Officially called the 'Stella Alpina Motociclistica Internazionale' it takes place in the Italian Alps, and since 1967, in the town of Bardonecchia, near to the border with France. It's a ride up a mostly unsurfaced gravel track to 3000m and the Colle de Sommeiller, just for the hell of it.
We had expected to have our Chinese scoots back from Mongolia by now and ride them but what with people not doing as they said they would, and others giving us exorbitant quotes to freight our stuff back, that plan became a no go.
So we looked for some other reasonably priced, reasonable condition, suitably unsuitable small bikes, and found two on Sunday - a Suzuki Address and Honda Innova, both red - and picked them up today.
Add my trusty but rather battered blue Suzuki Address, and we are now set to go.
Trouble is, the Stella Alpina Rally is not until the second Sunday in July, so it looks like we will have to ride them round England until the end of June, and then put them through their paces through Switzerland, Lichtenstein France and Italy until then to stop them seizing up. Well, somebody has to......
Today is also officially the first day of summer, and it was warm and sunny. A great day for a ride back home on the new bikes from Farnborough (Hampshire) and through the back roads of Surrey. We even stopped for tea at Rykers at the bottom of Box Hill, and got some pitying looks from those on bigger bikes. But not many of them have ridden across the world: we have, so why would we care?
