Euro Toer Day 12

 

We decided that we will alternate between pizza's and pasta for supper. Last night was pizza night, but we clould not find a pizza resaurant in Sassello, so had to settle for pasta! 

The hotel where stayed provided a full buffet breakfast so we both went for the whole hog. I made myself a sandwich from two slices of toast with ham and cheese. 

Danie felt that his body took too much strain yesterday and decided to take the easy option and cycle to Altare, our next stop, via the tar road. I was going to follow the Alta Via dei Monte Liguri (AV) route. I left at 08:00.

I had to go down the road I came up with yesterday to join the route. It was about 3 km to get there. I was immediately taken onto s reasonable jeeptrack, which winded its way up the side of the mountain. The road reminded me very much of some of the passes bult by the Bains in South Africa. The condition of the road indicated that vehicles no longer use it. It now is only used by cyclists and hikers. It is represented by the red line top right where it leaves the blue line to where it ends in the attached photo. The photo at the begining of this post was taken some way up the pass, which is called Passo Salmacaeto. 

                                                   

At the top I was once agsin taken onto a single track through the forest. This wound its way around the mountain, mostly easily ridable, but I did encounter a number of rougher sections where I did rake the cautious approach and rather walked. This eventually connected with s tar road. 

I very quickly encountrted a very steep hill goning up at 21%. I did manage to cycle this first one, which was not too long. Just as I tackled the second one, it started raining. I quickly looked for some shelter and put on my rain jacket. From here I continued pushing up the hill, which was more than a kilometer long and reached 24% at some points! I now was in an area with a number of wind turbines. After 17 km znd 3:05 in the saddle, I reached the end of the tar road. 

The rain was not too hard and I was making reasonable progress. It has become quite misty and I could here the "woosh" of the wind turbines, but could not see them. I stopped in a densly wooded area out of the rain and had some of the "left overs" in my "foid bag" for morning "tea". A little while later the intensity of the rain started to increased and I stopped next to a big tree to wait it out a little. It help and after about 5 minutes I was rolling again. 

The condition of the road, generally was quite good, but every now and then I encountered a very rough section and had to revert to pushing. I did put my phone away to keep it outvof the rain and navigated with Garmin. The detail of the Garmin track is not as good as the phone and on a number of ocations I found myself going down the wrong track. Fortunately Garmin is pretty good at letting me know I am "off course", so the deviations did not cost me much time. 

As I came to the top of a hill after one of these, I thought I recognised the guy standing in the road! This was where my track joined up with the tar road going to Altare and Danie just stopped at that point to look for accommodation! So it took us a very similar time to travel from Sassello to Altare, Danie by tar and me on the Alta Via route, but what a co-incedent that we should meet up at this point! It took me 2 hours to cover the 11.5 km since I left the tar road. 

There were only apartments available at R2,400 in Altare, but we decided to go there, find a coffee shop and investigate further. When we got there, we could not find coffee! OK let's get Garmin to take us there! The nearest shop was 3 km away, so off we went. As we started cycling Danie remaked that hopefully Garmin is wrong and low and behold, around the next corner we found a coffee shop. We ordered our coffee and Danie found accommodation in Carcare, about 5 km down the road. We arrived there just after 14:00.

The plan was to catch a train to Cuneo, but I do need to test my new raingear and was keen on cycling there. It is about 70 km away and it will all be tar with a number of climbs. A while later Danie came to me and suggested we do it! So tomorrow it is us and thec ain and the road to Cuneo! 

Hopefully we will find a pizza in Carcare tonight to "energise" is for the road. 

The days ride was one of the best. The roads I traveled today were msdtly ridable. Riding through the forests always is a pleasure. Very beautiful and a joy for the eye. Being in an area where you are just about always covered by trees, is a resl blessing. It was only when I left the cover of the trees that I had to seek shelter from the rain!