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Today I, Bollocks.....


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But life is not all bollocks.   As the Paralympics end, with the Medal Table showing China, GB then the US at the top, I thought to look for the actual size of each team, and here they are:

China, 220 medals from team of 284 

GB, 124 medals from 215 athletes

US, 105 medals from 225 athletes

These give ratios of athletes per medal of:

China 1.29, GB 1.7 and US 2.11

Not sure what that proves, but it makes me proud!

John

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Big driving day today. Left Courmeyeur at 9 and headed for the Petit St Bernard pass (2,460m non optional). Spent a few minutes up there tweaking the barometric correction curvec0b34592-789e-4512-92fe-55de9079d96f.jpeg

Down into Bourg St Maurice and the weather was holding up, so we turned south to Tigne, Val D’Isere and the Col D’Iseran, which is a bit of a monster at 2,770m.

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Helluva pass - stunning scenery. Not pretty but awe inspiring.

Then onwards to the Galibier via the Telegraph.IMG_6320.jpeg

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looong day, but the scenery was stunning throughout..,.IMG_6326.jpeg

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along the way this happened 

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That’s mileage from September 1989. It  also means 1,164 since last Thursday morning and we’ve added another 50 or so since….

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Driving in northern Italy has been spoiled…. Roads generally in good condition but speed limit mostly 50kph except where it’s 30kph. Occasional short stretches of 70 on bigger roads. Lots of traffic calming/speed bumps and literally 100s of speed cameras. Every few hundred metres in some places. Apparently many of those are fake…. But which ones? Autostrada boring and very expensive. 

At the top of the Grand St Bernard path the speed limit changes from 30 to 70 at the border and then to 90. Road is pretty beat up though.

We were on the Rte des grand Alps for some of yesterday. Great roads, and not too busy (weekday, out of season)

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Today I, bollocks it looks like I might have taken on another project :huh:

I think something might be wrong with me............

Nothing confirmed yet, but provisionally made an agreement to purchase a GT6. At least this one is a runner. It is one however that has meaning, it was the (literal) car that got me into Triumphs 2 decades ago!

I'll update more when I know more.

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7 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Driving in northern Italy has been spoiled…. Roads generally in good condition but speed limit mostly 50kph except where it’s 30kph. Occasional short stretches of 70 on bigger roads. Lots of traffic calming/speed bumps and literally 100s of speed cameras. Every few hundred metres in some places. Apparently many of those are fake…. But which ones? Autostrada boring and very expensive. 

At the top of the Grand St Bernard path the speed limit changes from 30 to 70 at the border and then to 90. Road is pretty beat up though.

We were on the Rte des grand Alps for some of yesterday. Great roads, and not too busy (weekday, out of season)

we found driving thru French villages is very difficult now with very long high 20mph cushions, mostly with crossing on them, so high you cant go faster than 20 mph over them. Really slow progress thru the villages. I can understand why they have done it but it slows progress....

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1 hour ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Pretty.

And sunny / warm.. :biggrin:

Pretty…. For sure.

Sunny, sometimes. That’s when I take the pics….

Warm…? Hell no! Been a howling northerly the last two days and snow fell on the surrounding peaks while we walked. I did take my coat off on the walk back (steeply uphill) so was down to a measily 3 layers.

To be fair it did wait until we were back in the car before pissing with rain, which further delayed an already very late lunch.

Meant to be a bit more sunny, less windy and not wet at all for the next couple of days…. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, the French seem to be adjusting their position on public sanitation. The answer to the question “do hikers in France crap in the woods” has always been, “yup, no choice”.  But not any more. 

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Composting toilets are springing up all over the place, along with slightly risqué encouragements to use them :biggrin:

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A new (to me) phenomenon is photographers lying in wait at the top of high Alpine passes and snapping your pic as you pass. We were papped by 3 separate ones… this just down from the top of Iseran

https://www.foxphotos.fr/m/-/galleries/anne-2024/motos-et-belles-voitures/col-de-liseran/septembre-2024/mercredi-11-septembre/cote-val-d-isere/-/medias/0191e1e2-10fd-7f23-b824-6f6a5f7cbd12

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1 hour ago, Nick Jones said:

A new (to me) phenomenon is photographers lying in wait at the top of high Alpine passes and snapping your pic as you pass. We were papped by 3 separate ones… this just down from the top of Iseran

https://www.foxphotos.fr/m/-/galleries/anne-2024/motos-et-belles-voitures/col-de-liseran/septembre-2024/mercredi-11-septembre/cote-val-d-isere/-/medias/0191e1e2-10fd-7f23-b824-6f6a5f7cbd12

We had that on the Alpine Trip (not looked yet at what they snapped!

Roger

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13 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

photographers lying in wait at the top of high Alpine passes and snapping your pic

OK as long as long as they are not wearing uniforms and holding a speed gun!

Ian

PS Off to the IOM on Tuesday for the IOM Festival of Motoring. Outside of the towns there are no speed limits!

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And today...   I'm at the Kop Hill Climb, which untimed, not for competition, and more a fund raising shindig, but what a shindig!

Cars from Lagondas and Bentleys, to the latest McLaren and everything in between, plus music (of a sort) fairground rides, everything for the kids, old and young.  And rides up the Hill in some exotic machinery.

I've been made most welcome at the Chilterns TRR Group, thank you all, and have met some interesting people who want to talk about my car.

All great fun!

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