Day II of Adventure biking saw again perfect weather, so up before sunset and off to and above the ski slopes of Bardonecchia. The ascent this time was not necessarily easier but felt alright – after switching the bike to “Enduro”, which makes an unbelievably big difference!

Caught the sun rising above the French-Italian Alps right at the castle ruins of Forte Jafferau at the beginning of the famous Pramand-Jafferau military historic dirt road that is again perfect for bike-sightseeing (I took the Jafferau entry and ended around lunchtime in the heat at Pramand).

This route is currently open to motorized traffic only on Saturdays so I was quite sure I would be one of the first people up here, and I was – with the exception of a camper that hid next to one of the military huts and I assumed the occupants would be sleeping (did they drive up before or after midnight during the night Friday-Saturday??) so hopefully the drone and the bike exhaust did not wake them up.

The ride across the military mountain road to Seguret and the famous dark and flooded tunnel was fantastic, so I reached the crossroads to Pramand with no problems at all (other than my water bottle being in one of the side bags without the cap on – surprisingly little spilled). I took a deep breath and entered the cul-de-sac access road up to Fort Pramand, which is the diciest part of the route (and the highest in the Denzel difficulty classification). Keep the throttle on at all times and wiggle your way up is the solution, which worked out well.

This concluded the adventure part of the trip and I headed back to my quarters in Bardonecchia for a lunchtime nap and checkout before the long drive home, this time without the tunnels but lots more of mountain passes straight up north to Wallis. Passed a couple of commercial motorbike photographers, who seem to make a reasonably good business.

What a trip – why did I wait so long to do this type of trialing!