Hello my fellow XT riders!
        
 
         This is my first report on a trip so far.
        
 2 friends of mine and I travelled from the Austrian state of Carinthia to the famous town of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain in August 2016.
         
        
 We only had a limited 2 weeks time so there was quite a pace.
        
 Eventually we came back home after 12 days and some 6230km.
         
         
        
 
         (yellow = journey there; red = return)
         
        
 This is a short teaser for the full-length video I'm currently working on.
        
 There's also the link below, in case the player doesn't work.
         
         
        
 https://youtu.be/GKZ0oEC5KWc
 
         
         Now let's get started with some pictures:
         
         
        
 First stage ended at the waterside of the beautiful 
        
Kalterer See in Kaltern, Southern Tyrol
         
        
 
         
         
         The following day led us up to the legendary 
        
Stilfserjoch (German) or 
        
Passo dello Stelvio (Italian), 2758m above sea level
        
 
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         after the pass we entered the world of the northern Italian lakes, in the picture below you can see the 
        
Lago di Como
         
         
         
         We headed on towards 
        
Torino and climbed up to our first gravel passes in the Western Alps, 
        
Passo delle Finestre...
 
 
 
 
  ...and the 
        
Colle dell'Assietta
         
         
         
         
         
         The rugged roads and the heavy payload with the steel ammo box panniers caused some displacement of the rear axle. Fortunately one of our team is a professional mechanic and able to handle every tricky situation perfectly.
         
        
 
         
         In the evening we finally reached French territory and started looking for a night camp. We set up tent right on top of the 
        
Col de Vars
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         Another beautiful pass road: 
        
Col d'Allos
         
         
         
         Leaving the Alps we continued southwestbound and traversed "the Grand Canyon of Europe" as friends described it to us. And in fact, the 
        
Gorge du Verdon was very impressive. The extremely hot weather and dangerously crowded roads however limited the picture yield to mostly static images.
         
        
