The BnB was a bit disorganised and uncommunicative. I had to ask for things like wifi and what the breakfast arrangements were.
Breakfast turned out to be provided by a cafe 400 metres away. They’re famous for their cornettos / croissants and boy, they were good. It was a bustling place with staff and customers that looked like they had been there for years.
My route out of town took me through the pedestrian area and then onto some great bike paths. The paths were wide and separated from the footpaths but hardly any pedestrians used the footpaths. They preferred walking on the bike path for some reason. They went for a few kilometres and it was an obstacle course full of joggers, walkers and their dogs and people just wandering aimlessly.
After that the road took me through some light industrial areas that seemed to go forever. There were lots of cyclists out with it being Sunday morning and they were all really friendly. I got lots of shouts of hello, ciao, grande etc. That’s something different here – there are self absorbed cyclists everywhere in the world, usually the ones who haven’t been riding for that long. However, traditional etiquette says you should wave or say hi to every other cyclist and that’s what happened this morning. It’s refreshing to see.
My secondary road was sometimes near the freeway. At one point there was a lay-by on the freeway and it was full of garbage. As I approached, a guy got out of his car and opened the rear hatch which had his garbage bags. He saw me watching, so he stood there and hoped I’d pass by before he took his two garbage bags out of his car. But I slowed to a crawl and watched him. Eventually he gave up and got the bags out, then I shouted “Just don’t do it” and he turned around with the most guilty look on his face. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m not here to pass judgement on these people and I’m sure there’s a reason for this happening but I simply can’t condone the dumping of so much rubbish by the road. I hate it. Changing this, would make a huge difference here, as it would in South-East Asia and other parts of the world.
I stopped and had lunch near an intersection and Josh from Köln in Germany pulled up and said hi. He’s on an 11 day trip through Italy. He’s a student and is a great guy. I like his attitude. He’s also doing about 140kms a day which says a lot about his strength and fitness. We had a long chat about our trips and things before he headed off towards Cosenza, where I’d just come from.
I promised I’d put him in my blog and make him famous (amongst the dozen or so people who read it), and Josh, I’m sorry it took me a few days extra to get this post sorted out, I’ve had some phone issues. Good luck with your studies and your next adventure.
I continued on through some very light Sunday afternoon traffic. Komoot tried to send me up a tiny road between farms but the traffic was so light I just continued on this road. I should have taken the small road and braved the dogs, as about 10 KMs later, some idiot leaned out of a car and tried to grab me. Unbelievable ! This hasn’t happened to me since the ’80s and it speaks to how stupid this guy was.
Luckily, I’d done my usual swerve to the right as cars (suspicious ones) go past (which gives me an extra half a metre of space), and the idiot was left flailing his arms about, just out of reach. Its unbelievably dangerous for both of us and I doubt I’ve been angrier for years, as a result.
More issues were to follow when I arrived in Sibari, I had no phone signal so google maps didn’t work. I had an idea where to go, but couldn’t message the host or even see the check-in time. I had his number but it didn’t answer. Restarting my phone let me briefly see the details, and check-in was at 6pm. Aaaghhhh.
The cafe at the corner was open and, they had cannoli so my mood was restored. The host actually came into the cafe, saw me and asked if I was staying at the BnB. He’s switched on. He also runs the restaurant in the same complex. It was lucky, as there wasn’t much else around the area.
I’m going to have to get this phone issue solved because without it, navigation and accommodation becomes very very old school and it makes serendipitous planning almost impossible.
