Whats the scariest / most exciting journey you have done?

barryd

barryd

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Whats the scariest / most exciting journey you have done?

No, not walking up the Isle but in a motorhome or out and about travelling on push bikes or scooters etc.

There was a post on another forum earlier where someone posted some videos of some pretty hairy roads and I started looking at so called Balcony Roads in France. Some of them we have done in the van and some on the bike.

http://www.dangerousroads.org/europe...in-france.html

I think the highest one we ever did in the van was the Col de La Bonnette in the French Alps which I think is the highest paved "pass" in Europe. It wasnt that bad really, the last bit was a bit hairy and coming down to the south which seems to go all the way to the Med the rear wheels nearly set on fire but apart from that it was ok.

The worst one ever was a smaller pass in the Pyrenees heading towards the Atlantic coast but I Cant remember the name. Single track with a 2000ft drop and I met a French car that refused to reverse. :rolleyes:

I love doing them on the bike or the van really. There is a new member on here though called Nicholsong (Captain Over to his pals) who is even dafter than me though and did the Watendlath road in the Lakes in a 7m motorhome and this one up to the Cirque de Estaube in the Pyrenees in his van. :eek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_9HPUIplRY&t=30s

So whats your favourites? Love them or hate them?

I think the Gorges du Verdon is still my favourite.
 
We've toured the Pyrenees along the white Michelin roads, crossed the Alps, etc, etc, and occasionally thought we really shouldn't be here, but in all honesty the roads that bothered me the most were the tiniest coastal roads of Ceredigion. I'm not going back there any time soon.

For favourite hills I love driving the Ardeches, Ardennes, and Mercantour.

 
Coming down a huge escarpment on a bad dirt road in a badly maintained Land Rover with dodgy brakes and an even dodgier black driver in Guinea. :Very_sad_emoji_icon
 
Slowly working through dangerous roads list.
Few roads French?Italian border near Tende.

 
might tell you round a campfire sometimes,can only put tame stuff on an open forum
suppose i can mention having my brakes fail about 3/4 up Mont Ventoux and no breakdown cover. came down in first gear and handbrake. wasn't that exciting for any ex=Bedford owner
 
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Strewth, Mark61 route to Tende certainly looks hairy. I guess you were in a 4x4 like a Range Rover?
I did take a 40ft. RV towing a Grand Cherokee down Route 1 alongside the Pacific where we finally saw a notice no vehicles over 32ft. permitted. Too late by then.

Ray.
 
mark61;n8296 said:
Slowly working through dangerous roads list.
Few roads French?Italian border near Tende.
Click to expand...

Blimey! Was that in a motorohome of some description?
 
On our first trip abroad in our first new car, a Morris Marina Estate, the brakes stated fading on our way into Andorra. We stopped by a mountain stream and got some water to call them down, which resulted in clouds of steam from each front wheel!

Malcolm
 
Going thru the Pyrenees in gale force winds,the rooflights kept lifting and slamming down,don't know how they made it to the end. Coming around corners to be hit with the full force of the wind,had moments when I thought the MH was going over,very scary drive,my sat nav showed an average speed of 15mph at the end of one day,partly due to hairpin bends and lack of power to take the next incline.
 
we did the Col de la Bonnette back in October, and yes, it was a bit hairy but not as bad as the Col de Lombardie which we'd done immediately before! that goes up to 2300m from Italy to Isola in France and unlike Bonnette is so narrow in places that you really do not want to meet another vehicle coming down! we were lucky and only met 2 cars, and both where we had enough space to squeeze by. we ended up doing these as the Col de Larche which is the main pass in the area from Italy to France was closed due to wildfires raging on the approach hillsides.

When we got home and put the m/h in for service, the engineer asked if we'd been using the brakes a lot recently! 4 new sets of brakepads needed......
 
Was in my Sprinter. Sometimes I think I should have got a LWB, others I'm glad it's a MWB. :)

Miles and miles of old military roads to be explored along the Provence & Liguria / Piemonte border.

 

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Probably going through the mountains in Albania, it was dirt roads a lot of the way with landslips where the road (cough) had slipped down into the ravine quite a distance to the bottom. The roads were single track roads with solid rock on one side and a big drop at the other side,and it didn't help having lumps of road missing, the road crews had done their best though, they put a pile of road stone at either end of the land slip so you didn't drive over the edge in the dark..

It certainly was arse nipping driving with having to pull the wing mirrors in on the mountain side to get as much room as possible to stop falling over the edge, reversing and going another route, as reversing for 30 miles or so in a 8m tag axle Hymer didn't seem a good option, one thing though Sandra never looked scared she knew she was with a driving God, (cough again), the beads of sweat was of course caused by the tremendous heat through the big Hymer windscreen..

ray.
 
Some fearless (ish) contributions. :biggrin:

That road in Albania sounds pretty scary Ray but I reckon you have to do these things. Who the hell wants to go and sit on a beach in the Costas for two weeks. I reckon a motorhome adventure is not a proper adventure until you have had at least one or two near death experiences and some emergency underwear changes.
 
Going up the col D' Aspin in France with a Hymer 694 tag axle. Needless to say it wasn't my intended route just followed the sat nav, not necessarily the best thing to do. But the view at the top was breath taking.
 
trevskoda;n8466 said:
Irish rds are not much better esp at night in the rain.
Click to expand...

Yes
The Gap of Mamore and Portmagee to St Finians Bay were as we say "interesting"..Brilliant scenery and we survived.
 
In Chronological order
1 Atlas passes in Morocco
2 Khunjerab pass Pakistan to China
3 Hindi Kush in Pakistan
4 Kathmandhu to Tibet had to push the bus
5 Lesotho from SA
6 Road to Mijoux (France)
7 Best Road was in Norway "Roof of Norway"
This is the start https://goo.gl/maps/MTUGTGvQLpQ2 and you carry on Beautiful and a fairly easy drive loads of places to wild
 
Earlier this year we did the Col d`Aubisque http://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/france/3453-col-d-aubisque.html

We went from Argelès-Gazost over the Col du Soulor and then the Col d`Aubisque towards Laruns.

It was breath-taking, i absolutely loved it, the wife was very scared at one point but admitted afterwards it was fantastic.

We are both looking forward to doing it in the opposite direction ( needs to be PM ) the next time we go down there.
 
Following the Peninsular War Defense lines, Built by Wellington , North of Lisbon.. Van fully laden.
The guide said there was a good road up to a preserved semaphore station. There was big car park ,offering fantastic panoramic views

Just the place to overnight, we thought.

Late afternoon, driving int low sun up a winding, steeply climbing, cobbled road. Smell of cooking clutch... Our van was Automatic... Unable to turn round.. The road had become single track, twisty and ditched at either side...The sun was getting low, in the sky...

Oh oh.. My phone battery says it needs changi
 
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