Castellammare del Golfo

March 20, 2023

A very mixed day, but one we wouldn’t repeat. On the plus side (in addition to our visit to the cathedral), we found an outstanding route to our destination for the night, Castellammare Del Golfo. In fact, based on this experience II think Monreale makes a better springboard for biking west than Palermo. If we ever started a tour in Palermo again, I think I’d skip Palermo itself and just catch the taxi from the airport to Monreale.

The ride began with a six mile climb on SS186. Not bad, and unavoidable unless you want to sign up for a serious climb through the hills northwest of town. Traffic was moderate and manageable, but we were happy to reach the summit both to mark the end of the climb and to finally come to the turnoff to a much smaller local road to the coast. This was a last minute change from our original plan to follow 186 for most of the way to Castellammare. I looked over the route again this morning, decided 186 was busier than we might want, and looked for improvements. I found them, for sure. Our new route added a few miles, but the next fifteen miles were brilliant as we followed a distressed, semi paved and virtually empty road to the coast before following the water for the final ten miles to town.

On the way back from the cathedral. It’s raining lightly, enough to break out a few bumbershoots, but it will stop by the time we leave our room.

Leaving Monreale, we climb west on SS186 for the first six miles of the ride. Not bad, not great.

So what’s not to like? Well, for one thing look at the photo below. My zoom camera definitely has a focus problem all of a sudden. It’s been a wonderful device, until this morning; and now it’s all but unusable, particularly if I’m zooming in on anything. A complete mystery. I’ve tried everything I can think of including a factory reset (twice). So that’s distressing.

On Strada Intercommunale 7, a gorgeous road that deserves much better photos than this.

It’s hard to overstate how frustrating the camera situation is. Like most of the photos I included here, this is the best of four or five shots I took of this subject. The others were all much worse than this.

The highlight of the day came on a short stretch of road where we encountered a frisky pair of horses, one of them loose in the road. We held up for several minutes watching the show, partly because we weren’t sure how safe it would be to bike past.

Finally the loose one left the road and cantered off into the brush, and we quickly made our move. Almost immediately we’re stopped again though when Rachael squealed with delight at a fenced pasture filled with colorful hogs and piglets.

There were many colorful, charming small piglets, nursing and running around squealing. Sadly, none of those photos came out at all.

One other good/bad thing about the day: we’re starting to see a lot of birds, virtually all new for this year: magpies, jays, gulls, chuffs, jackdaws, doves, swallows. Good, right? Not if you can’t zoom in enough to get a reasonable shot. For example, there’s this collared dove that’s reasonably close and would make for a nice shot it the zoom focused correctly.

You can do somewhat better backing off the zoom almost completely, but then you can’t see any detail. #119: Eurasian collared dove.

#120: Eurasian magpie, reputed by some to be the most intelligent of all bird species. And quite beautiful if you get a good close-up shot.

Really, it’s the death-knell for the bird count unless I can figure out the camera situation. For now I’ll put the quest on hold because it’s just too frustrating.

Right after the horse and pig show we enjoyed a fantastic serpentine descent, one of those where when you look down the slope you can hardly believe where your road is going. Worth many good shots, or one or two poor ones just to remind us.

We stopped for lunch at the Spar in Montelepre, picking up cheese, figs and hazelnuts for me, and bread and bresaola for Rachael and then eating at a bench beside a roadside shrine. And then a few more miles brought us to the coast, and a final ten mile run along the coast rounded out the day.

So the camera definitely put a damper on the day. What else? Well, for one, at one point our road took a steep drop to a creek and then rose steeply up the other side. I was astonished to watch Rachael ahead of me lose momentum on the climb, slow to a crawl, and the somehow pop straight sideways off her bike and land hard on her butt. I can’t quite figure out how she exited this way, actually. She’s sore and bruised, but hopefully no worse off than that.

So that’s two. For a third, it’s probably time to mention the roadside trash situation in Sicily. It wasn’t bad when we were here seven years ago, but was much more noticeable on our second tour. And now it’s really quite dreadful. It’s really a shame, because so much of the island is over the top beautiful.

And, possibly most ominously of all I had another significant arrythmia episode, one that was really disabling. It began about in the midpoint of the ride, when we were on the flats and I was taking photos of that stupid collared dove. Makes no sense. It was really limping by the end of the ride, even though there were no significant hills remaining. So that’s bad, and makes us wonder if this whole tour is even viable. We’ll wait and see, but I can hardly wait to speak with my electrophysiologist next month and see if I can get scheduled for ablation surgery this summer.

This was quite a remarkable, large lemon grove, the ground blanketed in matching flowers.

A railway bridge, west of Castellammare.

We avoided the coast highway for several miles by taking the beach road. It was fine, in the stretches when it was actually a road.

The day ended well though. After resting in our room for an hour or so I felt recovered enough to go out for a meal. And, as luck would have it we had company - as you probably knew already, Jacquie and Al are staying here tonight also, so we enjoyed a second meal together. We ate at a fine waterfront restaurant that they had made reservations for - La Cambusa - and we all ordered the pistachio crusted hake. You’d think with all four of us selecting and enjoying the same dish there would be food photos to share, wouldn’t you? Sorry.

Walking back up from the waterfront to our room after dinner. Isn’t it nice to have such a crisp, focused shot? Thank Rachael’s phone for that.

Heart

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Rachel and Patrick HugensTrash, been a problem for a long time. Its terrible out in the Moroccan countryside, like a dump truck turned over, and yet the cities are clean, constantly swept up. We can thank Lady Bird Johnson for beautifying our highways.
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1 year ago

Ride stats today: 35 miles, 2,600’; for the tour: 60 miles, 5,300’

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2023 Bird List

119. Eurasian magpie

120. Eurasian collared dove

Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 60 miles (97 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	14
Comment on this entry	Comment	15

Graham FinchShame about the camera. Is it old and clapped out? It's strange how some photos are in focus. Is there any grease on the lens itself?

Hopefully your heart is OK and you feel well again soon.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesOh poor Scott, poor Rachael! Sounds like a frustrating and uncomfortable day in so many respects.
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1 year ago

David MathersSorry to hear about camera and garbage issues but really sorry about the arrhythmia’s. Please take care.
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1 year ago

Keith ClassenHope things settle down for you Scott! Take it easy!
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Graham FinchThe camera is only two months old, is still clean and unblemished and has had a pretty easy life so far. It’s a real mystery. It acts like it forgot how to pick a spot to focus on. The clearest shots are when the zoom is retracted and it’s focusing on the scene as a whole.

I’ve been using this camera (the current one and earlier ones of the same model) since it came out in 2016 and never seen this behavior so I’m thinking it’s defective.
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1 year ago

Suzanne GibsonA distressing day. I hope that was the last of your arrhythmia episodes for a while. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Glad that Rachael's fall wasn't more serious. And that your camera isn't focusing properly is a real bummer. No reserve camera hidden somewhere in the bottom of your bags?
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1 year ago

Graham FinchTo Scott AndersonIt does sound like a fault. The only other thing is you've perhaps accidentaly set the focusing to some weird mode.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonYes, I do have a backup camera just in case. It’s a fine camera, except that it lacks much of a zoom. I’ve decided to buy a new zoom camera as soon as I can find a dealer, and send the other one back to the factory under warranty when we get home.

Surprisingly, there’s an electronics store just a mile from our room in little Salemi that lists this camera (its successor, actually) on their website. We’ll hike over there this morning and hope for the best.
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1 year ago

Keith AdamsWow, what a frustrating and potentially discouraging day. As all others have said, here's hoping for rapid and positive resolutions to each of today's issues. Well, except for the trash problem of course: that's not one that's likely to be rectified anytime soon. Then again it's also the one over which you have the least control or ability to influence.

The results of my quick interweb search for LUMIX autofocus issues all had to do with its tendency to focus hunt in video mode, not the problem you're experiencing, so I've got nothing for you. It does indeed sound like replacing the thing (ship the old one home, or direct to Panasonic for evaluation and repair or replacement so you're not lugging it around to no good purpose?) is the best strategy.

Good luck on the arrythmia thing. That's by far the most worrisome.
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1 year ago

Rich FrasierI have to admit that I'm worrying about you. Please take it easy. Good call on replacing the camera - the frustration isn't worth it. Maybe tomorrow will be better?

I agree about the trash situation in Sicily. Such a beautiful place - it's a huge shame that they can't get the roadside trash situation under control.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Rich FrasierThanks, Rich. The next day was much better, but we’ll definitely plan on taking it easy where we can. Worst case we can find some bases, hang out and be glad we’re not in damp, chilly Portland.
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1 year ago

Keith AdamsJust another thought: can you put the camera in manual focus mode and get it to work? It's kind of a PITA with mine but it does sometimes actually do my bidding when I have it set for that. Sometimes.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Keith AdamsYes, I did experiment with that. I can’t say I had any great success with it though. I’m treating the camera as a goner and will send it back in when we return to Portland.
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1 year ago

Tricia GrahamReally sorry to hear of the arythmia Scott but very pleased to hear you are considering an ablation After it being such a feature of our 2009 cycle trip I had an ablation and never again have I had even a tiny episode and no medication.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Tricia GrahamThanks for the encouragement, Tricia. That’s what my cardiologist said is the most likely outcome also. Looking back now, it’s probably something I should have done years ago but medications have been effective enough until fairly recently.
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1 year ago