SURPRISE IN SAN LUCIDO
COSTIERA AMALFITANA!
DELUGE IN POMPEII
"FLOATING" TO LIVORNO
"DROWNED" IN NICE
"FROZEN" IN PERPIGNAN
In the last 9 days, we were strongly reminded of the nature in Europe in January and that, after all, we are trying to ride around the world and that it would not be a walk in the park.
In Palermo, our first intention was to find a ferry that would take us north to Corsica and then France; we discovered very quickly that the ferry to Corsica only starts in April so we were put in the position to face the riding North, towards the Italian Alps and then cross into France by land. We checked the weather and we decided to head out, even though the forecast was a bit of rain here and there. I told Carmen: "ah, it's nothing, we will take it a day at a time and avoid this whole thing"; me and my freaking wishful thinking!
We had a magnificent ride from Palermo towards Messina and then on to Cosenza where we veered towards the Tyrrhenian Sea to the little seaside town of San Lucido. We had no clue what we would find here, but the road was great, winding on the Italy coast in the great afternoon sun. We were happy just with the riding and the beautiful Mediterranean on our left.
Arriving at San Lucido we found a little hotel called CLICHE, a great looking place, clean and very new. Alessandro, the owner/manager was a very welcoming, warm host, making us feel at home immediately. The room was overlooking the sea and the village of San Lucido is a quiet, pleasant community. We went to buy some food at the local Spar and I didn't realize that it was a one way street and as I was pulling out against the traffic, a local came out of a bar and told in signs that it is a one way street. Cars were coming from the other side already and, to let me pass, the man jumped in the middle of the street and stopped the whole traffic to let me pass. No one objected, which is not a general rule in Italy :)
We had a peaceful night in San Lucido and in the morning, after the usual Italian breakfast of brioche and cake and coffee, we headed out towards Napoli. I heard before of the great, record-holding, coast of Amalfi, between Solerno and Naples, so I told Carmen that this would be amazing, to ride our bike through this beautiful coast. Well, we did it! Not only that we did it, and the coast deserves its name, but we did it in one of the craziest rain storms I have been in my life! Photos below do no justice to that place and the storm we have been through, but I have videos and some day soon, I hope I can find a place to be able to edit the clips and put them on youtube for you; then you will understand!
The road through Amalfi is carved into the mountain, right above the sea, but this is not the only amazing thing they have done; they built their villages and homes, virtually suspended above the sea; not only that, but they planted orchards and vineyards that are almost vertical on the mountain and there are roads and infrastructure leading to all these places. They have 5 star hotels built almost vertically on that mountain face and no one seems to be bothered by the massive peaks behind them or the few hundred meters drop in front of their houses. We rode that coast from the sea level all the way to 1100 m above the sea as we were going on the other side towards Pompeii. It was pouring down rain, we even entered into the clouds as we approached the peak of the mountain and the road was slippery. But we made it! I was in awe of both this amazing coastline and of my beautiful bike that survived that, in pouring rain, winding through the narrow roads at very low speeds for 4 hours. By the time we got to Pompeii that night, we were soaked, even though we have waterproof gear; nothing would be waterproof there in that storm.
We pulled into Zeus Camping at Pompeii as darkness fell. It was still pouring, rivers were flowing through the streets and I sank my bike in the pools of water a few times. I didn't care anymore, I wanted to just sleep somewhere. We were cold, wet and in a very strange place. We decided to take a couple days to dry off and get ready for the next step, which we hoped would be Genoa.
While things were drying out in camp, we took a stroll the next day and visited the ruins of Pompeii, which, I must say, were a great surprise for me. The atmosphere there is not that of a museum or just a place to visit, I felt we were walking among the graves of the people that found their death there.
Goethe said: "I don't know of any natural disasters in the history of the world that brought so much joy to all of us then the Pompeii disaster"
I am not sure if he is completely right or not, but I do agree that this place is a beautiful place to walk through and experience it. To be able to see their homes, their temples and in some cases even the bodies that were caught by the disaster while sleeping or praying or eating and you can actually see on their faces the expression they had when they died. It was humbling, to say the least!
We left the next morning with dry gear and as we headed from Pompeii, the sun was shining and the roads were dry and I told Carmen: "today will be a great day to ride". 1 hour later we were in hell!
The wind picked up and within minutes the sky got dark and it started to rain so heavily that I could not see properly in front of me. Trucks were passing us and sheets of water would smack me straight into my face and instantly drenched me. I think I sent at least 100 beautiful phrases to the Italian truckers that day!
We stopped every 2 hours or so to have some tea and warm up at the Rest areas on the highway and every time we got in, people would give us a long look and rightly so; we were dripping heavily and we were bundled up with several pieces of gear that are not too pretty, like: buffs, bandannas, face masks all soaking wet.
There was no way we would make it to Genoa; there were the mountains and also the tunnels, darkness was coming and I hate riding at night, even when it is dry, but not it was impossible. Towards the afternoon I decided we would sleep in Livorno and we were happy to do that. First, we would dry out and secondly, Livorno turned out to be an amazing city, full of clean streets and buildings (no more garbage everywhere like in Sicily and Southern Italy) and with great places to eat and full of people walking in the streets even though it was still raining as we arrived there.
Well the next few days were spent, as you have guessed by now, in hard rain on the road, drying out at night and rain again the next day. With the exception of the last day, when we headed out from Nice to Perpignan: the sun was out and we said, finally, here is a nice day. Today we would just enjoy it; yeah, right! It was 5 freaking degrees because we were heading for the Pyrenees and there it snowed like hell the night before and all the cold air was coming straight under my goggles and freezing my face.
So, here we are, in the great European winter, still drying out and still trying to warm up. I never thought I would miss the 40 degrees temperature of Africa, but I am;
I don't know how we did not get sick, but I think all the lemons and oranges we had in Greece gave us more protection then we thought.
My bike is approaching 40.000 km, I need to soon do the valve adjustment, and a full service. I must also say that I am totally in love with my tires! The Yamaha dealer in Pretoria that did my service in October last year did not have the Metzeler Karoos and he said he can put the Heidenau K60. I have already 10.000 km done since Pretoria and there is not even a dent in these tires... They don't look like they were worn at all! I am sure I can ride for at least 7-8000 km more. Long live Heidenau!
My bike gave me absolutely no trouble for the past 40.000 km and I am not just saying this because it is my bike (which I am, but I don't care). This baby was dropped several times, sank in mud, drenched in rain, drowned in the Flood of Italy and many other things. I only changed the battery in Athens and I just put gas and keep going. I did not inflate the tires once since Pretoria, I did not top up the oil, heck, I didn't even check bolts or anything. We are 40 kg over the Manual top weight (sorry Yamaha) and this bike handles like it is brand new and naked. Not only that she does not care how much we weigh or load her, but it uses now less gas per 100 km than before. I now do 4.4 l per 100 km with over 500 kg on her (wet bike, accessories, baggage, us), instead of 5.3 l per 100 when I bought it. I am very happy about this, especially in Europe, where the gas is out of this world. It looks like they bring this freaking petrol from Mars, that is how expensive it is.
Below you will see some photos of our trip north. I am going to bed now.
Soaking wet in Italy; you can almost see my disgust through my goggles:)
