South coast to west coast today….a big moving day, with…Mr Google advised…only a moderate 600m hill en route!
A fairly ordinary 30km along the coast….shifting on and off that main road, meaning some too-close calls with a few (always a minority) idiot drivers. I have added Audi drivers on to my list of arrogant pricks who consider their time to be so much more important than cyclists’ safety.
Truck drivers continue to impress!
A pleasant 40km ride away from the coast on empty side roads, before the hill started.
I have been on route-planning, Nae has been on maps (ie google maps on phone on her handlebars). And today was a classic! Head towards San Marco Argentano and Martino, I said. We did not actually need to go to either…! But….Nae took us there! Up….and up….and up…on a very steep road…..until we realised we were going in the wrong direction!
Funny really…..but that 20 minutes of serious effort…actually ended up costing us three or four hours! As in…..almost comically….
Having realised our error….we sped down to the bottom again……to start the climb once again, on the correct road. (..half way down…there is our road!)
Much more gentle climb now. Bridges…and tunnels…classic Italian road engineering. (This would not have been tunnel-phobic Martin’s favourite ride with six tunnels on the way up…!!). But as we climbed….my battery range dropped and dropped….(drained by that San Marco climb!)…there were two restaurants just a few kms away.
Both were closed!
Just 1km range left!
So …6.4km on to the next restaurant. But how much more climbing…we did not know! Or…..roll back down the hill…..!?
It felt very much like a game of mini-golf on bikes. You know…when you hit your ball up that last hill….and it nearly makes it, but not quite…then gently rolls back to land at your feet.
Not quite back to the start…but we rolled 150m down!!
To a very peculiar town. Everything closed. Except one ‘sports’ bar.
….Where the bar-tender was brand new to the job…and was terrified that my battery charger would blow up all her electrics, and she would lose her job! Poor thing…but…with multiple tv’s, chillers, pokies etc…it was an absurd situation, when my charger probably draws less than a 100w light bulb!
I surreptitiously plugged it in….and Nae kept her talking until her shift ended at 3. The bar had not exploded.
And…..amazingly really….she was replaced by an Argentinian (there are apparently a heap of Argentinians finding their roots in Italy, in search of citizenship…..to escape the economic woes of Argentina right now!)…so Nae and her had a great gas! She was not worried about the charger!!
So after a couple of hours here amidst odd looks from the locals who probably do not see a tourist from one year to the next (Argentinians aside!)…we set off again. 28km range..dropped to 15km over the first km….and to 10km by the time we got back to where we started! 30km to go…but a good chunk down hill…so fingers crossed!
And as we approached the top….another sign! No bicycles!!!
If it was for real…it might have been helpful to put this at the bottom of the hill!! We ignored it!!
A big thumbs up as we crested and started the descent! An extraordinary rush….with nine more tunnels taken at pace…and a spectacular series of switchbacks as we hurtled down to Guardia Piemontese.
13km to go. 5km range! Battery stress! But it was flat so I could keep the bike rolling in energy-sapping eco mode! Not enough juice however to get up the hill to our destination…so….alas…we had to stop on the beach for another top-up! (….bloody Shimano batteries….they are so seriously lacking).
No worries here though. I had a glorious swim…Nae too exhausted to bother changing out of her bike shorts!….and we both had well-deserved beers after another much longer day than planned!!
A short sharp climb into the town…and we checked into our lovely wee B&B at around 7.30pm. Phew!
I had stayed here…just across the road…on my Rome trip! Lovely wee square…..with one fantastic delicatessen/restaurant!…right underneath that prior B&B…so ten paces from our place! (..this made from dyed woodchip….!)
Despite our exhaustion…we indulged! Beers…Primi Piatti of divine pasta…and a Secondi of local lamb for me and swordfish for Nae, with a mixed salad….just gorgeous with all ingredients on sale in the shop!!
Such a lovely family running it…no change from four years ago…and they were quite tickled that I had come back…so took a photo for their wall!
If you are ever near…Focetola is the name. A gem of a place!
We both slept like babies!
YUM