walked around the lakeside to find a seat.
The day has got that hazy European look about it and although you could see the houses on the hill opposite the city area anything further out was lost in the haze.
After lunch we walked a little further to where a funicular travelled up a steep hillside to a suburb high above the city.At €4.50 each return it seemed like a good BBA deal to see another view of the city and the lake and also to while away a bit more time waiting for the service on RR to be completed.
It was an amazing ride in a driverless funicular which passed the downhill car halfway.The ascent was very steep and the seats in the car were inclined such that you didn't feel like you were sliding out the back of the car.
There wasn't a lot to see at the top and while Gretchen did a look around the few stalls that were there I caught up on emails and completed my Virtual Rugby and Soccer picks as I pinched some internet from a source that was available without a password in the funicular terminal.The view over the city would have been spectacular had the haze not been present.However it was still woth some photos and video to remember that we had taken the ride to the top.
After returning to the bottom we walked a bit further round the lake to kill some more time and then headed back to the Renault garage to find RR all serviced and ready to go.
We were already on the northern side of Lake Como and we continued on the #340 for the 65km length of the lake.
The road started out with a reasonable width but as it got away from Como and the towns became smaller and more isolated the road narrowed considerably.We still came across trucks from time to time which required a gear change to pass them safely at a lower speed.
As the drive progressed Gretchen kept her eye out for where George(Clooney that is) has his villa but unfortunately she didn't find out where it was.
I was interested in trying to recognise the place where the James Bond movie with Daniel Craig had been filmed but couldn't recognise it either.All in all we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't find or see what we were both separately looking for.
It was a lovely drive with views out over the elongated lake to towns on the lakeside and on the hillsides behind.Further north at the end of the lake where the Swiss/Italian alps and the pass we had to cross to get back into Swtizerland again were.
At the end of Lake Como we switched to the #36 and headed uyp a valley with the mountains growing in size all the time as we got closer to the Swiss border.
After crossing into Switzerland,again another seamless procedure with no stamps for our passports,the road,now route 3#,started to gradually climb towards the Malojapass,which at 1815 metres was one of the lower ones we had travelled over.
We had only encountered one large truck and one bus as we drove along Lake Como so did not give a lot of thought as to what would happen if we were to encounter such vehicles on the pass we were about to tackle.After all trucks were no problem on the Simplonpass.
It seemed like the road would be relatively easy to drive as we gained height by driving up a 200 or 300 metre stretch of road before a sharp turn would take across the mountain side in the other direction for a similar distance all the time rising further in altitude.
Then ahead of us was what looked like a sheer mountain face with a few trees and a seemingly no way to get to the top.
As we got even closer we noticed that the road was a zig zag with about 10 or 12 hairpins and distances shortened to about 75 metres between the hairpins.
Now at this point it would be a good idea for our readers to close their eyes and try to picture what we have described and "travel"this section of the road with us as we didn't unforunately stop to take a photo of this challenging piece of road.
We had no traffic ahead of us that was close enough to slow our progress as we took on the first few stretches and hairpins and we were actually beginning to enjoy the drive over this unique piece of road.In fact Gretchen was "really driving" RR as she used the gears and accelerator to maintain an even speed as we got higher up the section of the pass.
About 3 hairpins from the top we heard a toot of a truck horn from above us and looked up to see a giant semi trailler coming down the zig zag .
There was little time to react before the truck was arriving at the same hairpin as we were.Except the truck was now on the right hand side(OURS!!)so that he could get the length of the trailler around the corner.He had no alternative to be fair if he was going to get around the hairpin but what did he expect us to do!!!!!!It was as if he expected us to just dissapear out of his way!!
Gretchen had no alternative but to take her foot off the accelerator and throw the clutch in and let the car roll backwards as the truck continued to bare down on us coming out of the hairpin heading straight for us.The only thing that would save us from being pushed back over the hill was the road barrier and we didn't want to test that out as the truck looked like it had a lot of weight on board.
So!!
Forunately the truck finally stopped when we were about half a metre apart. It did all seem to happen in slow motion but we really thought the truck was going to crush us up against the crash barrier!!!!
The driver of the truck just glared down at us from his cabin and made it obvious he wasn't or couldn't reverse back around the hairpin and it was for us to do something to get out of the way.
There was just enough space back to the barrier to let RR roll backwards so Gretchen could move into 1st gear and extracat us from the position and edge past the truck on the left - i.e - wrong side of the road.
Thankfully the half dozen cars following the truck down the hill had all stopped to see what was about to happen and we were able to get around the hairpin on the wrong side of the road , manouvre round the stopped traffic and on our way again.
Thankfully we didn't have to negoiate our way around anymore oncoming semi traillers on the remaining 2 or 3 hairpins before we reached the summit of the pass. Just can't imagine how the truck made it to the bottom of the mountain without taking out any vehicles. We did meet him on one of the easier hairpins!!! We are sure he should not have even been on that stretch of road given the sharp corners & steep desent!!
The rest of the journey into Silverplana,just outside St Moritz,and our destination for the night was uneventful,not that we wanted any more drama!!!
We were glad to get to the hotel and be able to sit back and relax with a vodka and relive the incident without having that huge truck right in our face.Admittedly it had all happened inrelatively slow motion and not like the bus on our side of the road incident in Croatia that had given us a fright but we would not want to go through it again.
We think after this episode we might just have a casual day in St Moritz tomorrow.

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Comments

[Helen Fenwick]

Phew!
Glad you are both ok - a day you won't forget but at least you are here to tell us all about it !! xx Loving the photos, what a diverse wonderful world we live in, Helen xx

[Chris]

Trial run
You should have had some very narrow road driver training before your European adventure - perhaps the Akatarawa Road or even Skippers!!!!!!!!! Whew! You made it!

[O & R]

Survivors.
You two sure are survivors, mountain climbing and now BIG trucks on hairpin bends. What next?. Still looking and sounding great though. The Como Funicular looked an interesting ride. Did you see the Kiwi yachties racing at St Moritz. A pretty place but not so good on the budget, we found. Enjoy your rest day.