A Ride Into Pompei May 27

I was awake before my alarm this morning and got packed up in record time. A quick breakfast and I was ready to push back and take off at 7:20 Am. This is at least 40 minutes early. So I got in a great early morning ride in the relative morning cool.

The first 30 kms when by very quickly as it was dead flat and open country roads allowed me to average 27-30 kms/hr. Then I hit Salarno which is a huge crowded city. The traffic was unbelievable. You had to bike through a sea of cars, trucks, buses and scooters. It was 1-6 lanes wide. Nobody was in a lane and moving along in a straight line everyone was just cutting in and out. Scooters cutting around the vehicles. Total insanity! The exhaust was a killer. I was choking by the time I got to the other side.

After Salarno, It was on to the Amalfi coast. This area is famous for the buildings clinging to the shear cliffs which plunge hundreds of feet into the sea. There was a lot of neat climbs and descents on the road until I got right into Amalfi itself. Then there was more traffic and it was jammed. Two buses had gotten together and traffic was all bottled up. More exhaust!.

I came up to one of the staff and he had blown a huge hole in his rear tire. He didn’t have a tube or any tools and didn’t know how to fix his tire. So I fixed it. His tire was an odd ball size so I had to patch the tube but it was a ¼ inch hole in the tube. I put a cardboard boot in the tire but the casing was so bad it didn’t hold. So I fixed it 3 more times before I finally got it fixed. He was able to finish the ride.

By now I am at the tail end of the ride and come in close to last and all the camping spots are taken and the showers have nothing but cold water. So I crowed my tent in and had a cold shower (the second one in a row). Topping it off it was my turn on dishes.

Tomorrow is a day off so I am going to see the ruins at Pompei. We are camped right beside them.