October 4, 2019
Friday 4th October Cycling the Sile - the Swansong of Our Sojourn.
October 4 Friday. 51Kms
Cycling the Sile - the Swansong of Our Sojourn.
After a convivial breakfast and chat with Paola we retrieve our bikes for their final day of cycling. Temperatures are still a little low but the day looks like brightening up. We decide that we will follow the Sile to Casale Sul Sile and then follow the road to Camping Rialto. We exit Treviso through the Porta della Gobba and look for the official E4 sign. And there it is- but so also are other numbers for Eurovelo routes perhaps.
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The river path is a wonderful autumnal leafy ride for our final day. The water is deep green and there are several varieties of bird life gamboling noisily about. In particular there is a white faced tern that we’ve noticed frequently. We stop for a while to watch it diving under the water and are surprised at how long it can remain submerged. The surface of the river path is small loose stones but it is well compacted. The path is also frequented by a number of walkers and cyclists.
The path twists and turns but since we are in no hurry, we don’t mind. There are some large launches on the river - there will be access to Venice’s Laguna. The river was an important transport hub until the mid twentieth century. We cross a number of wetlands on wooden and see a boat ‘graveyard’ at one point.
Not all towns along the route are identified and so it is sometimes difficult to place ourselves accurately. This eventually leads to us ending the route, not on Casale but in Quarto del’Altimo. It happens because there’s a fork and we take it, as the saying goes. It’s not a disaster though we would have liked to have seen Casale.
As it happens, we find a cafe on del’Altimo’s broad main street and have toasted panini and ginger beer (English and organic). We also meet an English couple who are on an organised trip and have one of the step by step maps provided. They tell us about the brown cycle signs across the road and we decide to follow these out of town.
In fact the route from here is very straight forward and we soon pick up a brand spanking new cycle path that takes us all the way to Favona. Here we find the Via Gobbi that delivers us directly to the front gate of Camping Rialto. We pause for a moment or two at the gate and attempt a selfie. Sixty four days before this Friday we left Copenhagen on a damp Thursday, and here we are, some 2,800 kilometres later and about that far south. It’s been a wonderful adventure and we’re still talking to each other.
We check into our ‘mobile home’ and unpack. The evening is spent plotting a route to the Decathlon store in Mestre where Alberto has offered to keep some bike boxes for us. It looks like it could be challenging, but as we’ve found before in Italy, or anywhere for that matter, you just have to find out where the cycle lanes are.
Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 2,855 km (1,773 miles)
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