Calvi to Galeria

October 14, 2018

A late start to a big hill

Sunday morning in Calvi and at the top of our list was finding some new tubes or at least a better patching kit. Two of the three local cycle shops listed on the internet were showing as open on Sunday but they seemed to be more bike rental oriented. Feeling a bit doubtful that they would have a large parts inventory, we walked to the first shop and asked about bike tubes. The shop owner told us he had nothing like that available but suggested that the large supermarket accross the road carried some bike stuff. He sold us a patch kit for five euros and we then crossed the street to the supermarket, not expecting very much there, either. To our surprise they had three tubes that would fit our bikes. Yes!! Of course we bought them all!

Super U to the rescue! We were amazed to find 20 inch tubes with presta valves here.

As we returned to the hotel we debated whether to spend a second night in Calvi to explore the town further or to carry on to Galeria as planned. The planned ride was fairly short and even with a late start it would work. So, after a tube replacement in Scott's rear tire we set off on a quick tour of Calvi as we hadn't seen much due to our late arrival last night. We shopped for supplies for the day and were finally ready to ride.

Two routes were available. One followed the coastline and the other went inland. We had asked the hotel manager for her thoughts and she advised the coastal route was very beautiful but quite hard because of road conditions. She said that even cars take over three hours to complete the short distance. She suggested it would be best to take the inland route and take the coastal route to Porto the following day.

We were still unsure, so we went back to the bike shop to ask the owner's opinion. He was of the view that the road was full of holes and with our bikes we would be better off with the inland route. With that information, we set off along the main road out of town.

Old town of Calvi. We will need to visit another day.

Calvi waterfront where we stayed and had dinner.

Sunday morning sailing lessons. Looked like a lot of fun in these small boats and such a beautiful spot. Even enough breeze to push them along nicely.

The first few kilometres were shared with cars but traffic was light on Sunday. Soon we turned off on to a newly paved section of road with very few cars but the grade was picking up. We could see the pass through the hills high above but needed our lowest gears - (kms and kms of 1 and 1!!) and a good deal of sweat to reach the top. We found the slightly more than 300 metre climb to the 443 metre to Bocca di Marsolinu to be quite steep with average grade of 6.76% - maximium 10%. We were glad to reach the top!

Highway beyond Calvi. The mountains have a marine cloud around but the layers look interesting.

Turning off the main highway back onto D81 to start our climb up to 430 metres. A view of the surrounding hills.

The road to the top. You can just see the col now. It is a pretty steady steep grade but nice new pavement.

From the top of the Bocca di Marsolinu. This is the first corner down.

Steep switchbacks greeted us at the top of the descent and then it became a fun, curvy run out all the way to the bottom! It was smooth sailing all the way into Galeria. Galeria is a small, two road village that has a population of 300 people. It is very quiet this time of year .

One last picture from the top as Scott sets off to catch up to Pat.

We stopped at the beach for a snack before carrying on to our accomodation for the night. It turned out to be a three bedroom home right on the beach with a wonderful view from our second floor bedroom. Perfect for an afternoon swim. Dinner was at a restaurant just down the street. We returned to our house under a dark starry sky and fell asleep quickly to the sound of the ocean below.

We have arrived in Galeria. Few people on the beach now and an excellent spot for a snack.

The view from our bedroom window looks like a post card.

Scott with a late afternoon swim. The sun has dropped below the mountains. The water is on the cool side but still warmer than what he is used to at home.

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Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 669 km (415 miles)

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