Solo Ride to Istanbul Day 3 - The Bernina Pass & Crossing the Swiss Alp’s Border into Italy

Today I woke up at 7am again, with no alarm set. Odd because back home I could easily sleep until 10am, the excitement of getting on the bike everyday and riding somewhere new is really motivating me to get out of bed.

I’ve struggled a lot with that these past few months, getting out of bed - my mental health declined rapidly at the start of the year. Doing such simple tasks were the hardest of chores. Riding inspires me, it motivates me to do more and see more. Riding is my key to keeping my mental health in balance. Which is why I’m fundraising for Mental Health Motorcycles whilst on this adventure. A charity run by bikers for bikers. If it wasn’t for MHB helping me rebalance my state of mind after reaching out to them, I doubt I’d even be doing this trip. So if you get a chance please check the link on my homepage to donate to such a worthy cause.

Anyway! First things first as usual, I packed up all my bits for the bike and then headed downstairs for breakfast. I wasn’t expecting much being vegetarian, and as I expected it was just plates and plates of meat and cheese at the breakfast buffet - we are in Switzerland after all. Cheese I’m fine with, but Brie I am not - last summer on my tour with Ellie I had Brie in France and got the worst food poisoning, I was out of action for 24hrs. So I stayed clear of that too. I did find muesli though, and it was super yummy, a perfect start to my long day.

Since I skipped France I’ve got to have a croissant here.

After breakfast I went upstairs to grab my bags and get changed. Today was a rain day, so I put on my Halvarssons suit, Keis bodywarmer and Uniqlo down feather jacket. By the time I’d carried all my bags downstairs I wanted to rip it all off, I was SO hot! But when I started riding I soon climatized again.

Packed up and ready to tackle the Bernina Pass.

The rain was really heavy, I was only 20 minutes from Bernina Pass but I think it took me about 30. When I got to the pass I pulled in to a little café, there were plenty of bikers outside. Another guy was riding solo too, his name was Patrick, he was from the Netherlands. When I sat down, Patrick came over and asked if he could join me. Which of course I said yes!

We chatted for a while about bikes, travelling, aspirations. He told me he was doing the NC500 in August with his wife, so I gave him a few tips of where to go! He’d also done a lot of the route im doing, and gave me some tips in return. The main one being Croatia, he said the roads are beautiful along the coast - but when it rains, he said the roads get very oily and dangerous. I’m not sure why, but let’s pray for sun! He also told me that the pass I’ll be doing in Slovenia is very difficult; and the hairpins were paved with cobblestone on steep increases. Sounds exciting!

Meeting Patrick was lovely, along with all the other bikers I’ve met so far. This is what solo bike travel is about, meeting these amazing people with their own stories on the way. I wouldn’t have had many of these interactions if I was with a group.

Patrick kindly paid for my coffee, thank you - if you’re reading this! Then we both parted ways, him to the North and I to the South.

I entered Bernina Pass in some lighter rain, that’s when my wing mirror fell off. I knew it would at some point. I threaded the screw to it by turning it the wrong way, apparently it’s not “righty tighty” on a bikes right wing mirror, it’s “lefty tighty”.

The Bernina Pass - Squiggly roads = Incline/decline AF

The wing mirror smashed along the mountain pass, I slammed my breaks on and ran 30 metres uphill in the rain with all my gear on to retrieve it. It was fine! So I held onto it for about 30 miles.

MT07 stacked up with 3 Kriega dry bags

Shortly after Bernina Pass a few of the roads were closed. So I had to detour, and don’t ask me why but every time I detour I end up off road.

Well… that kind of happened. I came up to some roadworks, and I’m not exaggerating- these roads were not okay for regular road bikers to be riding on! 😂 I almost turned back in the fear of toppling over with all my luggage, but I channelled my inner Charley and Ewan and sucked it up.

Riding along the Italian Alps was beautiful in so many ways, but one of my favourite things from today was seeing a bright red train go by many times. The track shared part of the road and I kept waving back and forth to the passengers on board whilst singing the Harry Potter theme tune.

I stopped so many times today just to take in views and feelings of overwhelming excitement, happiness, freedom - you name it. Being in the mountains on the bike is a feeling you can’t beat. Everything seems easy for a change. Except the unpaved roads, they’re menacing.

I carried on my stretch through the Alps until I made it to the start of the Dolomites. I finally pulled over at 5pm to book my hotel for the evening - which was only an hour down the road.

As I came to the final 20 minutes of the route, the roads became SO difficult. Not only were the roads narrow, sharp and steep; they were also tarnished with rain, wet leaves and acorns. I slipped here a lot so I had to take the bends in 1st gear at no more than 10mph. I’m not ready to come off the bike again just yet!

The difficult road was worth the ride, because the hotel is amazing. It’s perfect for bikes, it has a sheltered area to park them and there’s no way anyone would be up here looking to steal them.

The views are incredible and the sounds of silence and nature are calming. The hotel also had a dog and he became my dinner partner for the evening.

For dinner tonight I tried an Italian dish called Polenta - it was some strange spongy texture layered with cheese. I wasn’t a fan, but the potato’s were good!

I also had a glass of white wine to go with it, courtesy of my partner sending me £10 on Monzo for a celebration drink. How could I refuse?!

After dinner I approached a table of big German dudes who definitely looked like they owned the 3 BMWs outsid

I asked them if they had any duct tape, as my wing mirror fell off. But they didn’t speak much English - so sign language and google images it was! He went to his room to get his key and met me downstairs. I was more than happy to fix the mirror myself but they decided to take it upon themselves instead.

It’s not pretty, but it works and it stays in one place. It should get me by now for the rest of the trip. I told them I was riding to Istanbul, I don’t think he quite believed me and that was that. He walked away and I enjoyed the rest of my evening. 😂

Now I’m sat on the balcony, enjoying the sunset whilst writing about my day.

Thanks for reading my daily updates. I’m 3 days in and I don’t want this to end.

Tomorrow I’ll be riding to Lake Bled in Slovenia, so make sure to check in around 9pm again for the update.

Ride safe all!

Waifu x