Monday 23 October 2017

North Sicilia Traverse

Palermo to Trapani

On paper the route today looked fairly appealing, starting with a long gradual climb out of Palermo and then some very nice rolling terrain. Here's a look at where we travelled ...


... and here's the profile ...


A Brief Quibble Before Waxing Lyrical

Rubbish. If you read my last post you would have noticed my disappointment with intermittent deposits of rubbish as we toured around Sardegna. Well, what we saw on the side of the road there was nothing compared to what we passed by today, our first in Sicilia. There was quite a lot of garbage generally but from time to time there were huge collections of bags of waste just left collectively by what must have been large numbers of people. At one stage as i was cruising downhill I passed a place where there was masses of the stuff on both sides of the road. In fact had I not been going downhill at a fairly good clip I would have stopped to take a photo to show just how bad it was. So, that's that done and dusted.

Of Vineyards, Coastal Views and Quarries

More beautiful Mediterranean landscapes on offer today, that's for sure. The long climb out of Palermo went for about seventeen kilometres. Towards the end of it I stopped to take this photo of a small mountain range that we had skirted ...


Once at the top of that first long climb the country opened up as we moved down onto the coast and then inland again, with more hills and mountains on either side and vineyards scattered throughout the landscape. Here's one estate we passed by, with vines in varying stages of development ...

After missing the morning coffee stop somewhere in Trappeto I cruised into the town of Balestrate where I spotted a small coffee shop. As it was about forty-seven kilometres into the ride I thought I ought stop and get a coffee and fill my water. The place looked fairly modest from the outside but when I got inside my eyes popped open at the great array of pastries and cakes. "Wow" I thought, but showed some restraint and just ordered a cappuccino and my first ever pistachio croissant. What a treat and am I hoping to find more of those.

Here's a shot I took at about the same time in the ride ...


Here's a shot looking back at Castellammare del Golfo at about 65 kilometres into the ride ...


Di, who was riding off and on with Sharon and Bernadette,  paused a little further up the hill where there was a nice clear shot down into the inner harbour ...


After that ascent there was a nice descent into a valley and  on the lower slopes of Monte Sparagio to the north, huge quarries began to appear. Here's a smaller one behind some vineyards closer to the road ...


Interestingly enough, drivers here seem to be well accustomed to cyclists - there sure were lots out on the road today - but seem to be significantly less considerate of them than they were on either Corsica or Sardinia. A number of the group today commented about how they found that motorists generally seemed to be giving them less margin for error. I certainly thought that at times I would have appreciated a bit more space. Having said that, I never really felt like I was in danger - just crowded a bit more. Like I said ... interesting ...