October 13, 2024
Mount Etna is on the horizon
Near to Gambarie to Reggio Calabria
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I sat by the fire until about 11pm last night finishing off the blog. For some strange reason the internet seemed to slow dramatically in the last hour. Photos that would take a few seconds to download took several minutes but I was enjoying the fire so it didn’t really matter. Having lugged all that extra gear for just one night of camping meant I was going to milk every second of it.
It was really cold overnight. I needed three layers on including my winter fleece before I felt comfortable in my sleeping bag. I also resorted to ear plugs to suppress the babble from the babbly brook. I slept pretty soundly on my comfy mattress and down pillow . I woke at 6am and it was pitch black. We were deep in a valley with dense tree cover and it took a good hour before I could put away my head torch. I lit the fire, made a cup of tea and contemplated life.
I had to wake Rob up as we wanted to be on the road before 9am and he was showing no signs of stirring. We made our deadline (just) and headed out to the road for the remaining 200 metres of the last significant climb of the Ciclovia Parchi.
Whilst Rob finished packing up I backtracked a few hundred metres to the bar where we stopped at yesterday to fill up our water bottles from the spout just beside it. I did sneak a quick macchiato without telling Rob but forgot to wipe the froth stain from my moustache so the game was up. “Guilty as charged your honour”.
The spring water here is cool and refreshing. Not quite as good as that found in Svalbard, but right up there. A few nights ago our host warned us that if we drank too much of this low mineral content water our blood pressure would drop and we could fall off our bikes. That seems hard to believe. Dr Google does give some credence to that as low levels of vitamin B-12, folate and iron reduces production of red blood cells. To likely faint you would need your systolic blood pressure to drop by 20mmg Hg or more which by my calculations would equate to each of us drinking 37 bottles of the stuff each*. I only filled two bottles so I think we’re okay.
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Having eventually confessed my macchiato sins to Rob we rode back past the entrance to our campsite to find a pizza restaurant around the corner. If only we’d known that last night.
We knocked over the climb up to Gambarie pretty easily. I was shedding a layer every few kilometres until the downhill run into this ski village where we had a much needed coffee and pastry. From there we climbed a little more up to 1365 metres before the last 25 kilometres took us on an arm chair ride down to sea level at Reggio Calabria.
The good burghers of Calabria’s largest city must like spending Sundays in mountain resorts. There was a steady stream heading up the hill but almost none going our way. That was perfect for us but we rode warily. Italians love straightening out tight corners.
It wasn’t long before Sicily was in our sights with Mount Etna managing a few puffs of smoke just to remind everyone that it still is an active volcano. It is in fact one of the most active volcanoes in the world with an eruptive history dating back longer than 500,000 years.**
We descended for an hour before reaching the coastline just south of Reggio Calabria and headed straight for a gelletaria. It’s noticeably warmer on the coast and gelato is exactly what we needed before a celebratory beer. The official end of the Ciclovia Parchi is the statue of Athena Promachos, which, as the guide book says, ‘stands stretching out over the Mediterranean almost touching Sicily’. That doesn’t even need a fact check; she’s just a regular statue. The real stretching was going on just in front of her. There was a big stage set up with 8 instructors on mini trampolines leading a crowd of 200 Lycra clad devotees (also on mini tramps) on a blistering routine complete with blaring doof-doof music. I’m not sure what Athena Promachos thinks of all this but my guess is a swan dive all the way to Sicily to get the hell out of this place.
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5 days ago
First lunch was at a bar near the train station where the square of margarita pizza I ordered was so rubbery I gave up after one bite. The Peroni was perfect. Second lunch was much better.
So there ended the main part of our cycle trip. Both Rob and I fly home in 6 days time. Our original plan was to catch a train up the east coast about level with Naples and ride north but catching regional trains would have taken the best part of a day which was not appealing. Rob’s decided to have a wee break as he heads straight back to work on his return so he decided to stay the night in Reggio Calabria and work his way slowly back to Rome.
I’m on the Calabria inter city express as I write which gets me into Rome late tonight. I’m meeting my mate Franklin and tomorrow when we’ll catch a train to Sienna and follow the Via Francigena, a pilgrim route that will take us back to Rome. All three of us will meet up on Friday for a proper celebratory dinner.
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The Ciclovia Parchi was a memorable but difficult ride. We really didn’t need to lug all of our camping gear as accommodation was generally available. The catch is that sometimes accommodation can be tight and the need to pre book means you’re then committed to a schedule which I don’t like.
For Rob this was his first cycle tour which was really a case of being chucked in the deep end. He handled it well, rarely whinged or complained, and the inevitable disagreements we had were quickly resolved. The weather was well and truly on our side which made it easier. Slogging up some of those hills in the wet would have been very trying.
Rob’s wordle skills have improved immeasurably on this trip as has his photography. He needs to work on his Worthers sucking technique. I think Pete led him astray with some spurious advice on the practice ride he did for this trip which I missed due to Covid.
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So another trip is done and dusted. Thanks for reading!
* I made the last bit up
** True fact
Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 664 km (412 miles)
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