Sant Agata di Militello

April 26, 2019

Just a placeholder, for anyone wondering if we fell off a cliff. Our apartment in Sant Agata is experiencing technical difficulties, and their WiFi is unavailable. Our phone’s not so hotspot has enough juice for a minimal post, but not photos. We’ll catch up in the next town.

A bit later

OK. We’re In Randazzo now, the WiFi is fine, and we can play catch-up again. There’s not that much to say about the ride to Sant Agata anyway, so this will go pretty quickly. This was the easiest ride of the tour, without a doubt. Straight east along the coastline, the roads generally flat, and with a decent tailwind. We’re on the coast road the whole way, and traffic is just fine. It’s the same highway that we hated west of Cefalu, but here we have probably a twentieth of the traffic load. People must stream in from Palermo but then stop at Cefalu. It makes for nice riding, and we saw several other riders during the day.

You would think that a forty mile downwind ride along the coast would be brilliant, but we didn’t really care for it that much. It wasn’t all that interesting, and even a bit monotonous. The main thing was the air quality though - as was the case for the last two days also, the sky was hazy and grey, and visibility poor. It looks like the coastline is quite dramatic in spots, but when you can’t see clearly beyond a few miles and the sea looks pale and dull, it’s just not that inspiring.

I thought that perhaps this was pollution from Palermo and we were experiencing a significant temperature inversion, but that’s not what is happening here. It was explained to us the next night in Randazzo: this is the Sirocco, a wind blowing in from northern Africa carrying dust from the Sahara. It really feels quite unhealthy.

One theme of the day was our search for a bike store. We were chagrined two days back to realize that we are traveling without a patch kit. Not sure what happened here - maybe we lost it along the way, or failed to pack it when we left Palermo. In any case, we feel insecure and need a replacement. There’s a bike store on the eastern outskirts of Cefalu that opens at 8:30, so we plan to stop there on the way through. Annoyingly, it is open in the morning for only one hour, so it’s closed already by the time we get there. We keep an eye out for the rest of the day, and even optimistically stop in at two tire stores. No luck though. Then, amazingly, tonight we find a small shop one block from our apartment. And, after rummaging through his shelves, he finds that he does have a kit. I feel much better.

As usual, we leave town by the most efficient route.

The coast road east of Cefalu is quite fine for cycling. We expected it to be much busier and were pleasantly surprised.

I’ve fallen behind a bit, but catch Rachael waiting for a train. We sit for what feels like five or ten minutes, until a short train whizzes by and the bars raise again.

Just some guard tower east of Cefalu. I didn’t see a sign, and can’t place it on the map.

Looking back west toward Cefalu, about eight miles away. You can barely make out its headland through the haze.

Castel de Tusa, a pretty spot along the coast here.

Santo Stefano di Camastra is a major ceramics town. We must have passed twenty ceramics outlets here.

The ceramics stores were attractive, but we aren’t really shoppers. We’d have been much happier to find a bike shop.

Always nice to get a bit of encouragement.

Image not found :( — Marina di Caronia, where we broke for lunch on a bench beside the road.

We’re staying in an apartment again tonight. This one, in addition to being annoyingly hard to find and having no WiFi, has a unique character. It’s another split level, with the bed upstairs. The stairs are very steep, and are a design I’ve never seen - it’s really two narrow and adjacent staircases, with alternating stairs. You climb and descend by walking both sides, alternating your steps between the two Unusual, unnatural, and a bit dangerous.

Another apartment with a unique design. Good brain exercise.

I think there’s a reason we haven’t seen this design solution before.

Later, we walk down to the waterfront to find a meal. While there, we pass by seemingly hundreds of market stalls, most of which are in the process of setting up for business - presumably for tomorrow morning. It is really amazing how huge this market is, especially given that Sant Agata is a fairly small place. The market feels huge tonight, but in the morning it’s much bigger still. I measured it on the way out of town, and it was a full mile long - I think the biggest street market we’ve ever seen.

It feels big already, and it’s just getting started.

This gives a feeling of scale. We’re about at the midpoint of the market, and there are booths for as far as you can see.

This market literally has everything. I could have gotten a nice shiny cowbell, but settled for some nuts.

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Ride stats today: 41 miles, 1,400’; for the tour, 921 miles, 63,500’

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 919 miles (1,479 km)

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Suzanne GibsonMight not have been one of your most exciting rides, but I loved the mix of countryside and village streets in the video. As always, great choice of music.
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