Pushing North Along the Adige River

 Peschiera del Garda to Rovereto

Resting Out of the Heat! 😎

The agenda for our rest day in PdG was to: 

• hide from the heat
• rest up
• get organised for our early departure tomorrow 
• and most importantly, have dinner and a gabfest with the Three Cliftons and Duckworth

To start the day we had a short stroll to the “Enjoy Garda Hotel” for an expensive but very satisfying breakfast … 

… and then back just past our accommodation  (which counts so far on this trip as our second best place to rest our heads) on to where we knew there was a fresh fruit and vegie shop. We found all the provisions we needed for lunch later in the day and breakfast before departing so we could make an even earlier start on our journey north to Rovereto.  Our plan was to arrive in plenty of time to have a look around the centre of this attractive regional city if it’s not too hot to wander around. If it is, we’ll just hang out somewhere nice in the shade - perhaps in the Piazza Rossini - and watch the world pass by for a few hours, instead of doing the passing by ourselves.

It is very attractive on the waterfront in Peschiera del Garda at the southern end of the lake. Here are a few photos from the immediate area around where we’re staying …

Looking towards the southern end of Lake Garda

Past the entrance to the old city and crossing a bridge across to the island that forms the old city

The way into the old walled city on the right, the way out on the left: both quite narrow

A couple of larger boats on one of the canals at the bottom end of the lake

Di was delighted to discover than not everything floating in this pretty upmarket area to park a boat was super flash. As the daughter of a self-employed sign writer who did lots of gold leaf work for the elite private schools in Launceston and spent endless hours hand building a series of yachts, she is somewhat scornful of ostentation when it comes to boats. Here is a picture of a small, somewhat dilapidated yacht in one of the waterways we crossed on our stroll not nearly as well maintained as her father’s boats were.

I like that they’ve left these old pilings from a previous era in place

Above one of the gates to the inner city Di spotted this plaque of the Lion of Saint Mark, which is the iconic historical symbol of the city of Venice and the former Venetian Republic.

We both had to get a photo of this magnificent sculpture echoing the Roman era

Once midday rolled around we discovered that we were hungrier that we thought we’d be after an excellent breakfast so we ducked over to one of the alleyways across from our accommodation and had a small pizza each. After lunch I did some bike maintenance to prepare our machines for six consecutive days of riding then had an afternoon nap.

In the evening we walked back to the bike hotel, which is officially called the Enjoy Garda Hotel, to meet our friends and fellow travellers for dinner and to say farewell. It turns out that the CCCD crew have a history with the owner of the hotel and were able to get a dinner booking even though they don’t accept reservations from people not staying at the hotel.

It was really gratifying to have a final catch up with the four of them before we went our separate ways. Michael managed to muster a smile for me …

.. despite feeling absolutely ratsh#t (my words, not his). And Di snapped this photo of the two of us where Michael is giving Di his kindly look and I’m engaged in a conversation with Jane …

The very, very good news is that we’ve heard Michael and Louise have managed to arrange a van transfer back to Samoens (where their journey started) for tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. They’ve also had their flights home brought forward and should be home within 48 hours I reckon, where Michael will be able to put his feet up and allow his body recover from this debilitating ailment.

Here is a photo of Duckworth and Jane before we sat down to dinner …

Really what this photo is  all about is the bike subtly positioned in the background to the left. A proper steel Pinarello  with a just as proper early 10 speed Campagnolo groupset - the sort they used to make back in the day where you could order replacement parts for bits of shifters that had worn out, which no other company did at the time or has done since.

After dinner I got a couple of photos on our way back to the Carducci Rooms. We could have taken a ferry up to the other end of Lake Garda, which leaves from just near our accommodation  before continuing northward …

… but that is NOT why we brought bikes all this way from Tasmania!

There was one other sight that arrested me. I’d seen this building before as we went to and fro past it a few times before, but hadn’t really had a good look at it …

What you see is only a snapshot of a very wide and beautiful building. I’m not sure I’ve got my Roman numerals right and I can’t be bothered to look them up, but I think the numbers at the top say that it was built in 1856. It sure is in fine condition for something that’s been around for nearly 200 years. Would I sound like a curmudgeon if I said “They don’t make them like that anymore”?

Back on the bikes and heading north for a beautiful day’s ride

Grapes in abundance dangle from the vines

Here is the route from our accommodation north to Rovereto … 

We rode close to the lake for only the first couple of kilometres and rode up a bit and over a ridge then at about 26 kms descended to the Adige River and the major irrigation canal that runs alongside of it. Very gradual climbing then took us on to Rovereto where the people on reception at the Hotel Rovereto were very welcoming and helpful with bike storage and a nice early check in.

We asked a gentleman if he would mind taking our photo in front of the sign for the hotel’s restaurant and he was happy to oblige …

Here is the elevation profile for today’s ride …

On the road again

As you can see it was kind up lumpy for a while after we left the lakeshore and then settled down to gradually accumulating elevation the rest of the way with just a couple of small bumps. 

It was our best day of weather for riding since we left Piran. Never too hot, with quite a lot of shade and even cool air at times as we rode alongside the river.

It was great to be out early enough to get a low angle shot of the sun starting to wake up the world …

That was after we’d left the side of the lake, which itself was very nice to see early in the morning when it wasn’t swarming with people …

Not long after leaving the lake when we were riding up through some low hills we were already seeing grapes growing along our route, albeit not in such great abundance as further north. They were smashing it though - have a look at the amount of grapes on these vines:

We loved the way most of the vines we rode past were trained to form a canopy. I tried to capture that effect and put together two videos when we were on roads, one small the other larger but not very busy …

At about the 50 kilometre mark we came to the bar-ristorante that I’d factored in for a good long rest. It turned out to be a terrific spot for us to pull over, have our first coffee of the day and get some proper breakfast into us. There was a nice sculpture right beside the path so we couldn’t miss it as we approached …

With two-thirds of the day’s ride done by quarter to ten we thought we deserved the long break we’d penciled in here. We both had a coffee, shared a large toastie, had a tiny chocolate/banana cake each, drank lots of aqua frizzante and looked at the attractive scenery from a cafe seat rather than a bike saddle for a change.

In which bike paths come into their own

After we paused for that break, we found ourselves almost exclusively on bike paths but occasionally these gave way to narrow roads used by farmers to access their vineyards. At one point I wished I’d had my GoPro in hand because this very narrow tractor came towards us and I would have liked to get a photo of it as I had never seen anything quite like it before.

We started to get lots of good close views of the river …

… and by now between the mountains and the vines, we were getting into some very pretty scenery …

… and had a bit of laugh when we passed a little bunch of donkeys. One of them started doing its braying think as we got close and I thought I’d get a little video of the fuss it was making but then it decided to shut up when we stopped, so I had to settle for a photo instead …

It was the black one who was making so much noise - 

maybe being protective of the little foal you can see if you look closely

There was the occasional small village along our route … but not many of these sort of settlements …

As we were closing in on Rovereto we passed an abandoned factory of some sort …

… and a little further on we encountered the charming sight of a young mum taking her two boys - who I reckon were abut five and six yeas old - out for a roll along the bike path …

They were just having a short pause before powering up the little rise we’d just rolled down. We were getting close to Rovereto and looking forward to arriving at our hotel and seeing if we could check in early. And then … hey presto! A little glitch appeared.

Lost in Translation!

Just a few kilometres out from Rovereto while riding on the bike path we were both carefully watching our maps for a convoluted turn to take us across the river only to find we’d gone past it. After turning around, we  went back only to discover a worker closing a gate that had been temporarily left ajar. That was the exit we thought we’d missed and we were a bit non-plussed when the guy wouldn’t let us through. 

Thankfully his mate spoke some English and explained they were working on the bridge we intended to cross and it was out of action. It turned out our map was out of date and we had to do a detour by going back along the bike path, crossing back over the irrigation canal we’d just come across about five hundred metres back and go further along before being able to cross it and the river and ride into the city. He gave a general kind of wave to indicate how to get around the problem and used the phrase “new road” to indicate the route had been amended. 

I was ahead of Di and thought he’d indicated we had to leave the path we’d been on, so I followed the first  exit I came to. Meanwhile, just after I left the bike path, Di saw a slew of cyclists heading towards her from direction Rovereto. She called out to me just as I was coming to grips with a steep little ramp which I was just coming to the top of and really had no choice but to keep the pedal to the metal. The road looked pretty good so I thought I’d rejoin the bike path and meet Di up before she got to the point of crossing the river but that petered out and into loose gravel which in turn took me to a dead end at a quarry. There was nothing for it to backtrack to where I’d made my *somewhat hasty* error but I spun the cranks and caught up to Di just as she was trying to call me.

I have no doubt that when the members of team CCCD read this they will be rolling on the floor. All I can say is that at least this time I knew straight away what I needed to do to get back on track. Oh, and that I only needed one extra kilometre rather than two to rectify the problem. And yes, I have heard - many times - the old adage “Less haste, more speed”. 😁

Despite this minor glitch it was a super enjoyable day of cycling. the hotel Rovereto is a classy joint and the staff here are super friendly and very helpful. It has displaced the Carducci Rooms on my leaderboard of accommodation for this trip as the second best so far.

I will leave you with a short compendium of some of today’s superb riding (mostly) along bike paths and narrow paved roads that service the vineyards …