Sicily La Chiusa.

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Sicily Day 12. Wed. 21 Oct 2015
On the road to La Chiusa
The meal in the hotel last night was exceptional with three courses plus fruit for a sweet and a small shot of sweet white wine. The first antipasta course was enough for a meal in itself before we even looked at the others. Luckily we had time to make room for more and cram it in ready for the next day. The breakfast was also quite good with a good variety of breads, ham, cheese, cakes, cereals, yoghurt and fruit.
Following some heavy rain overnight we awoke to a cloudy morning with a few sun spots visible and our washing of last night still wet through. Never mind, bag it up and hopefully get it dry tonight.
Outside our hotel was a van driven by the owner of the other hotel half of our group were staying in due to lack of capacity. We had met this guy yesterday when we asked a young woman for directions to a cafe. This man appeared in a Mercedes car and just butted in and took over from her leaving her intimidated. When John was asked for his passport, when he got to the hotel this chap owned, he refused to let him take it away. John maintained that it was not an obligation since we are in the EU and besides which he did not want it out of his sight due to the chance of cloning etc. The guy shouted at John and the tour leader had to intervene to settle the dispute. We think the guy was dodgy, especially since he went and spoke to the owners of the lunch cafe as we went in - corruption? Who knows, but unsettling.
As we set off on our revised route,theoretically devised to avoid the mud, little did we know it was going to be one of those days. At the top of our first ascent where our newly washed bikes had their values halved by the constant spray of mud and grit onto the frame and drive train, we encountered light rain. This pattern repeated itself several times until lunch at a nice cafe in Piana Degli Albanese. During lunch the sky was blue and the sun shone allowing me to take some street photos. However, as we were about to set off the rain started again but in a heavier fashion and luckily it was a long climb ahead. I say luckily because climbing keeps your body temperature high, but after every climb their is a descent and the ambient temperature was more Lancashire than Mediterranean. This could have been tolerable but I was back marker and Steve got a rear wheel puncture half way down in driving rain and wind. I stayed and helped but was beginning to suffer in my summer waterproof (joke) jacket which was dragging water in by capillary action to my skin and my fingerless gloves contributing to loss of feeling. We eventually got going only to find the group in a huddle debating the way ahead due to choice of mud slides or Bianca Strada, white roads or stone tracks to you and me. I don't know which won but we got both and I was past caring since all I needed was work to beat off hypothermia. Many ended up walking slowly down the tracks, so I ended up cycling back up again and going down twice to generate enough heat. This brought back an embedded, awful memory of riding over Whelpstone Crag in unexpected snow many years ago. Eventually we found the converted farmstead, which would be a manorhouse in England, along another Bianca Strada of the roughest kind in atrocious weather which made us think we were on a training routine for the SAS. We must have passed since they opened the doors to us and we entered a warmer environment with great relief. First job was to find the toilet wash basin and get some hot water running over my hands until they tingled and some feeling returned. However, in true Sicilian fashion. the staff pratted about for ages unable to give us the keys to our rooms in any sensible fashion, obviously oblivious to our plight, and we had to keep pestering to get some movement going. Once established a warm shower was had in the tiny cubicle provided but I had to open the door several times to retrieve the soap dropped at my feet. A good job I am not 6'3".
The building is quite something with a dining room in a very big barn with exposed beams and a large wine barrel as an imposing feature.

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