After a quiet night, I start out on the narrow trail that I left the day before. This section is pretty smooth and I can ride it until I the trail widens into a larger road and soon I’m passing through a beautiful forest.
Alas, it doesn’t last. First the road turns into loose gravel that makes riding hard, then the road I want to take turns into a tiny trail. I know, that it’s just 1 km uphill and then 3 km downhill and I’m hoping that I can ride some of the downhill sections.
However, the X on my map apparently means extremely stupid to try this, or perhaps just not suitable for cycling. The trail is overgrown and so narrow. that even downhill, I can’t ride most of the time. So I walk.
Just before the end of this trail section, I find a mountain spring that rejuvenates me a little. And then, after the forst corner, the forest road is wide and smooth again. Perhaps until the end of the day?
Fortuna is not with me today. After just a few kilometres, the road turns into large loose rocks that make most of the uphill sections unrideable and the downhills uncomfortable. I soldier on for a while, hoping for a change of surface.
Hope dies last, but after 30 km on very mixed terrain, I’m fed up with loose rock and walking and turn offfrom the ridge into one of the small valleys leading down to the sea.
I stop at a little river to take a break, then continue to the sea and the noise of civilisation along the coastline towards Messina.
They still haven’t built a bridge, so I’m taking the ferry. I just miss one by mere seconds, but they go every 40 minutes, so I don’t have to wait long.
The ferry ride in the sunset is quiet and beautiful. Arriving in Villa San Giovanni on the italian mainland, I immediately start up into the hills, as night is already falling. I find a campspot witha vreat view onto the strait of Messina.
60 km? , 2000 m ascent, lots of walking