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July 23, Transit to Bourg d’Oisons
Woke to a VERY, VERY windy day, the weather had turned nasty in the previous 2 days in the Hautes Alpes, so much so, we’d had to turn our van around the other night so it wasn’t pointed across the wind.
We headed off toward the Col d’Iseran (see below) as we were planning on getting to Bourg d’Oisans to attach the Alpe D’Huez and the only way to do that was over the cols in the wind (d’Iseran @ ~2600m or Telegraphe @ 1570m). Given the wind we could go all the way around into Italy near Bardonecchia or via Grenoble, both via very expensive tollways. We ended going via Italy which included an ~AUD$80 (€44) trip via the Tunnel de Frejus which passes for I think 31km under the Alps. It was hardly worth it as the traffic was horrendous at the toll booths. Most of the paying lanes were closed which pissed me off. What a waste. As it turns out, passing over the 1570m Col du Telegraphe would have been quicker and way more economical.
We passed into Bardonecchia in Italy then back into France via Col du Mont Genevre – home of the 2018 Winter Olympics. The development is proceeding apace. The mountain looks EPIC. Epic for summer MTB or road cycling up the Col from Briancon or from the Italian side. Even golf up on the mountain. We had a sneaky beer and watched some of the Time Trial (Stage 18) around Annecy then headed off.
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We descended down into Briancon which is a nice, but busy, town. This part of France is pretty dramatic, towering peaks of craggy granite and glaciers – heart of the Alps.
Out of Briancon we passed through an awesome valley with flower drenched fields – most of the road was at an altitude of above 1500m – all of this makes us realise two things: the Australian Alps are quite insignificant, and, we are very lucky to be able to snowboard in Australia. Well, we realised also that the Australian ski industry has entrenched a non-competitive cartel that is now dying a slow death in the face of non-innovation, poor business practice and lack of action on climate change, but that’s another matter.
I was truly shocked at the landscape. We ended up at the Col du Lautaret which is the junction for the Galibier and the descent into Bourg d’Oisans. It is an amazing place. It’s at the mercy of the Earth’s fury or grace; raging alpine winds and snow, or becalmed, humid/dry summer stillness. Flowers abound, and the terrain is backdropped by the glacial fields.
Again, it’s a truly amazing and humbling terrain.
We drove down, down, down – a long way – into Bourg d’Oisans. It was apparent the climb to Galibier from the Bourg d’Oisans side was *epic* but also very dangerous. Narrow roads with little-no shoulder plus a lot of traffic including trucks.
The land that time forgot…
We found a delightful camping ground and set up in the last spot in the ground and settled in with power (yes!) but still no wifi ( >:( ). I cooked up some tuna pasta and settled in to a horrible sleep replete with mosquitos and a stinking hot van – we couldn’t open windows as they don’t have flywire.
– Post script. I found out we did have flywire 2 days later. Oops.
Similar Posts:
- July 25 – Transfer to St Jean de Maurienne via Glandon and Croix de Fer
- July 26 – Cols du Telegraphe, Galibier and beautiful Chamonix
- July 24 – Alpe D’Huez
- Video from the Galibier
- July 20, 2009 – L’Etape du Tour and Bourg St Maurice
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