After saying goodbye to the ladies and Wolfgang, I leave again. Soon, the city starts to become greener and I am out of the city
I drive through a park and the street slowly turns into a path and then into a track, always a little uphill. I am navigating with the gps, but I shouldn't have.
One part of the track is closed and I am triing another route. The track becomes smaller, and turns into a muddy rill. I really really should have gone back the last two kilometers but I didn't. It goes now downhill, and the track is nothing but a spur through mud. It takes all my power to keep the bike upright, to lift it over rocks. Even one of my sidebags gets teared away and I have great problems putting it back while still pulling the brake with one hand.
It got even worse
But I finally arrive on asphalt covered with dirt. It seems as if my backwheel is deformed but after I spent all my reserve water for washing it, it turns out that there were just two big pieces of mud and the bike hasn't shown any weekness at all. I also wash my brakes and decide to not follow the gps anymore.
The mainstreets over the Appenin keep getting steeper. Luckily, my knee doesn't hurt anymore even though I still feel it. After my Lunch brake it starts to rain, but I have now good raingear and I am in a good mood. I love such challenges like the appenin and keep going. I say to myself its only 800 Meters altitude or like we say in Switzerland, "Hoppla, what was that".
The Appenin
I am In the middle of the mountains, or better said on a mainroad on a pass surrounded by firs and the top of the pass will just not come. Everytime I think, there should be the peak, there is another to go. But I finally make it and the route to Pistoia goes all downhill. It is cold and I have to put another jacket on in order not to freeze while driving downhill. Now I'm in the toscana. Instead of flat fields, there are now hills with olive groves and big cypresses.
It is already 6pm when I arrive in Pistoia, so I don't even look at the city and keep driving towards a campground another 20 kilometers away. My energy is now on low level, the acceleration and lack of blood sugar makes it hard for me. When I finally think that I already should see the campground, there is a bad surprise. The Campground is on 300 Meters altitude and as I don't have the power to drive, I have to walk uphill.
Finally on the campground, I set up my tent, take a shower and take dinner in the Camprestaurant. I am just too tired to cook myself.
The next morning I leave early after eating some so called "brioches". Pieces of puff-pastry painted with sugar. Italians are good chefs but have no idea what a decent breakfast looks like.
It takes my a while until I find a way down the hill, I had to take the same street again on which I came up. There was a way that led downhill into the right direction but it turned out as a trekking path. No, not again, I won't try it this time.
Soon I arrive in Lucca where my sister and her husband and my nephew are on vacation. They stay in a vaccation house and I am really glad that I can do my laundry, wash my bike and bring everything in order again.
The next day we drive to Pisa. While they take the car, am I drving with my fully packed bike to fulfill the journey.
The next days we spend, playing cards, playing with my nephew, going to Lucca and Viareggio, cooking and so on.
