October 9, 2023
Day 33: Castelpoto to Venafro
Indifference
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One look at the ride summary will tell you that things didn't go too well for us today. But let's pretend it's still bright and early this morning, which for us was a lackluster 8:30. It takes time to break camp. But Raul, who for reasons still unknown to us is asked as a volunteer to stay overnight in the LIPU office, was patient.
We said our goodbyes, thinking that we were headed in opposite directions, but we rode together for a few minutes before he turned left to return to his home, which we understood to be one of those nearby hilltop towns. We turned right, just before the end of the bike path. I suspected from the routing that something squirrely was about to happen, and it did:
It was push push push the bikes until we crossed under what looked like a good sized highway. I said to myself at that moment, boy would I like to be on that smooth highway instead of this infernal tractor trail. I asked my dear wife and she said sure, why not. It involved removing my panniers to lift the bike up about 2 feet over the concrete railing. It was worth it to have peace of mind.
As we continued to slowly climb on this road, I noticed how little traffic there was, and how overgrown the vegetation on the shoulders looked. I thought we had chosen poorly. Thankfully, the road went where the map said it would go, and without any surprises. Things were looking good.
We'd hardly reconnected with Eurovelo 5, when we saw this mysterious sign:
By now, we'd grown wary of any road closure signs. We certainly weren't going to be scared by one that hadn't even been unwrapped yet!
We hit a long stretch of mild descent, which was nice, except that once again we had to look at the pavement to avoid potholes and such. At one point we both stopped and said that we should look at the view for a minute. Great minds think alike!
This was another one of those days when the only town on the route was pretty early on, so we stopped and enjoyed a short spell at the local bar. The owner was really sweet and put little hearts on our macchiatos:
We had hoped that a proper dose of caffeine would get us revved up. Instead, my dear wife wasn't feeling so hot. I think it was a lack of sleep from all the owls and such that were partying all night. In her words, "it was like the Amazon out there." Starting the day with that long, steep tractor trail was probably a contributing factor. She was going slow enough that I became concerned. We had a lot of ground to cover, and we weren't going to get there at this rate.
I was trying to be optimistic. The route had leveled out and we had a slight tailwind. Even if the rest of the day still had its literal and figurative ups and downs, we were going to be ok.
Then this happened:
OK, it's blurry, and it doesn't tell a story by itself anyway. We ignored the signs and approached a fellow in a yellow safety jacket with a cigarette dangling from his mouth (safety first!). I was seriously expecting a positive result, where we'd either be given the green light to proceed, or an escort would be arranged for us, or whatever. However, this guy wouldn't budge. There was the language barrier of course, but he only offered us a detour that would take us anywhere between 300 and 500 meters of elevation gain up the mountain. This was not a day to even try something so ambitious. We were already pushing it in terms of distance, and our lodging for the evening was already paid for. It was time to improvise.
We pulled over into a shady spot and I went into action. I looked up train schedules and achieved mixed results. There was a way to get to Venafro from Ponte, where we had stopped at the bar. However, it was essentially a commuter service that only runs in the mornings and the afternoons. It also involved a transfer at a place called Caserta, which we'd never heard of before. We hemmed and hawed and finally decided this was the way to go. Reluctantly, we turned around, still fuming at the general lack of information given to travelers as regards construction and road closures.
On our way to a restaurant for lunch (something we almost never do), we stopped by the pitiful little train station in Ponte. The anti-touring-bike bars were an ominous sign. There were two tracks, and, according to the time table posted on the wall, two binari (platforms), but it was impossible for us to tell which was which, where we should wait, etc. This little scheme was going to cause us a lot of anxiety. Stuff that's manageable when you just have a suitcase becomes a lot more questionable when you each have a bike with panniers attached. Really, in a lot of ways, when we have to take the train while touring, it's way more stressful than riding. I wish that wasn't the case.
There's also something of a heat wave forming in this part of the country -- or maybe it's the whole country, I don't know. As we sat in the shade, eating way more food than we normally do for lunch, we tried not to think about the unknowns involved in our change of plans.
1:30 rolled around and we decided it was time to head back to the station for our 1:50 train. When we arrived, there was a guy waiting there. In our terrible Italian, we asked him what to do. We didn't understand everything he said, but the gist of it was, "relax, it'll be fine". He was right. Everything turned out fine. We were still nervous, but his presence helped a lot.
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The train was fairly empty, so we had plenty of room to spread out our stuff. Whew!
Fortune continued to shine on us in Caserta when we deboarded. An elevator! Staring us straight in the face! And big enough for a bike!
But as in France, we were fooled. The elevator back up to the station lobby was out of order. It was time to hike our bike up the stairs. Just as we were preparing to do so, we ran across a fellow cycle tourist. Great! We can help each other haul gear and keep an eye on each other's belongings. But nope, this grizzled old Dutchman had his own ideas. He asked me to help him drag his bike up the stairs, which I gladly did, then he waved goodbye and darted off towards the exit. I figured he must've been in a big hurry to be somewhere else.
After that demoralizing incident, we pondered whether to just go to our next platform and wait another two-and-a-half-hours for our connecting train. Ultimately we decided to tackle the stairs one flight at a time. It was a lot of work, but I think we made the right call. The platforms didn't have benches, and probably didn't even have adequate shade in the middle of the day.
We went to another bar and had a couple of cold drinks. I typed up yesterday's journal entry. Poor cell service at LIPU had caused the delay. It was actually a learning experiene to notice how ingrained my routine of writing had become. I missed not being able to put my thoughts down while they were still fresh. I didn't need to be online to write, but having all the data and photos and such available to work with makes a huge difference.
When we returned to the train station and carefully walked our bikes down the stairs, another regional train was biding its time on the platform, its doors open. Our days camping next to the train tracks had exposed us to the wide variety of rolling stock used by Trenitalia. This particular train set is what we dreamed of: three cars with a capacity of three bikes each. And outlets to charge e-bikes!
What we got instead was this:
But hey, it worked, and that's all that really matters. I'm hoping we don't have to take any more trains this trip, but if we do, I think we deserve one of the fancy new ones. We've earned it!
We made it to Venafro on time, where our host was waiting for us. We're now happy non-campers enjoying the comfort of an apartment owned by an Italian who is fluent in English, and his wife, who is American! We haven't enjoyed the luxury of communicating so easily since we stayed with Karin in Vicenze. It seems so long ago!
I don't have anything planned for tomorrow, so I have to get going on that. Maybe we'll just stay here for another day. It's not out of the question!
Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 1,901 km (1,181 miles)
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7 months ago
7 months ago
7 months ago
The only downside is that with the huge work in progress the whole area is full of heavy trucks but the detour is really minimal and easy to cycle.
If that can help anyone, the GPS route is available at https://cumulus.dyomedea.com/s/Z8akAkHcTQjJ8AW .
Hope this helps,
Eric
3 weeks ago
2 weeks ago