stats. Today 81km Trip ??km
A long climb up from lake Idro. We passed through the charmingly named village of Crone, then gained about 600m in altitude over ten or so kilometres. One “longish, darkish tunnel” that was luckily straight-ish as well — for it was indeed both very long and very dark! Roughly half-way up the climb the road levelled out to cross a bridge, then turned sharply into a climb complete with 14% warning signs. I left Jo to continue on my own, passing endless signs warning of “2 Tornante” — a quick zigzag and up some more.
At the top nearly half the group were sitting around waiting to catch their breath, so a great photo shoot was undertaken, fifteen or so cameras lined up in the middle of the road while Nigel worked his way through them all, puzzling out the intricacies posed by a myriad of styles, designs and controls. Ed’s arrival nearly put an end to it all as he rode triumphantly through the middle of the cameras waving madly at all the people, not seeing the cameras and narrowly missing the lot! Within minutes of the majority leaving, Jo arrived, closely followed by Roger, and were greeted by an almost empty hilltop!
A long and windy descent, magnificent in the most part, but one or two scary moments with oncoming cars when we realised just how narrow the road was! Jo and I stopped for a drink and some fruit in the first village that we came to, unfortunately just after the group of ten had been in and upset the proprietor by picking through all her peaches and bananas looking for the ripest ones. “Don’t touch the fruit!” — a warning we heeded well.
Boats in the lake at Lake Peschiera
A fantastic final descent through steep olive groves to Lake Garda, then around the shore of the lake to lunch.
Where?
Idro, Peschiera(45.4333333,10.7)
