Onto the mainland

Calabria…

The weather has been a bit unkind with a couple of stormy nights.  our first night in Calabria was thunderous and lightning-ous but our Quechua tents were up to the task..all except the poor guy who parked his in a bit of a dip.

The terrain has been somewhat challenging ..so much so that I threw in the towel and bought a compact gear.  So I’ve moved from 53/39 chain ring to a 50/34..so I’ve lost 3 fast gears but gained 5 slow ones and boy oh boy do i need them.

Each uphill/mountain in itself might not be huge by what we’re going to face later on in the  Dolomiti, but add them up together and you’ve got a sufferfest for most of us.

Today our route had an unexpected diversion which took us for about a 5 km extra trip over roads that  maxxed out at 19%….I had to get off and walk a coupla times. 

Reason for the diversion?..not everyone took it!!

6 degrees of separation is in force here with someone having  done a workshop at PJC, someone else’s daughter being a 3rd year physio student at La Trobe and yet another person having an orienteering connection.

The ferry from Messina onto the mainland caused us a bit of concern as although the vehicles got on ok, we got left behind. 

Luckily there was another in 30 minutes which just gave me enough time to buy a limone granite..a must, along with Arencini if you’re in Sicily (so I was told)…spellings are possibly wrong!