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| Hoggin' the Hills |
| Fri 16th - Sun 18th Jul 2010 · 2010 HOG European Rally | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Report by Charles Price | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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My trip started with an evening dash in the rain to Calais for a stop over and then the next day down to Zurich for a chill out by the lake with some old friends. The next day again started in the damp following an almighty thunderstorm all night, but as we headed around Luzern the weather soon cleared up. Going past Luzern the route took us through Lungren into the Southern Swiss Alps, over a minor pass above the town and then down into Meiringen and Innertkirchen before heading up the Sustenpass, doing the start of more hairpins than I recently had hot dinners! The pass was in cloud on the way up so we missed the first glacier, but through the tunnel at the top in to beautiful sunshine and views of the next glacier and the road down to Wassen. From here went down to Andermatt and over the St Gotthard pass down to Airolo and then on to Lugano to meet up with the wife and avoid the 20km tunnel under the mountain. The Thursday night we went to the Welcome Dinner, a tad expensive IMHO, but we made sure we devoured plenty of red wine and prosecco with Graham and Angela from the ST Ledger chapter and a Dutch couple from HD whose names I could not possibly spell or pronounce. The band Dicken Kinder were very good, not so sure about the stripper (neither one thing or another), but we left an impressive venue at the Campione Casino (great views over the lake) not quite upright and looking forward to the weekend. Friday saw us joining one of the organised rideouts by the organising Ticino Chapter, the Lake ride, which was not strictly accurate as we went up the narrowest hairpin street in Locarno followed by a couple of hours in the mountains prior to descending back to the lake for lunch on what had become a very hot day (35ish), for seven hours in the saddle. There was a large group (60ish) and the ride was very well marshalled by the locals to block road junctions and roundabouts to keep the ride together and moving. Saturday was a leisurely ride around the north of Lake Lugano and across to Como for lunch before heading back for the custom show in Campione and then back to Lugano for the Parade which went over a local hill at Paradiso to Campione and back. It seemed to me that an awful lot of locals turned out to watch the parade (the feedback I heard was that the locals enjoyed the weekend despite the Mayor’s misgivings – i.e. cancelling the event!) and it was good fun. Later in the evening the agenda was beer and watching the bands (despite more torrential rain) which were excellent, especially Gotthard who a lot of locals came to see as well. Sunday was going to be our mountain rideout and we went north up to Airolo (and so much cooler than the lake), then over the Nufenen pass (Navaro), down to Gletsch up the Grimselpass (stop for lunch and v tasty rosti), down to Innertkirchen, right up the Sustenpass down to Wassen, right through to Andermatt and left up the Oberalppass, down to Muster, and right up the Lukmanier (Lucomagmo) pass before dropping to Biasca and back via the local road to Lugano – draw breath. This was a nine hour ride and well worth it for the stunning alpine scenery, glaciers, waterfalls and the purist river water. Also great riding roads, highly recommended for scrapping footboards. There were thousands of bikes from all over, so clearly popular routes. Monday was the start of the trip back so we went back over the St Gotthard pass (which you can go up on the old cobbled road in a horse drawn carriage if you wish – or stick with the bike) down to the valley and left up the Furkapass (where they filmed Goldfinger with the AM DB5) to the top where you can see the glacier where the River Rhone starts gushing from the base of the ice. Then down to Gletsch and over the Grimselpass again before heading to Lungren and Zurich for lunch and then to Chalons en Champagne via the N59 north of Colmar, where I got nicked by the local Gendarmes for speeding! €90 and a personal escort to the ATM later!! Well it was the only bit of empty straight road after several villages and I couldn’t resist. “Appropriate use of speed officer” did not cut any ice. Tuesday was a straight blast home through clouds of harvester dust from the multitude fields of rippling wheat everywhere in France. All in all for our first Euro HOG it was great fun, so who is up for Biograd, Croatia next year? Ja vernoose (as we say)…. Charlie |
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