Thursday, June 2

As already mentioned, my accommodation being just one street from the sea, I went to the small pebble beach and had a refreshing swim right after waking up.

I packed up my stuff and decided to head out of town. Leaving he maze of the narrow streets, I saw a small crowd in my narrow street - it was the locals buying freshly caught tuna fish. I could hardly squeeze my bike through the commotion. One of the guys proudly claimed he was the one responsible for the catch.

A little later, I accidentally ran across my host, who was on his way to make up my room. We chatted more than the night before, he turned out to be a school teacher and spoke good English. He asked me where I was going, I (of course) had no idea yet, so he recommended that I climb up the mountain behind the quarter I had slept in.The road to the top of Monte Pellegrino was 10 km long, was quite tiring with all my luggage, but it was the opener to the love affair with this island. On the road uphill, I came across a lot of other bikers, mostly local ones going for a spin. The views were stunning, the city of Palermo laid at my feet, with the port being encircled by all kinds of ships.

At the top I came across the first highlight of this trip – the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia, which is a grotto church. That day was a public holiday and a mess was in full swing when I entered. Here I learned that even Goethe had visited this church.

My plan was to continue westward, but I was informed that the road was closed by gates. I continued to the very top of the mountain, with ever nicer views of the shore below.

I detected a mountain dirt bike trail, which I thought would lead past the gate. Well, loaded with all my luggage, it was not an easy ride at all. It turned out to be a protected area, called Riserva Naturale Monte Cofano. Often, I had to get down and shove the bike through the narrow path, sometimes descending steeply then creeping uphill and cursed myself a bit. Suddenly, I was rewarded with the most spectacular view of the coastline, having Isole delle Femmine below.

I was quite happy to make it back from the hard, MTB trail to a paved road, I smiled a bit, but not for long. The gate that was mentioned earlier was right in front of me. This one was not so hard to by-pass, I just had to unload my 5 bags, push them under the bottom and walk my bike carefully on the narrow path next to the gate. Challenge cleared. Nope, not yet, as I rode downhill, came yet another gate, this one was a lot trickier. Again, all bags down, I still do not know how, but I managed to crawl up a very steep incline next to the road while shoving and pulling my bike, only to repeat the show downwards. I was glad not to have broken any bones.

So now I was down on the coast and decided to take a rest in a park surrounded by heavy traffic. I watched the Italians drive, it was not as crazy as you might imagine, people were using their indicators when turning and were more or less ceding the way as they were supposed to – no honking, seemingly no aggression - surprise, surprise. I left town, as the beach looked crowded, not all too inviting. I started heading out in a westwardly direction, following the coastline. Well outside town, I did spot a few cars being parked (probably) illegally – it was a nice patch of beach below the road. I locked up my bike and started the short hike to the sea. Here was something which I will have to mention, but is not part of the love story for Sicily – that was trash, lots of it. The path was lined by broken glass, rutting metal, toilet seats, washing machines – in all, quite disgusting. This was my first encounter with trash – well, actually the second, the part of town in Palermo next to the market is not famous for being clean. Anyhow, the water was excellent and had a pleasant, refreshing swim.

In a huge supermarket close to the town of Carini, called Centro Commercial Poseidon (it was open despite the religious holiday), I decided to cool down somewhat and take a break. There was a huge supermarket being practically empty, here I found something I found real cool - it was a pineapple automat. One just had to place a full pineapple inside the machine, push a button – and in like 10 seconds, it would peel the fruit and put it nicely slided up in a plastic box. I had two of these.

The heat struck me when I left – it was well over 40 degrees. The bikes were no longer permitted on the main road, so I had to cruise through some residential streets, which sometimes ended, me having to back-track. I was a bit unsure whether I had made a good decision of coming to Sicily, with this heat and all this trash, will I really get to like it?It was late and was getting naturally quite worn in the heat, there was a sign proclaiming a campground being was just a mile or so away. It was then that I saw I "road closed" sign. I had already ridden past two gates that day, I did not care about this sign and rode onwards. The issue was that a bridge over a river had collapsed – this one I was not in the mood for crossing in the dark.

So I had to back-track. The signs were confusing and it took me a long time to find the detour. The road started inclining, then more and more, I could not believe how steep it was. I could hardly make it and had to take a rest to catch my breath. On this otherwise deserted road, a car comes from behind and I hailed him, asking if I was on the right road. It was an elderly couple, did not speak the best English, but they understood my problem. They rode ahead, thus becoming my "follow me" car, he led me up a very, very steep incline. They were really patient, they had to wait for me to push, I was close to hyperventilating. The small, steep road ended on a very busy motorway bridge, where he told me he would “protect” me while riding behind me, with all his indicators. Right after the bridge, there was an unsigned road, with an equally steep drop downhill, back to the coast. They lead me all the way to the campground…how nice, thanks, thou Sicilians! I had to rest for like 20 minutes before pitching my tent, so tiring was this last stretch.

Here you can see the map of the journey that day. It was about 87 kilometers,