Day 13 - Fuscaldo Marina to Vibo Valentia (69km, 470m)

Thursday, May 16th

 

Route Map (Bike Adventures)

Ride Profile (My Garmin)

Overnight we had stayed in a hotel on the edge of town sandwiched between some cliffs, the road, the railway line, and the sea - a typical configuration for much of our trip down the western coast of Italy. It will be interesting to see whether this continues down the east coast of Sicily as well.

The weather forecast was cloudy, but by the time the briefing commenced it had started to drizzle lightly, but most people decided to leave their rain jackets in their back pockets until and when any rain got heavier.

What we didn't anticipate was that by the 40km mark when we had our first coffee break, a strong, warm and dusty sirocco was coming up from Africa. We found a place inside near the sea and had a break with Roger, one of the BA guides who was riding with us today.

Another 15km on in the small town of Nocera, we no longer felt safe enough to ride in these conditions and pulled off the road to have our pre-packed bread rolls, and consider our options. One of these was to catch a train from the nearby station, but with only two trains each day stopping there, the next one wasn't until 6:15pm.

While researching the situation, we went down to the sea where the wind was so strong it flipped me off my bike and I suffered my second fall of the trip - again, just some minor cuts and bruises, and no damage to the bike.

As we waited inside a restaurant, more cyclists arrived, as well as more of the BA staff - it seems there was some "chaos" on the roads with most people opting to abandon the day as well - the trouble was that we were strung out over many kilometers.

Then we discovered that the road had been blocked by falling debris, and particularly strong winds on some sections - we happened to be on the blocked section of road!

The wind appeared to abate, so we set off again, but 5km down the road at the next town we decided to abandon once again. This time, however, the local train station had been permanently closed, and while the Tonys and Roger wanted to carry on, I turned back to our previous stop to re-join the rest of the riders. 

Unfortunately, they had all moved on - either by bike (I passed some of them going the other way), or by the van which must have passed us while we researching train options - I felt quite isolated. I called Steve, and about an hour later was picked up along with some other riders who had abandoned along the route.

Meanwhile, those riders who had been collected earlier were catching (very small) trains onward towards our hotel for the night. Apparently, this train was so small it could only take a few bikes, and the conductor wouldn't accept tandems!

Team Tandem (Stewart and Chery) joined us in the van, which for them was their first experience of being transported this way on all of their many cycling adventures.

Surprisingly, about half a dozen cyclists managed to complete the whole route, including this trio of intrepid campers - their upmarket Garmin cycling computers kept them well en route.

The original hotel had suffered a lightening strike a few days earlier, so we were substituted into a "resort" where everyone got an individual bungalow, and there was even a pool - many went for a dip, including TD and myself, even though it was a bit chilly.

Here's Sue, Steve, Lesley, Richard and TD relaxing after a difficult day.

I think even the Brits thought it was chilly as well, but that didn't stop those three campers who apparently swim everywhere they have access to the sea or a pool.

The beer club met, as usual:

The views were just as nice as the earlier days along the coast, and we ended with a fine buffet dinner in the nearby hotel restaurant.