What a day!! What a morning! Mist in the bottom of the valley but warm and sunny. Cinderella got up to make us breakfast and coffee at 6am – what a star. (The ugly sisters were her parents by the way. They seemed to benefit from all the fruits of the business while she dutifully and unquestioningly did all the work. Chris and I developed this little fantasy around her shy but sultrily sexy persona!
A fantastic morning’s ride down the valley, 24 miles in just over an hour in beautiful sunshine to start with, slow deterioration thereafter as big roads, headwinds etc took over, followed by a ‘better than expected’ climb on a quiet big road that did, after all, allow bicycles (the big gamble decided on late the night before) to make it over the pass back to the coast. Yes there was nearly a ‘day three’ incident as Chris’s and my stubborn streaks engaged over an early Panini stop, but it all worked out ok in the end in spite of my lack of Rennies and inability to find an open pharmacy.
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Graham gets his kit off
(women and small children flee from the beach) |
The last bit of the climb and much of the descent was in dripping, cloudy and cold forest. Both ascent and descent demonstrated a fantastic piece of Italian engineering, Bikeroutetoaster showing a perfect parabola with totally even gradient throughout the ascent and descent achieved through dramatic cuttings, tunnels, bridges and flyovers, many of which incorporated the inevitable hairpins. Down such a road we swept to the sea near Fuscaldo, where, elated over breakfast, we learned that Sam, retaining his incredible determination, hadn’t hired a car as we all speculated was his best option, but was back on his bike and only 25 miles north of us at Santa Maria del Cedro! We shopped, fed and relaxed for three hours (I swam while Chris and Harley paddled, admiring my manly physique in the water and Chris got cross when he lost his socks!) until the phone told us Sam was round the corner. How good it was to see that familiar figure, shaken but not beaten, sitting on a bench with his bike beside him....
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| Reunited! |
I too had an excellent morning. I woke late (about 08:00) and wandered down to the cafe that had sorted me out the night before for breakfast. I felt suitably reinvigorated after a good night’s sleep and as I hadn’t had anything to eat the previous evening, I was ravenous. As I worked through a small mountain of bread and jam I considered my options and decided that I’d attempt to escape from the mountains and get down to the coast where there would be both flat roads and trains if required.
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| Heading out of the mountains |
As I was still in the Polllino National Park, the first part of my journey was on deserted, narrow rural roads that picked their way through high mountain passes. A beautiful morning with a hint of wind coming in from the distant sea and the gentle tinkle of cow bells from the inhabitants of nearby fields. Soon enough the road became larger and started to sweep down out of the mountains towards the sea. At the little village of Santa Domenica Talao I stopped for a coffee and attempted to get in touch with the chaps once again. Still no mobile signal - so I pressed on for the coast. With about a mile to go before I hit the coast road south of Scalea I got a call from Graham letting me know they were not that far south of me so the reunion was duly planned and executed! It was great to see their smiling faces once again and after a brief lunch we set off along the coast towards Tropea and made it just after 9 o'clock.
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| Lots of Pasta, little conversation |
This was the first an only time our navigation really let us down, as darkness fell we spent a frustrating half hour searching the wrong end of town for the hotel. Eventually we got directions for the
Villa Antica Tropea, a wonderful old world hotel with lovely rooms and courtyards full of flowers. We went out to a local restaurant for a late dinner - lots of pasta, little conversation!
Stats for today
130 miles
average speed 14
calories 7320
Chris peddle turns 44,693
Link to the GPX file of today's planned route
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