To Clusane d’Iseo

May 29, 2023

For the first time in over a week we’re uncertain about the day’s weather. To give ourselves the most flexibility with whatever conditions we awaken to, we ordered breakfast at seven when we submitted our completed breakfast forms via email yesterday. It’s to be delivered to our room (there’s no dining area or office space in the B&B), but at 7:20 it hasn’t arrived so Rachael gives a call. The man of the house knocks on the door a minute later, looking concerned and puzzled because he never received our forms and assumed we apparently just didn’t want breakfast. We hand him the completed paper forms that are still lying around, and our meals arrive about ten minutes later. Later Rachael will look again at her phone and see that there was a delivery failure on the email, so it’s on us.

No big deal, but it means we didn’t quite get the early start we’d planned on. Which is no big deal either, because this morning it looks like we’re not getting the rain we expected either - at least not until perhaps one, which leaves us sufficient time for the ride north to Lake Iseo if we stay on task. We can’t check in until two there anyway.

Leaving Crema. This is ‘our’ street, and our home here is just on the right: B&B Vimercati, a quite nice place.

After a week in the flats, we’re excited that we’ll start seeing a bit of contour in the land by the end of the ride. It starts out still flat though, and even though we’re steadily climbing as we follow the Serio River north toward the Dolomites it’s an imperceptible grade that only lifts us 200 feet in the first twenty miles. It’s a pleasant, safe ride the whole way but not one that often tempts me to slow down the train to break out the Lumix.

North along the Serio. In the best spots we’re following a paved riverside bike path.

More of the time is like this though, on a paved path beside the road - which is perfectly fine too.

The Serio is behind that tree line, running through the center of the large protected green space we’ve been following for miles.

Excitement builds about twenty miles into the ride when we cross over from the Serio to the Mincio, the river that sources and drains Lake Iseo. Exciting because we can see the outlines of the hills ahead, and exciting because we can see what look like thunderclouds building above them. We start wondering whether we’ll arrive dry or not.

I love rides like this where you gradually approach the high country and see it slowly swelling as you draw nearer.

Still dry, still biking north along a green belt protected river, but the Mincio this time.

We’re not far off now. The near shore of Lake Iseo is just a few miles away, at the base of the nearest hills.

Video sound track: Drgonfly, by Yasmin Williams

It’s touch and go, but we arrive virtually dry save for a very light sprinkling that amounts to nothing. Once we’re at the lakeside the first order of business is to stop at the Lidl for provisions for the next two nights. Fortunately Rachael’s done the advance work to discover that our lakeside village doesn’t have a grocery store, so we stop here in the outskirts of larger Sarnico and then bike the last two miles to our apartment.

When we arrive at our self check-in apartment there’s some consternation when we can’t figure out where our unit is or how to get to it. We’re in a gated condominium complex, and the instructions say to enter the last door on the left and our room is on the second floor. There’s no room number, and there’s ambiguity over which of the three locked entryway doors might be the ‘last one on the left’. Rachael guesses correctly as we eventually find out, but it doesn’t seem like it at first because none of the four keys on the key ring opens it - or any of the other doors either. And since no room number or other identification was provided, we’re just guessing here which door is ours.

We try phoning, but naturally no one answers; so I make the rounds with the keys again, and finally one opens. It’s one of those locks that you have to hold your mouth just right and jiggle the key in exactly the right way to open it. Phew!

Iseo looks like a fine place to be staying for a couple of nights, or even longer. It was on our itinerary two years ago until it dropped from the plan because of the rains and we caught the train from Trento to Crema instead. It’s always looked and sounded attractive to me though - a smaller lake, and one not as well publicized as the larger, more famous ones. For tonight we’re happy to walk along the shore and explore our small village before and after dinner and save our longer look for tomorrow.

In Clusane, a small village at the south end of the lake.

The view west to Predore, another lakeside village, with the foothills rising directly behind it.

Some great cormorants with a great view.

Some red-crested pochards. She’s herding four or five others too, but I couldn’t get coax them into a decent photo together.

Looking across the narrow southmost finger of the lake.

The day ends with Team Anderson mastering the most precarious part of the day - getting into bed without breaking our necks climbing up to it on the loft, or sliding across the mattress without braining ourselves on the wooden beams just a few feet above it. It’s especially a challenge for me because Rachael’s in bed first and sleeps on the near side of the mattress so I have to slip above her and under the beams to get to my side without disturbing her. We plan our evening well, with the intention that neither of us will have to get up in the middle of the night.

A scary situation. We haven’t seen an arrangement like this since our last tour of Sicily.

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Ride stats today: 35 miles, 900’; for the tour: 1,499 miles, 65,300’

Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 1,542 miles (2,482 km)

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