Once again, we’re grateful that today is a layover day. It’s very foggy this morning, as dense as it was yesterday; but we have all day to fit in the ride we have planned, so there’s no rush to hop on the bikes. After breakfast we take a walk along the river on our way to the supermarket, going on faith that the river really is out there somewhere behind this grey shroud. Afterwards we return to our room to wait for the fog to lift.
On the berm beside the Po di Venezia, the main channel of the river. I’m sure it must be very wide here, but it’s invisible this morning.
And, we wait some more. Finally we can’t take it any more and start out at about 1. Our timing is perfect - the sun is just breaking through the clouds as we leave the hotel.
On the berm behind the hotel again, at about the same spot the photo above was taken four hours earlier. Interesting that the house boat, if that’s what it is, rests upon pontoons like the nearby bridges do.
Looking across the river. It’s still impressively wide here, even after about half of its water has split off into separate rivers a few miles upstream.
On the bridge, chatting with Peter from Berlin, on his way on a bike tour from Verona to Brindisi. He’s one of the very few bike travelers we’ve seen here so far. We really enjoyed comparing notes, and look forward to a possible reunion if we ever make it up to Berlin.
Our ride today is a pure out and back, following the coastal bike route north across the delta through and past a series of lagoons. Being an out and back, this is Rachael’s chance to break out on her own and set her own pace for the next hour or so - which she does at the first opportunity, leaving me as soon as I stop with the camera.
I keep a reasonably good pace actually, but there are enough subjects demanding my attention along the way that I gradually lag further and further behind. Two brief sightings in particular stood out, each too ephemeral to capture with the camera. The first was a fox, just on the other side of a narrow channel, maybe fifty yards away. I got a good look at him, but he slipped off into the tall grass before I could get the camera out. I so rarely see foxes in the wild that I’m always delighted by them.
The other was a nutria. Not that unusual, because I’d been seeing them all along today - this is the greatest concentration of nutria I’ve seen anywhere. This one was special though, because he dashed out of the grass and ran across the bike path immediately in front of me, startling both of us. He was close enough that I had to clutch the brakes to avoid hitting him. He ran to the other side at full speed (which, being a nutria, is really pretty slow), his webbed hind feet loudly slapping on the pavement as he scrabbled along.
An hour and a half later Rachael appears around the bend, racing my way. It’s getting late in the day now, the fog is returning and it’s cooling down fast, so we keep a fast pace all the way back to the room. No sense going much slower now anyway, because it’s getting too grey to see much of anything. By now, we’re both more interested in a warm shower and dinner.
Today’s video link, and sound track: Alchemy, by Marconi
The GBO has been raising a stink, anxious to see Italy again - I imagine he’s still carrying a torch for that hot corkscrew from Basilicata. The flat Po Delta is perfect - where else could such a runty guy be able to enjoy such a long view without standing on someone’s shoulder?
A bit of yard art near the bike path. I wish I’d also taken a photo of the two ferocious dogs guarding the property - a pair of yipping Yorkshire terriers or the like. They were quite charming, fiercely charging through the grass toward me from about a hundred yards away, hopping over small channels as they came.
For much of the ride the path is just yards from the lagoons and channels, but most of the time you can’t see them because of the berms or vegetation blocking the views. Very nice riding in spite of this though.
I’ve been hoping to get close enough to one of these raptors to get a decent view. They’re the predominant large raptor here, and I’ve been wondering what they are. I was surprised to find it is the common buzzard - surprised because for some reason I’ve always thought a buzzard was a type of vulture.
I was excited to finally see a living coypu (nutria) two days ago, after seeing countless coypu pelts flattened on the road. They’re nothing special here though - I saw easily two dozen of them today, grazing in the fields or swimming in the channels.
