First Solo European Motorcycle Tour 2024 - 8. Furka Pass
Furka Pass open [Music] Good morning welcome back to the channel I'm just in the car park of the Hotel des Alps in Flims Had to out of the rain last night it it was terrible torrential all day so today we're going to make our way towards Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen and there is a a campsite at Lauterbrunnen that .. I'd like to have a look at I'll turn you off for a bit and and turn you back on route Roadworks plagued by roadworks well if they improving the quality of the roads and roads in Switzerland are very good compared to some of those in Italy that I've seen So the plan for today is to make my way towards Interlaken it's about 4 hours away according to the Sat Nav hope to arrive about 3 o'clock at the campsite there is another campsite I can look at but given how rubbish the weather's been I'm more than happy to stay in hotels The Hotel des Alpine was godsend it was uh... got me out of the rain got me a nice hot shower comfortable bed slightly expensive evening meal but that's where they're making the money really isn't it? so yeah.. today on towards Interlaken The sun's trying to break through in places but yeah the rain started again it's not as heavy as yesterday Yesterday was just terrible After I left the campsite at Como made my way up over Splugen pass yeah.. it was.. it was... after 2 or 3 hours of being drenched
I decided to call it a day I could not be bothered the weather just gets to you I think it was certainly very uh..... demoralizing but thankfully I found that hotel and all good after that More roadworks so it looks like there's more roadworks up ahead yep there's the sign already passed through some uh dodgy muddy roadworks every single pass I've done with the exception of Grossglockner has been in the absolute pouring rain it's not pleasant, I can say that for sure following this articulated lorry up this pass is not the best experience either visor's steaming up again I'm going to get a coffee, charge my batteries as well oh great.. bit out of the rain I can clean my visor yeah it's not pleasant definitely not pleasant riding in the rain and when you can't see, the views are supposed to be spectacular from up here and it's just yeah.. terrible anyway it is what it is I am on a trip and I can't guarantee the weather that's for sure Oh the sun's trying to break through it is supposed to be nicer this side of the mountain I suppose there is one thing that with the visibility the way it is especially higher up you can concentrate more on the road rather than looking at the scenery and there's some spectacular scenery from the top but at the moment it isn't very good The rain's coming down a bit heavier now hoping that it will pass and by the time I get to Interlaken it dries out Furka pass open.
and looking at that cloud cover it's open but you can't see anything looks like it's going to be a bit tight Scenery spectacular anyway. Oh I've said spectacular again keep my visor up, it's just steamed up and and even with the pin lock in it I think the temperature it's only 9° I'm steaming helmet's wet on the inside certainly looks like the top might be beyond the cloud cover the sun is breaking through up here looks like a photo opportunity but that is a long way down so I'm not going to look I'll let the GoPro pick that up and I'll review that afterwards one thing that's really helping it's 7.5 degrees is having the heated grips on because even though my gloves are gortex they feel cold, fingers feel cold and wet and with the heated grips at this temperature and this altitude it just takes away some of the uh numbness okay I'm here at Furka pass it's snowing so I'm gonna make my way back down now ooh it's cold as well heat grips need to go back on it was actually snowing on the way up it's 5 degress so certainly need those heated grips The sun broke through for about 5 minutes to have a little bit of a view of the pass but it's a bit like this all the way Have I done my top up? No I can feel the cold blast of air coming through... so there we go
Downwards towards Interlaken and now it's very blustery.. I don't know if you can hear me I don't know the woah......... at least it's clearing the visor yeah the the wind gusts coming up were quite.. interesting certainly enough to move me in the bike a couple of times but Furka's done, well once I get down it will be oh weather I think the sooner I get off this mountain the better hopefully it's warmer down towards Interlaken and it's not raining I'm hoping they've got space in the campsite because I'm going to wrap myself up in that sleeping bag and go to sleep visor has to come up, I can't see okay we're back into the mist low cloud now oh the runoff as well well 4 .5 degrees now
ouch Is this the uh.. famous hotel that was used in the Bond movies onwards and downwards we've gone up a degree back to 5° now there's a lot of runoff down there as well given the amount of rain we've oh hail.. close that visor a little bit don't know if you can see that runoff Sun's breaking through but there's hail in that rain it's stinging there's a lot of water down there as well looks like I'm going up Grimsel t'other pass yeah doubt if I'll stop at the top of this one it's actually getting quite cold again now see by the TomTom the amount of twist and turns coming up and hairpins and switch backs CES oh it's a barmy 7° now 3° warmer than it was before those bumps in the road are not the best place right on the corner temperature starting to drop again now now although I'd say one thing it's very atmospheric with the clouds as they are and the rain and it's not busy I'm sure given this being a dry sunny day there'd be a lot more vehicles definitely more bikers on the road so I've only seen a handful just about see the lake down there the wind's picked up again blowing a gale just disappeared in the mist again okay I'm just going to park up and swap the GoPro battery I'm on my way to Interlaken the rain hasn't eased off at all so hopefully they'll have spacing the campsite I'll stay there for 2 days tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day so tomorrow I might do Jungfraujoch and the Eiger Express so we'll see how that goes but today is a wash.. another washout I'm now in the tunnel close to Interlaken, it's 3km long everything is steaming up coz it's quite humid in here given how cold it is outside it's actually quite warm so that's a nice respite feeling and here we are back in the rain there is a lake down there somewhere oh it's blustery on this side as well hopefully we got some of that nearly at Lauterbrunnen now so keep going I will see what the campsite is like tent's wet anyway we'll give it a go we've arrived at Lauterbrunnen and it's all raining I think that's the station wow the mist is in the valley though look at that the waterfall is cascading I hope that's nice and visible so here's the campsite let's see if we can find a pitch I'll turn you off for now
2024-11-17 01:21
