I had a great night of sleep, even with the cold, rain and humidity. Relaxed in the tent a bit while trying to figure out what I will do today, it supposed to rain all day again. I found a camping south of lake Garda, a 91km bike ride. I then went shopping for breakfast, got some speck, bread and a yogurt and ate it in the camping common room charging electronics.
I will try to leave at 12h00, packing the bike under the rain is a little more complicated I will have to dry my coat, tent, and other random things that got wet.
Once again, the rain stopped after 30 min of riding, and then started drying on the road, going down the road I struggled so much to climb yesterday was pure pleasure. I was then able to quickly join a bike path again and turn on the speaker on the bike, 2010s hit playlist, great to keep me going.
After arriving at the Garda lake, I tried to take a shortcut and avoid traffic, which ended up being one of the worse decisions I have made since the beginning of the trip. 500m uphill on gravel to discover that I can’t go down the way I planned to. I am totally desperate, and don’t know what do next, I think the only solution is to back in order to join the main road. At the least the view is incredible, so I spent some time on top of the of the mountain to rest, make some calls and find a new plan. While going downhill, I notice my fronts brakes are fading, I knew it was going to happen but now I definitely will have to change them.
And it is what I did, rode the way down came back to Riva de Garda and found a camping there. There were 60km left and with but with the ridiculous detour, there was no way I would keep going today.
The camping is super nice, and cheap, next to the lake, I was able to swim before changing the front brakes, doing some laundry, washing myself (I did laundry in the shower), and then finally cooking 400g of pasta with bolognese sauce and eating leftover bread.
Met a lot of other bikpackers in the camping, all from germany. I talk during dinner with a mom and son travelling around the lake Garda by bike, we shared anecdotes, packing tips and route advice.
I have no clue what I will do tomorrow, I guess it is a tomorrow problem.
