Motorcycle Explorer February 2015 Issue 4 | Page 54

BURNING DESIRE
Day 2: Udine (Italy) To Leutschach (Austria)
T
he helicopter that rose up next to our mountainside road from the valley below startled
me, but at least it explained what the hell was going on.
In the morning we’d left Udine slightly behind schedule. By mid-morning the temperature was
already over 30 degrees Celsius, but as we climbed into the mountains on our way to the
Austrian border, we became enveloped in a bank of fog. It felt like riding into a sauna, but how
could it be misty when the air is so hot, I wondered?
The John Holmes of helicopters dealing with a forest fire in northern Italy.