Thursday 16th June: Misty, then clear then drizzly rain, 18°C to 24°
Calosso to Alba: 33k, 5hrs 30mins from 9.30am to 3.00pm
Misty morning in Calosso
Gotta hang on to the back of Milton
Graham's fallen off the back
Make sure the girls buy tomatoes
Village welcome with wine at 11am
Not pretty. Milton in the gutter
Now that's a pretty picture
Go home to your mother!!
Coffee under the cherry tree
Coffee with view of vineyards
Lunch at the top
Our last day cycling. Today was a shorter day from our magnificent Agriturismo Ca Rapulin. Just a minor incident when we stopped to chat to another Aussie cyclist from Perth and Jenny and Milton had a tangle with Milton ending up in the gutter and Jenny with a small graze on her knee. Not enough to write home about, just an incident to blog about.
A luxurious breakfast at 8.30am with home made hazelnut chocolate cake, warm bread and jams. Our host is a busy Mum who is either tripping around with her kids, at a business meeting, or counting grapes - she returned from her vineyards with a calculator so what else could she be counting - definitely not sheep! We're packed and out the door by 9.30am. First its a small uphill to the turnoff we missed yesterday, then down a steep hill and up to Castiglioni Tinella where we think there's be a small shop.
Arriving in the village square we spy the only small shop in town and Jenny and I get the obligatory bread, cheese, meat and tomato. Meantime, our arrival in the village has been noticed by several me drinking at the local bar - its 11am, and are waiting at the door with a bottle of cold white local wine, with 6 plastic cups, waiting to quench the thirst of seemingly weary travellers. It would be insulting to refuse. The wine is nice and the compliments prompt an offer of a bottle of moscato. Sorry, but we need to get through the day without wobbling off.
Another hour of cycling and we're past Neive and at midday, find a picnic table in a small park under a cherry tree. Someone has rescued som hazelnut cake from breakfast so its coffee and/or tea with cake. There's another hill to climb, as there always is, and at the top I'm a bit ahead of the rest and say "hi" to a lone cyclist, as is my habit, and get a "How u going" response with an Australian accent. I stop to chat, as does Milton 10 metres behind me, as does Jenny, and they soon find themselves in a tangle with Milton in the gutter and Jenny down on one knee. Milton is clearly OK and inbetwen asking Jenny "Are you OK Jenny?" I'm asking for the photographer. "Are you OK Jenny? where's the camera?" Ian rolls in with the camera and our tangled duo pose for photographs. I need something to go with my blog for the day. And maybe the morning tea wine had an effect afterall.
Down a very steep hill again along the valley road where we had to speak sternly to a dog that wanted to chase us, then up another hill towards Barbaresco where there's another picnic table with another view overlooking more vineyards. It's too good to pass up even though it was only an hour ago since morning tea. Fresh bread, cheese, ham tomato and some more purloined chocolate cake from breakfast that just appeared on the table.
It's starting to drizzle at 2pm when we've finished lunch, but there's only 8k to go to Alba. Donning raincoats, we're off down the hill, up and over a small hill and then down into Alba where we reach our hotel San Lorenzo at 3pm just as the rain is getting heavier.
The rest of the afternoon is spent re-packing gear into 3 lots - stuff to parcel-post in a suitcase back to Paris from Menton when we get there tomorrow, stuff in our backpacks ready to go hiking from Menton on Saturday, and stuff that is old and decrepit that will be thrown away - like old shoes, socks, cycling knicks that were about to thrown back in oz but we thought we may as well use them in Italy one last time.
By 5.30 we're packed and Ian goes downtown to buy some lunch to eat on the train tomorrow. Jenny, Graham, Ian and myself have almost 6hrs of travelling to Menton on the French Riviera, whilst Donna and Milton are cycling/catching trains to Turin, then Briancon and eventually Cognac on the west coast of France.
At 7.30, its dinner at the same restaurant we visited 7 days before - Civico Undici (Social Food). It's juts as nice as last time, but we remember to not eat and drink as much. Donna insists we go for gelati afterwards and we're not disappointed. These tiny hole-in-the-wall gelati shops always have a queue of people as late as 10pm at night - an for good reason - Cold Rock eat your heart out!
Back to the hotel and our bikes that we've parked in the courtyard are still there waiting to be picked up by Gennaro from Veloce bike - but he's sent a message to say he won't be there til later - much later. We're in bed when I hear him come about midnight.
Lunch with view of more vineyards
Full circuit back to Alba
Unpacking for last time