A shot of Tropea from the port, taken while we were waiting to board our ferry. It’s about at this point that I realized I didn’t have the zoom camera. Too bad I didn’t know we wouldn’t be leaving port for another hour yet.
We have a 55 mile ride ahead of us today, following the perimeter of the Gulf of Saint Euphemia the whole way. The weather forecast for today has been a bit grim, and we went to bed last night thinking that we might be hopping a train today. This morning though it looks different - the sky is blue above Tropea, and it looks like we might have a window of fair weather moving north with us along the coast. We pack up and leave much sooner than our norm, and are on the road before 9. We say our goodbyes for the last time to our least favorite apartment of the tour, and are soon coasting down the steep road to the port.
Let’s preview today’s ride with the video, which picks up the first and best part of the day. Midway through the ride Rachael’s camera reported an SD card error, so we can’t show you any of the last and much darker half of the ride.
As long as our weather holds, we have good conditions for a fast ride. It’s generally flat, and the strong southeast winds are generally in our favor as we ride counterclockwise north along the bay. We aren’t particularly fast or driven bikers, but today we have plenty of incentive to keep moving forward as the sky turns steadily grayer all morning. Not many photos to show for the day, because the taskmaster keeps reminding us that we need to keep moving forward. It’s not the most interesting road anyway - we spend the entire ride on SS18, the long coast highway that runs all the way from Salerno north of the Amalfi Coast south to Reggio Calabria. The traffic isn’t bad, but it’s of course less interesting than biking along the quiet roads of the interior.
And it’s a good thing we keep moving, too. Thirty miles into the ride we approach Lamezia Terme, and the first precipitation finally catches up to us. We stop under the shelter of a tree and layer up, then start off again biking against a 20 mph crosswind, hoping we’ll get to town before all hell breaks loose.
When we reach Lamezia Terme the road takes a 90 degree bend to the west, following the sharp bend of the coast. Suddenly the crosswind is a powerful booster, and suddenly we’re facing lighter skies straight ahead. We decide to keep riding, hoping we can make town before the storm.
We make it! We arrive in Amantea at about 1:30, an almost unprecedentedly early arrival for us after such a long ride. It’s dry when we arrive and we’re starving, so we head to a waterfront bar for a plate of pasta before checking in to our hotel. When we come out of the restaurant, it’s raining. Ten minutes later, just moments after we wheel our bikes into our hotel, it hits. There’s a crash of thunder, and rain starts coming down by the bucketful. Wow.
Descending to the port, under a misleadingly blue sky.
Today’s ride will follow the perimeter of the large Gulf of Saint Euphemia. You can just make out the end of it through the haze. Amantea is just around the bend from that furthest point.
Our ride along the coast is generally flat, but the north end of Capo Vaticano rises up pretty steeply. Here, we get a look up into a deep gorge like the ones we crossed on yesterday’s ride.
The sky grows steadily greyer as we move north, and behind us Capo Vaticano is already blanketed in clouds. We made our escape just in time, and need to keep moving.
The sprawl ahead is Lamezia Terme (the end of the Lamezia River). We’re biking into a quite strong crosswind now, and it’s raining slightly. If we can just make it to the bend ahead we’ll turn straight west and get blown up the coast the rest of the way.
This photo really shouldn’t be here. We’ve rounded the bend and are flying up the coast, with lighter skies ahead and uglier ones behind. I finally can’t stand it any longer and stop for a photo of the sea while Rachael flies off. I clumsily drop the bike, throw the chain, but luckily don’t damage anything. It starts to rain. Dumb; very dumb.
It kept pouring all afternoon, and so we were beyond happy to just stay in our large, comfortable, warm, dry hotel room all afternoon and watch it pour outside while the sky continued to rumble. It’s very quiet here this early in the year. I thought we were the only guests in this large, well appointed hotel, but we saw one other couple the next morning.
We didn’t leave the room until dinner, and we didn’t go far. We found a very nice restaurant open about three blocks away, and enjoyed a delicious meal. We were the only diners present until another family entered just before we left. Back in the room, it’s raining again. We feel so lucky!
Checking the weather report (not good) while we wait for the first course to arrive at Due Bicchieri.
Kathleen ClassenMy expression as I check the weather too. It will be cool again tomorrow morning, 4 C. Last year on this day Geneva was 27 C. The unsettled weather continues as far as we can see. Keith reminds me we will be complaining about the heat in June hehe. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
A slow news day is a good spot to throw in a few food photos. Sorry we missed the main courses, but Rachael was very happy with her gooey pile of a dessert.
Keith ClassenGlad to hear you dodged the weather bullet. You can feel really smug sitting in your dry hotel room while it buckets. We had that same experience a few days ago in Erlach.
We are in Geneva now and heading to Annecy tomorrow with an expected tailwind... yes! I downloaded some of your GPX routes from your ride a few years ago. We won’t be taking your indirect squiggly route to Annecy given the weather amongst other things and neither of us feel 100%. I also suspect there there may be some snow on that route. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Keith ClassenSounds like a smart decision, with or without colds. You’re almost three weeks earlier than we were, and it was cold at the top then. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s still snow up top. Glad to hear your health is on the mend! Reply to this comment 5 years ago
