I woke up this morning feeling like I’d had enough travelling and might look at heading home in a month or three. I’m meeting Timo in Bari at the end of March and we’ll spend a week cycling in the area. So I thought after that, maybe it’s time for a break at home.
Breakfast at the B&B was served on the top floor of their old building in the middle of Agrigento. It’s a beautiful city perched on the side of a steep hill and overlooking the Greek and Roman ruins that I visited yesterday. The views here are amazing. As I planned out the days ride and looked for a place to stay, I realised that doing what I’m doing is absolutely fantastic. I’m continually amazed at where I am and how I got here. Why would I want it to end ? It’s the opportunity of a lifetime and I’m grateful that I can do this. All it took was looking oout the window for a minute to remind me of that.
Packing up and getting ready to go improved my mood, as did locals coming up and enquiring about my trip, as I was packing the bike. Perhaps it’s the quietness of the off season that makes this a bit more lonely than usual. There’s nobody around, campgrounds are closed and at a B&B you rarely speak to others – so it’s been quite a lonely few months interspersed with seeing some good friends and family along the way.
By the time I’d packed the bike and started riding down the alley that doubles as a main street, I couldn’t have been happier. I stopped to check directions at the old city gate and fifty old Germans descended on the same spot and surrounded me while their tour guide spoke. I couldn’t move at all for 5 minutes. When they left, I looked for a bakery to get something for lunch.
The cafe up the road had some nice rolls, so I grabbed one and then sat outside with an espresso. Haven’t had a bad one in Italy yet.
Then I was off for a ride punctuated with wrong turns, some on purpose, some accidental and some because of my bad planning.
I went past my first turn because I was gawking at the Greek ruins. No problem, I took the next turn and eventually made it back on track. There’s something surreal about riding along and seeing the well preserved remains of a few ancient temples on the hill beside you. I love it.
The roads became very quiet as I rode through rural areas then I missed a turn in the first town I came to. I rode through the back streets and made it back on track. The streets weren’t well kept, with dirt, dust and rubbish all over the edges and the surface was dodgy at best, as were some of the drivers. In parts, the traffic was chaotic. I could have been in Cambodia.
I followed the directions down a steep hill to the beach, but the next turn would have sent me through a muddy swamp. Not what I felt like today, so I painfully retraced my steps and spent a load of time rerouting to avoid similar issues later.
Komoot kept wanting me to divert off my quiet roads onto very small lanes, so I ignored it and paid the price. I came to a tunnel with one lane closed due to roadworks, so I had to time my run to not hold up other drivers but make it through before the incoming traffic had their turn. The next tunnel had no roadwork but the traffic was still coming in batches because of the previous one. Timed this one perfectly too.
I trusted Komoot for the rest of the day and I had a nice run down to the coast and along to Licata.
The track took me through Torre di Gaffe, a village which had some nice beaches but was badly dilapidated and I was struck by its emptiness. It was a ghost town. Off season strikes again. I’m sure it’s full of people in summer.
Licata has an old town and a port at it’s core and there are a few tourists around but not many. I’m glad I stopped here. It’s a mix of crumbling and semi-restored old buildings, dusty narrow streets and more up-market boulevards. Then there’s the port. It’s all quite busy with an operational feel to everything – and that’s a change from the heavily touristed town of Agrigento.
