Day one with Alan!
And a relatively ‘easy’ day…and everything went to plan…for the first time in yonks!
I could make reference to Nae on maps…!!
But that would indeed be unfair…for today we simply followed the main road…SS18…! Not the best cycling road…but not overly busy…..and simply simple!! And for much of the route there was no alternative option…so simpler to stay on the one road!
Not drama-free though…is it ever?
For as we did a bit of bike maintenance yesterday (…not daring to touch that problematic rear tyre…..which was holding up)…after pumping up his front tyre…Alan decided it needed just a bit more air! And whilst unscrewing the cap…managed to unscrew the whole valve! A blast of air…and we had another fully flat tyre!! Thankfully…the tyre stayed on the rim…so managed to pump it up again!
Of concern however was that no sealant blasted out of the deflating tyre! So clearly..there is none left! Which is a worry! And the nearest bike shop is 120kms away!!
Fingers crossed!
It held up!
And whilst the road itself was not ideal…the scenery was as lovely as ever.
Particularly as we approached our destination of Scilla …a wee town only 10km from the Sicily ferry!
The old town is perched atop a rock…complete with castle.
Whilst below is a nice beach.
And between the two….a lift!!
So after dumping our stuff in our apartment…I paid my euro to descend 15 storeys or so….for a plunge in the sea!! Another beach with that perfect texture of granules and tiny pebbles!
Sunday evening…and the town seemed almost closed, but thankfully there was a great wee cafe but metres from our apartment, playing a great selection of 70’s music….
…increasingly frequently drowned out by the atonal church bells ringing right next door. Another campanological cacophony. Memories of Plovdiv! Lots of folk on the street now….all headed for the church!….except for this group of old guys…who did not move an inch!
Then we heard the band….and jumped up to see a statue of Jesus being carted into the church to a huge round of applause!
The old guys did not move!
No food in the cafe…and no restaurants which we could see…so the guys were happy for us to get a takeaway pizza and bring it back to our table!
A fun night after all!
Hey now (taking the bait as predicted), following google maps is easy, following ‘Nelly’s maps’ is much more difficult!!!
Looks glorious!!