The last several days have been somewhat lazy – much as I love the travelling it is nice to be in one place for a while. We did take a drive down to Angouleme, where Colin made an appointment to have the campervan serviced, and tried to find some stainless steel pans but all we could find was aluminium, so came home empty handed.

We walked down to the bar one night intending on having a drink when we discovered it was their special meal night – we ended up having huge portions of scampi with chips.

We did take a few little bike rides – Colin’s new electric bike seems to work very well, as he gets even further ahead of me now, especially going up hills. The first ride was only around 14 km, then just over 20 km, and today’s was about 30 km. The weather was perfect for riding, although we had to miss yesterday as it poured and poured all day long. The sunflowers are just starting to grow, but the poppies are going crazy.

Edith and Sylvain (who own the Penalty Bar) have gotten a new little dog – his name is Snoopy, and he’s just adorable. He’s already a favourite of the patrons so Mo’s feeling a bit left out, although she still gets lots of attention.

Snoopy was rescued from a shelter and was in pretty bad shape when they first got him – he was covered in mats and looked like he had mange or something. They had him basically shaved and now he’s fluffy and beautiful. He knows to stay in the bar – he won’t cross the doorline to go outside by himself, even to visit the outdoor tables.

We visited the Hope Charity at their new location, which is now in one very large building rather than several smaller ones. They have it divided into different spaces for books, clothing, kitchen stuff, etc. And they also have an outdoor area with a lady selling potted plants and flowers – she has a spaniel named Kevin that’s very sweet, and he tried to get friendly with Mo. The only thing missing was the adoptable dogs space.

We left the Mortirolo fairly early to avoid traffic coming up the hill towards us, going down into the village of Mazzo di Valtellina, and back along the road we came on. West to Lake Como, then south to Lecco, before hitting a diversion due to road works.

We wondered about all of the cars parked along the road at one point, then saw that the road crews were lifting a new bridge into place with some huge cranes – there was a large crowd watching the procedure.

We skirted Milano, then west along the motorway and also got by Torino and on past Susa. We had already planned to take the Cenis pass rather than the long tunnel into France.

Just after the French border – which is really just a sign on the road – we came to a building that had several police cars at it – one of the policemen walked towards us so we stopped. He just asked if there was only the three of us, including Mo, and when we said yes he let us go. Apparently there’s still a big problem with migrants trying any and all entry points to get into France, then maybe on to England.

We stopped at one place so I could take some photos – there are three displays, one each of cyclists, soldiers on horses, and elephants. This is one of the many passes that Hanibal might have driven the poor elephants over.

A little further on there are a couple more elephant displays.

We found a campground just before Chambery and checked in for the night.

The next day was a long drive home, going up and through the Tunnel de Chat above Lac du Bourget, then through the beautiful countryside in the foothills of the Alps heading west past the River Rhone.

We arrived home to Mansle around 5:30 or 6:00, unloaded the campervan and headed down to the campground bar for dinner – it’s a holiday today so the Penalty Bar is closed.

They’ve done some more improvements to the restaurant/bar – there’s now a permanent pergola instead of the temporary tent/awning thing they used to have, and new tables and chairs. We were enjoying our burgers and fries when a regular patron arrived carrying an adorable little kitten. He ended up putting it in his right coat pocket, where it eventually fell asleep – it was so cute!

Much as I love the travelling it is nice to be in one place for a bit. Everyone greets us so warmly and are genuinely happy to see us back, even if it’s only for a while.

The rain finally let up sometime during the night but the day was still overcast. I started to hear riders and walkers going up the mountain around 8 or so, and as usual the throng thickened more and more. I wondered how far up some of the walkers were going – we are, after all, about 10 km from the top of the climb.

The rain came and went a couple of times, but never the pouring that we had yesterday afternoon just after arriving.

We took a walk up a bit, then down from where we were and decided that right across the road was likely one of the best places to watch from. When it rained a bit harder we retreated into the campervan for lunch.

Around 2:30 we each grabbed a tent ground cover and headed across the road to our chosen spots so we could perch on the ground at the edge of the road without getting our butts soaked.

We’re just below the 26th hairpin from the top, out of a total of 34. The breakaway reached us at 4:08.

Nibali arrived with the peloton about six minutes later.

Ackerman was all smiles as he passed, despite still being all bandaged up on his right side from the awful crash days and days ago.

One of the Bora team cars had parked right next to the campervan to pass out bidons to his team, and when Colin went back to change his camera the fellow just handed him a bottle without even asking.

The final riders made it past at around 4:30, just as the rain started up again. By the time fans were making their way back down the mountain it was just pouring. We decided not to venture down in the rain and stayed on the Mortirolo another night.

In no particular rush to leave we slept in a bit – I was going to have a shower but discovered that you needed to buy tokens so washed my hair, etc in the sink – it had nice hot water and no tokens needed.

After getting a bit caught up on my blogging I then took a nice walk out the ‘back’ gate and down to the beach. There weren’t too many people about so I did chi-gong under some trees near the water.

We’re right across the lake from where we were last October after we left Ghisallo after the Tour of Lombardy – I like this area a great deal as it reminds me very strongly of home even though the mountains are a little higher.

We got away around 11:30, stopping for some groceries, then on to our next chosen area to watch the last stage that we’ll see of the Giro. It was mostly east, then a bit north towards Bormio, but turning off shortly after Tirano and onto the Passo di Mortirolo.

The road was really narrow and had many switchbacks – we passed some workers repairing a guard rail so knew we were on the right road. We didn’t go too far up, pulling over just about 2 km up the 12 km climb. We’d found a nice fairly flat spot that fit the campervan perfectly and chose not to go any further. It will be the 5th and last climb of the stage so going right near the top didn’t seem necessary – plus I was nervous about the narrowness of the road and possibly meeting another vehicle coming down.

The Passo di Gavia was supposed to be the last climb of the next day’s racing – and the most difficult of the entire race – but it had to be taken off the route as the risk of avalanche and snow was just too much, even though they worked for days trying to get the road in passable condition.

It started raining just as we found our spot, and proceeded to pour for hours, but we were dry and warm. We had an excellent steak, potatoes, and fried onion with tomatoes dinner – oh, the hardships of camping!

Race day dawned a bit cloudy, but not too bad – if it rains it shouldn’t be as bad as some of the days have been. We had been joined overnight by several more campervans, all lined up in a row below us. When I took Mo for a little walk I happened to see Floriana – she was super happy to see me, and assured me she was ok – they have two other restaurants and are doing alright.

And as the morning progressed the parking lot got more and more full – all directed by the old fellow from last night. He had hundreds of cars crammed in like sardines – no one better be in a hurry to leave!

We ventured down around 10:30 to have a cappuccino and walk around to see what was going on – one highlight was when the police lamborghini pulled in – lots of folks crowding around and taking selfies in front of it, and a couple of lucky young kids being put inside and pretending to drive it.

We chatted for a bit with an older cyclist that had just finished the climb on an electric bike – it was a very nice one and you couldn’t really tell it was electric unless you knew. He was 81 years old and was from Whistler! We went back to the campervan for lunch, then back to the road around 2:30, not wanting to miss anything. We found a great spot about 25 meters from the top of the climb – we got some help climbing over the rather flimsy barrier and squished next to a rock wall with cedar hedges on top. But it was great because no one could get in front of us and we could see down the hill a bit too.

First of all the cavalcade came through – zipped by as usual and I did get a nice black bag out of it – no little stuffed wolf, though, which is what I really want.

As I was taking some test shots making sure the flash was synced a female amateur rider came up – she thought it was pretty cool that I was taking her photo.

Then a little boy rode up – he got such resounding cheers and applause that he turned around at the top, rode down a bit and came up again to the same accolades – perhaps the next Nibali in the making.

At 3:42 the bells in the church tower across the road started ringing – the riders had been spotted on one of the switchbacks below.

Three minutes later the first racers appeared – a breakaway of two about seven minutes ahead of the peloton.

Several of the teams had guys handing off bottles and bars to the riders, but luckily (for them) none of them impeded my shots.

By 4:09 the last rider had passed and folks started to throng the roads trying to get away. We went back to the campervan and took our time leaving – there’s only the one road to and from Ghisallo and it was going to be bumper to bumper so we weren’t in a hurry.

By the time we left the traffic had died down and we had clear sailing south to Lecco, then up the east side of the lake to the small town of Domaso just around the north end and back down the west side a few miles.

We had chosen a campground to head to but couldn’t find it, although it didn’t matter. There were several in a row all along the lakeshore so we just picked one and settled in – it’s owned by a couple of little old german ladies who run it like generals – friendly, but authorative. We didn’t feel like cooking so went out for dinner, walking down the main street to a likely looking restaurant.

It was just lovely – a delicious meal with no cooking or dishwashing involved (at least for us). Colin got the lasagna and I chose pasta with smoked salmon in a cream sauce – it was excellent. As usual over here Mo was welcome and all the waiters and waitresses made a fuss over her – she’s such a little flirt, and always knows who brings the food.