Solo Ride to Istanbul Day 4 - Exploring the Dolomites and the Beautiful Surroundings

I didn’t sleep well last night, I woke up at 3am after a terrible nightmare of my front wheel getting a puncture and then breaking down in the middle of nowhere. I had anxiety and struggled to sleep for the next 30 minutes, so I played a playlist I always put on with my partner to help me sleep - this is it for anyone else struggling to sleep

I woke up today at 7am, although the hotel was beautiful and in a spectacular location; the walls were extremely thin. I could hear someone sneeze from down the corridor. The pipes were all connected too, so when someone else was showering, I could hear it in my room. So right now as I’m writing this, I’m absolutely exhausted - so my apologies for any rambling haha!

I went down to the breakfast buffet, I got myself some cheese, bread and a croissant. Oh, and a huge coffee.

It was taking me forever to leave, it was raining heavily outside - I was exhausted from no sleep and doing a lot of miles and the thought of riding 150 more, in the rain, across difficult roads - did not appeal to me. But I sucked it up and moved all of my luggage to my bike. 

When I was outside another biker approached, he was going out in his van - he’d brought a trailer with his GS on it to ride the local roads. I called him a cheater, he laughed. 😛

I was 5 miles into reserve, so my first job was to go get petrol. Down the twisty, wet, narrow roads I went and by the time I got to the petrol station - the rain had calmed down. 

So I used this opportunity to sort out a few bits that I couldn’t do at the hotel due to lack of signal and no Wi-Fi. I plotted my route, connected my phone to my Cardo and put on one of my riding playlists. The two old Italian men inside the petrol station decided to pull their chairs right by my bike to watch what I was doing. Like I was some live TV performance, it was very odd.

After filling up, plotting my route and playing my music, the roads were looking good. Not dry, but not soaked. Then, out of nowhere - the heavens opened. My gear did such a great job, but there’s only so much strain technology can take with water. All of my tech pieces failed, cameras/phones/navs /comms. I managed to get everything working again except for my phone - for some reason it won’t connect to a Bluetooth device anymore. 

I carried on anyway, but with no music sadly. Music really does help me take my mind off the mileage I’m doing, so today was extra difficult.

Soon after setting off again, I came across this beautiful lake. It was incredible. It literally looked like some fantasy pool made for a series about mermaids. I stopped here for a while and waved at numerous bikers that went past in excitement of this beauty in front of me. 

About an hour after that I made it to the start of Marmolada - save this name, because it was truly one of the most fun routes I’ve ever done. I’ll try and save the GPX file from my Garmin Zumo XT2 so you can do the same route.

I pulled over at one of the lay-bys and used it as an opportunity to 1. Pee in the woods and 2. Take some awesome photos (of the mountains, not of me peeing).

About 20 minutes went by and two bikers pulled in, one male and one female - both from the Netherlands. They were taking photos of each other, so I asked them if they’d like one together. For the next five minutes I became their photographer. After I took their photo I said goodbye and carried on. I only got about half a mile down the road when I thought I’d forgot something, so I pulled over frantically searching my bag and then I heard a beep. It was the two bikers I’d just left, the lady pulled really close to me on her wicked R6 and asked if I had Instagram - so of course we exchanged socials! 

I followed them throughout the Marmolada region for about an hour. We tackled the anxiety fuelling corners and also seen the cutest fluffy fox run out across the road! 

I was so happy I’d bumped into these bikers, I was having such a dull day. With the weather, the exhaustion and the failing of all my electronics - I really wanted to give up for the day. It truly is people that make the trip special and worth carrying on. Everyday I meet new bikers out here and it’s my favourite part of the day. These small moments are the moments I’ll always remember from my trips. Thank you both for stopping where you did and riding with me through the most beautiful region I’ve ever rode. Have a good rest of the journey! 

After leaving them, I really needed to find a shop. It’s been five days since I last washed my hair with something that wasn’t hand soap. All of the hotels I’ve stayed in haven’t had hair cleaning bits - so I made do. It took me soooo long to find somewhere, everything seemed to be closed. I’m not sure if it’s because this whole region is a skiers paradise, and when there’s no snow they lock up? Or whether Italians just don’t do Mondays.. 

I finally found a Spar and I bought some shampoo, which made me smile a lot - it’s the small things. I also bought a charger for my Garmin Reach, as I didn’t bring one and I promised my partner I’d always have it on me. 

I came across more and more mountains that towered over me and made me feel tiny. I took the pace slowly yesterday, but today I was feeling my confidence come up out of nowhere. I was riding like I used to, before my crash - and that was real fun. Of course I was being totally safe about it.

A few passes later and I caught upto two bikers, I know one was an Africa Twin, I’m not sure what the other was. I rode with them both for the last hour of my journey. The pace was a lot slower to what I was just doing, but it gave me time to take in all the views.

It was only 20 minutes to my hotel after waving goodbye to Mr. Africa Twin and friend. When I got here I was starting to feel super nauseous, so I went inside without moving my bike or any bags off of it. I took my helmet off as soon as I could and checked in. I went to my room to take all my gear off, to then go back downstairs a lot lighter to move my bike and take off the luggage.

I rode my bike from the front of the hotel to the back, behind the kitchens - there was sheltered bike parking there. I did this with no helmet/jacket/gloves. I was only moving it 10 metres in private property so it was super safe. As I turned the corner the front wheel dipped straight into a giant hole that was a lot deeper than it looked, creating a huge splash and a deep thud. The two waiters that were stood smoking turned around and all I heard was “ohhhhhh myyyyyy” as I rolled in on my bright pink beast. 😂

I asked them if these were their bikes, expecting them to say yes - but no, they weren’t bikers. By the time I’d taken all my luggage off my bike, the two waiters had went inside and got the whole kitchen to come out. It wasn’t an issue at all, but none of them spoke English and it was very awkward. Being talked about but not being able to understand. 

I took everything inside and went down to the restaurant for dinner. The staff remembered me and I felt like some sort of celebrity while they all gawked at the girl who’d rode solo from England. 🙂😂

I went straight to bed after pizza, I’m so exhausted right now that all I’m thinking of is sleep. I’m going to need the energy for tomorrow's ride to Slovenia/Croatia.

Make sure you check in for tomorrow's update around 9pm again! 

Ride safe! 

Waifu x