Dist 73.00 miles. ride time 6hr14mins. Avg speed 11.70mph. Max spd 29.01mph. Altitude up 2375ft.
Today we woke sluggishly after a good nights sleep in or little cabin. This was interrupted only by a mega-storm. The thunder shook the cabin, it was a the kind of storm I've experienced before in Canada; on a continental scale, I'm just glad we weren't in the tent!
We cycled through Pavia, found a cheap supermarket and sat on a curb in a pretty rundown street eating chocolate brioche.
The vast majority of the ride today was forgettable: flat but into a punishingly strong headwind we criss-crossed the giant river Po and made very, very slow progress, it threatened to rain and we had a spell on a track that was full of potholes.
The last 20 miles got interesting though, we could see the hills looming up from the vast flood plain of the Po and then we hit them, it wasn't windy any more but the hills were a good test, the roads wound up and over them in sharp hairpins and all around us were vines and orchards mixed with wildflowers and trees.
As we topped one hill I heard lots of birds but didn't recognise the calls, I got some in the binocs and found they were Bee-eaters!! amazing!!!! With them was also a female golden Oriole although it took me until a while afterwards to work that out.
I also saw a pair of lesser kestrels today, that's 3 firsts in one day!
The hills kept coming and the descents were great fun, we reached Salso Maggoire, a very picturesque town geared up for tourists with lots of bars and hotels, we headed through town, up one last big hill and found our campsite, Camping Arizona! A great campsite, with lots of stuff to do although John bottled taking me on at table tennis knowing he would just choke again I guess.
We ate a massive pizza each in the restaurant and now it's off to bed.
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