From lake to lake…

The week started at the foot of the Alpine glaciers and ended, after a tour of the Italian great lakes… in an Iveco workshop! After more than 30.000 km without complaining, Marvin had a small burnout. But nothing serious! We are back in the mountains already!…

To get back down from our pass and reach the Lake Como region, our initial idea was to head south, around Bergamo, and then north again towards the lake. The only thing is that climbing a summit at almost 2200 m on a sunny day allows you to see quite far into the surroundings (a bit like looking at Google Maps, but in real life… 🤓). This made us realise that there are still quite a few valleys to explore to the north, with the whole area of ​​the Rhaetian Alps, their peaks and glaciers between 3.000 and over 4.000 m, all covered in snow and shining in the sun. How could we have resisted?

Brushing against the summits… (28-29/09/2024)

A quick look at Google Map (just to confirm that reality matched to fiction 🤓) and here were our next steps redrawn… We would go up the valley of Lake Iseo (after having made a small detour to the south to see the lake ) before returning a little to the west to reach Valmalenco and settle right at the foot of mythical peaks such as Monte Disgrazia (3.378m), Cima di Rosso (3.366m), Pizzo Scalino (3.323m) or Piz Bernina (4.048m), the highest peak in the Eastern Alps (and logically, in the Rhaetian Alps)… After that, all we would have to do is to reach Lake Como from the north to resume our initial route…

Before this, however, as expected, the sun came out and we enjoyed a magnificent day. From our pass at 1.700m, we took a short walk to Monte Dasdana (2.191m), right in front of the famous NATO tropospheric radar. And to make sure we regained all our strength, on the way down we stopped at Rifugio Bonardi, which was once a traditional refuge but has now evolved into a very good mountain restaurant. The pasta was excellent, the meat was perfect and the ricotta mousse was simply to die for. 😋

On Sunday, our route took us along the Crocedomini Pass road, on the other side of the mountain we were on. The GPS wanted to take us down into the valley, but we preferred to keep going up. After 7 or 8 km, we understood why the GPS was so insistent: what appears on the map as a departmental road is actually a dirt road (in good condition, yes, but narrow enough in some places to clearly see the void, on one side or the other of Marvin…). That said, it was definitely worth it! The road goes through a pass at 2.180m, with a spectacular panorama over a good part of the Alps and, to the south, a piece of Lake Garda and the great plain between Verona and Milan. A little further on, we discovered the valley of Lake Iseo from above, and the spectacle was simply magnificent!

A short stop at Lake Iseo (the only one of the great lakes that we still had to discover), and more precisely at the town of Lovere (one of the most beautiful towns in Italy, according to themselves… well… yeah… not sure…). Just enough time to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria di Valvendra and its impressive frescoes, have a coffee in front of the lake, stop by the Werber bakery to stock up on good things for the next few days and then head back north again to explore the whole valley before turning west towards Sondrio.

The total elevation gain for the day is quite impressive (2.854m), given that the valleys tend to be quite low (around 150-200m), while the roads and mountain passes ascend very quickly to around 1.500-1.700m. The last 25km of our route for the day, for example, took us from Sondrio (360m above sea level) to the end of Valmalenco, at 1.610m. In addition, the road passes through an area where Serpentina is mined (a greenish stone, apparently highly prized) and therefore avoids areas that are mined or likely to be. No need to say that between the villages of Chiesa in Valmalenco and San Giuseppe the bends are so tight that one barely has time to pass the second gear before reaching the next bend!…

So here we are, nestled between the great peaks of the Rhaetian Alps, with three small glaciers just above us, in a beautiful larch forest on the edge of a stream. We will probably stay here for 2 days and take advantage of tomorrow to go for a hike and get a little closer to the peaks and glaciers…

Among the clouds (30/09/2024)

To better understand the context, we must imagine the end of a fairly wide mountain valley, in the middle of which runs one of these glacial torrents of transparent water, and surrounded by a whole series of peaks, all of them between 3.000 and 4.300m above sea level. In the centre of this “U” where each mountain houses a more or less large glacier, another mountain, a little smaller this one, since it barely exceeds 2.700m. And on the side of this mountain, nestled between the rocks at an altitude of 2.300m, is Lake Pirola, where we arrived today after a little less than 2 hours of hiking.

To get there, we first passed by the Gerli-Porro refuge, before climbing a scree, right in front of the Ventina glacier. And as if it weren’t enough to climb a scree in front of a glacier, the upper part of this scree becomes a little less steep and is home to a forest of larches, several of which are between 500 and 800 years old, including even a thousand-year-old larch (with a trunk as big as that of an oak)! Around the bottom part, a trunk all twisted by time comes with a small sign indicating that this tree lived for 390 years, but that its trunk has been preserved there, almost mummified, since 1665…

Once we reached the lake, we just had to sit on a rock to warm ourselves a little under the rays of the sun while we watched the slow dance of the clouds that the thermal currents pushed from one peak to another, tearing or merging them in this grandiose scene where every second revealed another peak to us or, on the contrary, hid an entire mountain behind a cotton curtain. We had Monte Disgraza and the Ventina glacier to our left, a little further ahead the Cima di Rosso (with the series of glaciers that accompanies it), the Cima del Duca behind us and, in front of us, the Monte dell’Oro. The only one we couldn’t see was the Piz Bernina, enveloped by a thick cloud that refused to move… At our feet, the rocks were reflected in the calm surface of Lago di Pirola, and we could hear the sound of the bells of some sheep grazing not far away (in fact, one of them came to see what we were doing there before returning to its fresh grass…).

After this moment of pure serenity in the middle of the highest peaks of the Rhaetian Alps, all we had to do was go back down along the lake to repeat the 800m of ascend, but this time downhill, in this larch forest just on the other side of the stream on whose bank we are installed… A perfect day in the high mountains, probably one of the last of this season as temperatures are starting to drop and this amazing landscape will soon be covered in snow until next spring…

Two in one go (1/10/2024)

The night was cool, apparently (although we didn’t notice it much, under the duvet, with the heating on…) and the first drops of the morning were not rain but melted snow. When we said yesterday that it would soon snow… So we resumed our journey, we arrived at the village of Chiareggio (a few hundred meters from where we were) and there, at the end of the village, we found ourselves in front of a row of red and white plastic blocks and a note: “Strada chiusa” (road closed)… Precisely today some works were starting on our road, so we were blocked there until midday, when the road would reopen for 2 short hours…

So yes, the idea of ​​going back next to our stream and waiting for next week for the work to finish did cross our minds. But then, we had to fill up with water (and empty the grey water tank too), so we didn’t really have a week of autonomy… So we kindly went and ask the construction manager if he would let us pass between two excavators and a truck and, much to our regret, he said yes! 🥹

So we resigned ourselves to continuing on our journey and leaving the beautiful valley of Valmalenco and its impressive peaks. We went back down to the valley to reach Lake Como, which we skirted for a good while (and those who have already been to Como know what it means to skirt the lake, with a truck and a unique road too narrow in many places for two cars to pass each other). Then, we went back up a little to settle on Alpe Grande, a kind of altiplano at just over 1.000m, located right in the middle between Lake Como on one side and Lake Lugano on the other. From the ground, neither lake can be seen, but by sending the drone up a few hundred meters high, you can see part of both lakes, each on one side of the mountain we are on…

This is where we will spend the night (in the rain, once again) before continuing tomorrow towards the last of the great Italian lakes…

Two more (or maybe not…) (2/10/2024)

It seems it snows there, sometimes… That’s what Mort Shuman was singing in 1972 anyway, with those tremolos in his voice that would depress the most optimistic Italian… Today, it’s not snowing on Lake Maggiore, but all in all, maybe it would be better… We are on Monte Mottarone, a small summit (1,492 m) located between Lago Maggiore and Lago d’Orta, its smaller neighbor. The spot is supposed to offer an aerial view of the two lakes (much like our spot yesterday, but without the need for a drone). Except that, at 1.400m today, we are in the clouds!… So we can’t see either Lago Maggiore or Lago d’Orta (which we could see, in part, on the way up here)…

Well, ok, we are not going to complain, because this morning, on our little plateau between Lake Como and Lake Lugano, we were above the clouds, and it was quite nice to see the valley full of white clouds and a few areas of blue sky just above… After some photos, we went back down and continued our tour around the lake until Como, where we made a short stop for a coffee and a bakery to replenish our provisions…

Then, even though today’s itinerary was not very long, we drove on what must be the most boring road in Italy! Almost 100 kilometres of roundabouts, villages following one another, one after the other, speed bumps and other pedestrian crossings. And all this, only to find ourselves in the clouds and not be able to see the last two lakes that we had left to see! As Mort Shuman would say: “It’s snowing on Lake Maggiore / I’ve forgotten all about happiness”… 😁 Of course, for those who are too young to have known Mort(imer) Shuman, you should know that he didn’t only make depressing songs, as he was the one who co-wrote one of Elvis Presley’s greatest hits: Viva Las Vegas… Yes, from Lake Maggiore to Nevada, there is only a handful of sparkles…😜!

For our part, we will spend our first night in Piemonte, the last Italian region we will cross before reaching France, in a few days…

Technical interruption (3/10/2024)

After 23.000 kilometres (and some more) in the most remote places in Europe, and all this without ever complaining, it seems that Marvin’s return to his homeland sat badly with him…

It all started last night, when we were about to reach Monte Mottarone. Suddenly, the tachograph started showing a series of errors and the speedometer needle seemed to have some weaknesses. And then, when we were about to turn off the engine, the final message came like a cleaver: EDC error – Check engine… It may seem like something trivial, but those who followed Marvin’s first steps in this world will know it. This is the same message that had us sweating for days, just before the homologation, because nobody seemed to know what was going on until an Iveco technician remotely connected to Marvin (yes, apparently, it is possible… Marvin is modern, eh!?…) and determined that it was the electronic system control unit that was failing and that it was necessary, in addition to changing it, to calibrate the tachograph (something that had never been done since Marvin was new…). In short, not the little problem that is solved by playing with two pieces of aluminum foil, like MacGyver…

This morning, we started the engine again and for a few kilometres everything seemed normal, until the tachograph started to show the same messages again: “Tension interrupted” and “Sensor error”… No way… we went to the nearest Iveco workshop. However, in the country of Iveco, where more than one truck in two is Iveco, the official workshops are very busy… The team at the Gattinara workshop was very kind and told us that it was impossible to do anything today, but that they could fix Marvin tomorrow…

So, this is it… we are kind of “on pause”, in front of the Iveco workshop in Gattinara, waiting for things to be sorted out tomorrow… Well, let’s be honest, we are quite happy that it happened in Iveco’s country, and in a place that is, moreover, far from being the worst we have ever slept in (for a parking lot in front of a garage). Also, it turns out that the town of Gattinara is known for its wine, a DOCG (Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin) unique to the town, which makes all its wine from a single grape variety: Nebbiolo. Let’s face it, it could have been worse, right!?… 😁

Burnout… (4/10/2024)

After specialists examined his case this morning, we are happy to confirm that Marvin is fine… He just had a little burnout (literally)…

It turns out that for an unknown reason, but probably due to a flange that failed at some point, the electrical wire connector that links the tachograph to the accelerator and the battery (among others) came dangerously close to the drive shaft. With the ups and downs of the last few days, and the engine temperature which certainly rose a bit more than when we crossed Poland, the electrical wires in question started to heat up and… one of them melted. As a result, the tachograph was no longer properly powered and gave us the error that the sensor was faulty. In fact, it was not the sensor, but just an electrical wire…

So the repair was quicker (and less expensive) than expected, and we left Iveco – Gattinara with a new electrical cable connector to power the tachograph and, at the same time, new brake pads (since Marvin warned us yesterday that they had to be changed…).

Just a moment to thank the whole team for their kindness and the speed with which they fixed Marvin, and we were already on our way back to the mountains where… it continues to rain, non stop, for two days… 😥

We are above Locana, at the gates of the Gran Paradiso National Park, known not only for being the first national park created in Italy (from a private hunting reserve of King Vittorio Emanuele II), but also one of the great conservation success stories in Europe, since it was created to save the Alpine ibex, of which there were only about 400 specimens left in 1945 and whose population today exceeds 4.000 specimens, in the park alone… We are therefore in the Graian Alps (Alpi Graie in Italian), just behind the Vanoise National Park in France, to which the Gran Paradiso is connected. If by chance the weather improves, we should have a nice view of the surrounding peaks, but… we will probably have to wait until tomorrow for that…

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In the clouds, like under the sun, LEAVE NO TRACE!

– Always travel on public ways and respect the signs.
– Limit noise and interfere as little as possible with wildlife.
– Respect the other users.
– Leave rocks, plants and other natural features as you found them and respect historic sites.
– Take your waste with you and throw it into the appropriate containers, in the nearest village.
– Do not camp inside protected areas and do not make any fires.