Day 10: Thursday, 19 May 1983

Start: Campground, Corfu, Greece

End: Campground, Corfu, Greece

Another rest day.

Mike and I rode to a beach on the other side of the island and spent a few hours playing frisbee on the sand. Very scenic and topless. The path down to the beach was steep and rocky, and I broke a toe clip on a rock on the way back up. Bummer. Need to get that taken care of somewhere up the line.

We're still carefully discussing onward plans. Mike seems reluctant to move on. I am too, as long as lovely redheaded Geraldine is around, but we can't stay here forever. There seems to be a basic incompatibility between our touring styles. I want to ride harder and I'm always impatient to see what's on the other side of the mountain. Mike prefers to dawdle and spend more time exploring what's on this side of the mountain. I want to keep moving. Mike wants to stop and relax.

We thrash it around. The original plan was to ferry to Dubrovnik and then across to Ancona, high up the boot of Italy. On Tuesday we cut out Yugoslavia, but still planned to take the boat from Igoumenitsa to Ancona. Now Mike thinks, with Yugoslavia out of the picture, we should do more of Italy by starting at Brindisi, on the heel, and cross over to the west coast so he can see Florence and Pisa, then up to Genoa, adding roughly 580 Italian kilometers to make up for Dubrovnik. I'm skeptical, but he has high hopes for an extended stay in Italy, especially Florence and Pisa. After some debate, we agree to depart in the morning and catch the ferry to Brindisi.

With that finally decided, we head back to Club Romantica for another night. More beer and wine and goodbyes to Germans, Danes, Irish, and the rest of the UN. 

Farewell, sweet red-haired Geraldine.

Conditions 

Distance: 10 km, just riding around 

Weather: Warm and breezy 

Road: Good, except for the rocky stretch down to the beach 

Traffic: Busy 

Terrain: Gentle, except for the stretch down to the beach 

Mechanical: Broken toe clip 

Physical: Good, a little sunburn