| Day # | 21 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 68 miles | km | 1801 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 1029 miles | km | 38719 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
 |
| Route So Far |
 |
Travelogue
I slept pretty well in the AirBnb apartment in Chivasso and was up at 5 a.m, had breakfast and was ready to go by 6:00, hoping as always to miss the worst of the traffic and most of all, the worst of the sun.
I'd assumed that today would be another hot one and prepared a couple of large bottles of water that I'd frozen overnight. This is a great trick, I learned from Bryce, one of the HomeCamper hosts I met when cycling through France.
My usual bottles were full of cool water of course but I would soon get through them and it's later in the day when the frozen water has melted or gone some way to melting that you get the benefit of an icy cold drink on the road! Brilliant. It's worth the extra weight, no question.
My route from Chivasso would take me towards and then through the city of Torino, often following a path along the river Po and later, a canal. There were road sections too of course, but the traffic was light at that time of the day.
Somewhere before Torino, I stopped for coffee and a biscotti. Frankly the coffee was the worst I've ever had in Italy! But it was coffee. And the biscotti was fine.
I've been to Torino many times and on arriving at one of the beautiful bridges, immediately recognised the area as one I'd walked through before.
Back on the roads, I missed a turn which would have taken me via a long loop, back up to and along a big curve in the river. It was now really hot and the thought of back-tracking was just not appealing and the road I was on was fast and straight and would cut out a few miles too. I wouldn't normally prioritise shortening the route but the heat is changing things and definitely affecting how I feel on the bike.
The roads in this section were fairly major roads and so what traffic there was, moved fast. And amongst the vehicles were a significant number of very large trucks. Not pleasant but I soon relaxed as I found that drivers were passing safely and giving me a wide berth.
I stopped for cold drinks. One for me, and a can of icy cold coke to sit in my frame bag and keep my phone from melting.
I saw my first ever Eurovelo sign in Italy! A sign for EV8. Which was good because it is EV8 I'm supposedly following!
I left the main roads and spent some time cycling country lanes. This time though, there were mountains in the background. This served as a reminder that my next mountain stage was not far away (albeit not the mountains I could see).
I entered the medium-sized town of Saluzzo and not for the first time on this trip, found it was market day and had to navigate busy streets with The Mule on best behaviour (i.e. not running any pedestrians over!).
I spotted a gelato shop! And when in Italy......
You're doubtless wondering what flavours I had. The darker coloured flavour is pistachio and the light coloured flavour is limone.
And the can of coke? That's the one I'd bought earlier to cool my phone. It had delivered all the cooling it could so I had bought a new can and stuck it in the frame bag and drank the slightly warm original can.
With not too far to go now, I carried on, passing through towns like Manta and Verzuolo.
My destination was a farm near a small village called Rossana. It didn't look as though any grocery stores were open (and in fact I think there's only one in the village!) so I went hunting for a supermarket in Piasco which is the last town on the EV8 route before I needed to take a detour to the farm. I bought all that I could carry and cycled the remaining few miles to Rossana.
The route had been largely flat all the way to Rossana. Those few hills I'd cycled were nothing to write home about. But that all changed in the last few hundred metres to the farm which is situated at a height of 575m. It was seriously steep and I only just made it without having to get off and push!
 |
| The steep climb is that last little bit shown in the profile! |
The farm is called the Agricampeggio Monviso and it is first and foremost a farm. I was met by the co-owner, Anna and she showed me everything I needed to know about; the communal area with tables, chairs and a fridge. The shower and toilet. The recycling facilities. She gave me a large, thick groundsheet to use under my tent as the ground is a little rough in places. I gratefully accepted. I was then told I could camp anywhere I wanted to! There's only one other guest here at present.
I went higher up the hill to an area of woodland so I'd benefit from the shade.
 |
| The farmhouse viewed from close to my tent |
 |
| No flysheet today - might be cooler. Note washing on the line already! |
There's more than enough of the groundsheet to go under my tent and give me a place to sit or lie down. So that's what I did for a while :-)
 |
| This is the life :-) |
 |
| And this is what I could see! |
I like this place. It's the polar opposite to the horrible campsite in Milano. Quiet, tranquil and close to nature. I can hear the birds singing right now.
And by the way, today is the end of my third week away and.... I've now cycled over 1000 miles (1600 km)!
No comments:
Post a Comment