We managed a reasonably early start hoping to reach Schlanders, putting us within striking distance of the Reschen Pess the next day. The ride started pretty well, sun shining - once it cleared the top of the amazingly high ridge line - no wind, nice cool temperature for riding. We were about 10km along the track, just after chatting with a local cyclist who had spent 8 months in Australia and spotted the flag on the back of my bike - when the cycle path ended. When this happens there very few, if any, signs to assist you to navigate to the next section, and we seem to always spend a lot of time finding our way.
Our good map of the Via Claudia Augusta (Bikeline series) is in Canberra where I accidentally left it. Our attempts to replace it since arriving in Italy have been unsuccessful, as it is not an Italian publication. We have a Kompass map of the route which is virtually useless. By the time we wound our way through Lana, Marling and Merano and finally found where the bike path restarted we had a stiff to howling headwind to deal with.
The scenery continues to be absolutely amazing, although a bit hard to fully enjoy when you can't hear yourself think above the sound of the wind.
The scenery is...
just amazing...
and keeps coming.
There is some good signage....
on this section of the route, beyond Meran.We rode for a while with an ex Londoner who had married a local girl and was out for a spin on his road bike. He showed us where to refill our water bottles before heading home.
Taken by the Pom.
We have had some too-long days out with long distances, trouble finding campsites, up to 36 degree heat and howling headwinds, and at least two of us were happy to stop around 3pm when we found a nice campground at Laves to spend the night. The view out our tent door is stunning. Some friendly German neighbours in a caravan offered us a cup of coffee and we (particularly our German speaking Tracey) had a long chat with them.
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