Via Claudia Augusta - The Start

Some time ago a good friend of mine told me that his dream was to cycle from Bavaria in southern Germany, across the alps and finish at Lake Garda in Italy, along a route called Via Claudia Augusta.

I don't know why but I said I would love to do it too, I'm not even much of a cyclist and I don't even own a bicycle. Or at least one that was good enough to cross the alps!

So the die was cast and Uwe (pronounced Oovah) and I (mostly Uwe) set about organising the trip. I thought about buying a bike and finally accepted Uwe's kind offer of using his beautiful Specialized Gravel Bike. Gravel bikes are not quite racing bikes and not quite mountain bikes. They can handle both environments.

We (mostly Uwe) set out 9 Etappen (routes) on an app called Komoot, a mixture of cycle paths, trails and gravel paths. A route that would allow us to get to where we wanted and still allow time for a lot of sight seeing.

On Saturday the 20th of July we packed our bags and bikes and, along with Heike, drove the 7 hours down to Heike's moms in beautiful Algäu, Bavaria. After dropping Heike off we cycled to Oberammergau, our starting point. It wasn't really the first phase we intended but none the less it was a great start.

I set up my tent in a field and Uwe slept in his van.

So on Sunday the 12st of July we started out from the camping site in Oberammergau and climbed our first 1000m to Biberwier, crossing the border into Austria. We saw no beavers although the name in German means Beaver river or something along those lines.

The weather was kind to us as we cycled down the Ettaler pass, a steep downhill road leading the way through Tyrol, in the distance Germany's highest mountain the Zugspitze, flanked by two large glaciers.

Uwe was a keen and able photographer and took great lengths to get the perfect picture. Here he is crossing a field, If I hadn't have stopped him who knows how close he would have got to that mountain. I think he was actually trying to run away from me!

We watched paragliders tumble from the sky.

We were heading into those mountains, I put on a serious face to show them that I wasn't scared.

Uwe went one better and laughed at them!

We were definitely high on the experience, surrounded by mountains, forests, lakes and the clean, crisp air of the alps.

Uwe's socks told the story!

Although we (mainly Uwe) had planned to follow the Via Claudia Augusta to Riva, there were detours that we had planned (mainly Uwe) that would take us to some cool places. On that note, we departed the Via Claudia Augusta route, headed up and then down into the Eibsee

The climb was worth it, Eibsee was a stunning lake.

In we plunged, after chatting to an Australian and his girlfriend who conceded that tackling some of the tracks on a gravel bike was ambitious because the tracks were Gnarly. He wasn't wrong.

Uwe showed me some advanced cooling techniques that only a true biker knows.

After the thrill of Eibsee we climbed a good 400m towards our destination, Biberwier. Place of beavers!

Slowly, very slowly, the weather changed. Becoming colder, not cold but definitely the degrees were dropping and a cool breeze cooled us. We suspected after consulting our weather apps, the more the better actually because they all gave us various answers, that we might hit a storm.

I wasn't afraid of a bit of wind and rain and neither was Uwe.

At 15:40 we passed Mordor.

Yes it looked like the place that Sauron would have chosen.

Those large dark clouds warned us of what was to come.

Three kilometres to go before we arrived at our apartment so we didn't care and on we rode.

Until the water came down and the wild wind howled. We scarpered underneath the overhang of a large barn, thank you universe for putting it right there.

After a few seconds though I declared that we should just continue, it's only water I said to Uwe. So we put on our raincoats. A storm wasn't going to stop us, we only had 3km to go.

So off we went into the storm.

The storm and the universe threw hailstones at us, turned the wind up to maximum and Thor threw down Mjölnir his trusted hammer, sending down spears of lightning on to the ground around us. I was scared as we capitulated and dragged ourselves and our bikes back to the shelter of the barn overhang. We were defeated and shocked but happy not be in the storm at least.

We laughed and I realised how stupid I had been to think we could out-cycle the weather.

For the next 20 minutes it howled down until slowly it burnt itself out down and that was our cue to cycle the last 3km.

After a bit of google map address seeking and jumping from house number 7 to 70 for no apparent reason, we found our apartment. We were met by someone who actually looked a bit like Sauron, a thin, gaunt, long face with long brown greasy hair, a body that didn't look like it had consumed anything healthy in centuries. He owned our apartment, in the middle of the lounge was a long oblong shape cut out of the carpet. Refilled in with makeshift off-colour carpet that had been stitched in using a garden spade and a spoon. Who knows what that was all about but Uwe and I were thinking murder mystery!

We were happy to get a shower that wasn't thrown at us from the heavens, and some food, which was luckily available a short walk away.

Monday the 22nd was going to take us up the Fernpass, a decent 270m climb along the Lechtaler Alpen, The valley of the river Lech. The same river I'd run along and across many times in the last 40 years whilst visiting Heikes parents in Allgäu.

Today we were covering 77km or so and actually descending more than ascending so that was great, especially as I was starting to struggle up and down the trails that Komoot threw at us as rideable but only for mountain bikes, I thought! I began to get used to the droves of 'cyclists' on E-Bikes that would whizz past us on climbs. Climbing up into the mountains meant hitting the clouds, that was a surreal feeling. One minute you're looking up at them, there next you're actually in them

Tuesday the 23rd was definitely easy peasy day, 36km. No wait! The 36km were all uphill.

I remembered why we had planned such a short route.

Yep that's true, 680m climb with overall a 235 descent.

In any case we were heading towards Nauders, a very cute medieval town.

In Nassereith we cycled along the original roman road, smooth, cobbled stones built a couple of thousand years ago to carry goods to and from the southern areas of Germania.

Legions had trodden these roads, the Germanic tribes had poured through them on their way to plunder Rome. Who knows what history was interwoven with this ancient roman road. I took a few minutes to digest this whilst Uwe was taking photos. Here it was, those stories that the schools somehow not only failed to bring to life but hammered to death with dates and names, facts and figures. Here though was the reality, a narrow strip of stones that a chariot could navigate, guarded by soldiers and traversed by everyone.

We met the old border post between Austria and Switzerland, again, a tiny road protected by an impressive medieval tower. One had the impression that this had been at some point, an important place.

We found a place to brew a coffee and cook some water for our 'food in a bag' that Uwe had provided, it was delicious and we sat watching the river Inn, drinking coffee and eating our curry.

We took our time, we had a lot of it today, getting into Nauders. We lay in a field overlooking the town, basking in the sun.

Somehow there's always a bit of England to cheer you up! There's someone in London waiting for this bus, well it's not going to come!

Wicked Wednesday arrived!

935m climb followed by a 1305m descent.

All the way up and all the way down.

The Reschenpass, the old route through the alps.

This was the border with Sud Tyrol and northern Italy. Up till now it was strictly German but now we were witnessing the blend of Germany into Italy.

Our destination was Glurns or Glorenza in Italian.

We climbed out of misty Nauders and began our assault on the Reschenpass. For some reason that I couldn't figure out, today was hard going. Every push and pull on the pedals was a labour. Sometimes we were pushing our bicycles up the gravel paths because it was just impossible to ride. I struggled to get my shoe into the SPD pedal and Uwe noticed I had a stone in the click mechanism. He also noticed I had been climbing the Reschenpass in the wrong gear!

It would be a lot easier, he pointed out, if I switched the front crank down one. I couldn't believe it but he was right. After that, well it wasn't easy but it certainly wasn't as hard as before.

From now on we were on the cycle paths of northern Italy, basically equivalent to the Autobahn, Freeways and Motorways but devoid of potholes and queues. This was cycling heaven!

We passed Kilometer after kilometre of Apple trees, we didn't go hungry either!

We made it to Meran (Merano), this was now very much Italy and it seemed very much to me that only the older people spoke German, younger people Italian and English.

we decided (again mostly Uwe) to spend an evening in luxury.

At this point, luxury was hot water.

Merano served us some delicious Italian food although I have to admit that we ate a lot of Pizza!

Friday the 26th saw us heading deeper into Italy and Kaltern or Caldero as they call it in Italy.

Once again we were treated to the incredible cycle paths as the apple plantations gave way to grapes.

The roads seemed to go on forever!

The scenery was definitely tamer and the cycling easy, Kaltern was nice enough but somehow a little bit boring compared to what we were used to.

Saturday the 27th emerged and we headed towards Trento.

Trento was full blown Italian and German rarely spoken.

It was also a lovely town.

We packed our bicycles and headed out.

Even though the landscape was incredible and the cycle paths perfect. It was nothing compared to the brutality of the Alps.

That said....

Trento was a really nice town with a plaza and old buildings. We found a nice restaurant, the owner promised us vegan and vegetarian pasta. We discussed football, his English was perfect and he knew how to serve up a good evening.

I was finishing my Gelato when I was almost surrounded by 4 young girls, all immaculately dressed in blue.

They asked me in Italian if I spoke English, to which I obviously replied YES!!!

Then one of them started to explain in slow Geordie that they were a group of English students in a drinking competition against a Dutch team.

I answered in my best Geordie that the Dutch had no chance!

They laughed as they realised I was English and said if I could guess where they all came from in England, they would get extra points. I got them all bar one! I'm still annoyed about getting one wrong!

Turned out that they were the last group of Erasmus students from the UK. How sad and how sorely missed future generations will be. It was great meeting them and they were great ambassadors for the UK as they slammed down shots, made jokes and brightened up the evening.

It was good that we had a great evening in Trento because the next day, Sunday 28th would get us to Arco and essentially our destination, Riva del Garda, Lake Garda.

This entailed a good 700m climb for the first hour and a half in 30 degrees although later Strava said it was only 20 degrees.

We found a fruit seller on the side of the road and despite our lack of language, he basically gave us 12 apricots or so for a few euros. He was Uwe's new best mate!

As always, we grabbed something to eat and drank Non-Alcoholic Beer, a welcome break from the water we gorged on.

We found a cool place to immerse ourselves in a very cold river!

I couldn't feel my feet but I just didn't want to leave.

We arrived in Arco and checked into our apartment that would be home for the next few days. I had the feeling I didn't want to sit on a bike for a long time. We hadn't seen Lake Garda yet so I knew I could do the last 20km or so.

So on the 29th we had the pleasure of riding our bikes without our tents and I had no back back. That was pure luxury!

Off we went to Riva, described by Uwe as the Bathtub of Munich, he wasn't wrong. All around us was the sound of Bavaria!

It was worth it though, Lake Garda is beautiful!

We drank coffee and set off up the Ponal Path in order to see the fabulous views of Garda, the cliffs etc. It was stunning!

Less stunning were the hoards of EBikes that whizzed past on a road surface that I struggled on, I felt very unsafe. I thought I would land on my face a few times. We reached the top and had coffee and alcohol free beer at the top.

Then we decided (mostly Uwe :) ) to take a bit of a detour and visit Pregasina, a word that an Italian cyclist shouted at us after we had totally mispronounced it. We cycled up 200 plus metres along good a road that took us to a good restaurant but I confess that my climbing limit had been reached and frustrated, I asked Uwe on the way up, what the plan was. I couldn't climb anymore and I didn't want to climb anymore! It was that moment on a Run when you just wanna finish and see the finish! Uwe calmly told more that just around the bend, at the top of the bend was a really nice restaurant. He wasn't wrong!

Here he is, the bird man of Pregasina.

We ate fantastic pasta and drank Alcohol free Weizen.

Then we rode down, easy you think. Sadly not for me! The Ponal Path was gravel path with large rocks and many potholes. My bike (Uwe's really) was a really good, solid gravel bike and it bounced down the path. We arrived at the bottom in Riva both in one piece.

Then disaster struck!

I had fastened my Crocs (shoes) on to the carrier attached to the back of my saddle. With all of the shaking, one of the shoes had fallen off!

I was gutted! Not because they had any value but at the end of the day, I really looked forward to removing the cycle shoes and putting on proper, comfortable shoes. Now I had none!

So I was going to have to buy new shoes in a smallish, seaside ish, tourist town in northern Italy. Uwe and I wondered around the town of Riva and at the very least, I knew I could buy a pair of flip flops for 10 euros or so. Not my best option but an option all the same.

I walked past a shop called 'little man' and met these two people.

In short, they sold me a pair of really comfortable shoes, delivered excellent customer service along with an espresso and some good laughs.

Thank you very much!

We stayed in Riva until the 31st, catching a shuttle bus that took us back to Garmish. We rode the short trip up and over the Ettaler Pass again before arriving in Oberammergau, where it had all begun some 9 days ago. I never doubted we wouldn't do it, sounds arrogant but I don't go into events with that mindset. I know it might be hard but isn't that the challenge? I always expect to come out the other end. One day I wont! It wont change my mindset.

It was definitely a magical tour, I'm not a cyclist and I am indebted to the patience, experience, good humour and positivity of Uwe, he knows his stuff!

Once again it was an experience that was amplified and enhanced by it being shared. Was it hard? I don't know if I'm honest. It was what I expected in terms of performance but not what I expected in terms of experience. That side of it surpassed my expectations! The trails, the towns, mountains, rivers and the utter thrill of being out there, in the mountains, in the rivers, battling against the trails. That was special and not something I can properly convey or explain. You just need to do it! You wont regret it. I'm not talking about this route in particular either or even cycling or hiking, running, whatever. You are not looking at it on a screen going ... "Wow!!!", you are part of it! Just get out there, it's indescribable and you wont regret it!

It took me so long to write this up and publish it!!!

I am indebted to the man mostly refered to as mostly Uwe, he organised everything, he kitted me out, he navigated using Komoot, he is a hero!!!