Max speed 22.29mph
Altitude up 139 feet
We left the campsite our least favourite of the trip so far, facilities were good but they charge you for every single thing they can including using wifi, going in the pool and anything else you might want to do even taking a shower.
So we were happy to see the back of the place.
The morning's riding was supposed to be an enjoyable flat ride, down bike tracks, along the coast. It didn't quite work out that way; we ended up on an A road in extremely busy traffic and John was not happy.
But we got to Livorno in a couple of hours and cycled through its industrial marina. We would see a lot of this marina later.
Livorno is a fairly rough and ready place but it does offer up some beautiful italian scenes including an old canal system and a beautiful ancient walled park that is surrounded by a moat and must have been a castle or battlement years ago. The park was virtually empty of people a shady oasis in the hot city.
I set up the hammock in shade and lay in it for 30mins while John went shopping and secured his 3rd milkshake of the day, I drifted off a little but was aware I had to watch the bikes.
John came back and I felt bad as I knew he was tired from a rubbish nights sleep so I offered him the hammock while I went for a walk.
My walk proved very fruitful with a pair of hoopoe spotted!! They were digging up grubs under the battlemounts of the park, they are a stunning bird and this was a first for me, also very unexpected in the middle of the city.
Anyhow back to Johno: Give the boy a inch and...... He slept for 2and1/2 hours!! I was bored senseless. I took to watching the endeavours of a troop of ants as they carried crumbs back to their nest.
Finally it was time to move, evening was setting in, I woke john up and we got supplies in and set off for the ferry.
We passed a cafe which had the biggest queue I have ever seen for one Cafe it stretched around the corner and down the street. We arrived at the cruise terminal with no problems, unfortunately our ferry did not go from this terminal and with the help of an Italian lady we were told that our cruise terminal was a 20 minute bike ride away.
It was a stressful ride in the fading light through the industrial docks in traffic.
We finally found the terminal and entered into commotion as a large group of Morrocon men were trying to get their tickets for the ferry. There was a huge argument going on. I queued for a long time and got eaten by Mosquitos in the process. The lack of organisation was quite incredible, after getting our tickets we had to follow the other cars on our bikes for 10 minutes across several bridges to reach the ferry which was docked in a container ship area, we weren't told to do this it just happened.
Then through a highly suspicious system of racial profiling which John said he was sure is illegal as it did not involve looking at any documents the non Africans were all herded into a separate area to wait while the police checked out all the passengers who seemed to be from Morocco etc. The checks were basically being made against people who were clearly emigrating and this was obvious by their vehicles which had roof racks loaded with all kinds of goods and furniture.
We waited a long time and were not communicated with at all, it was late and dark and frankly very poor from the organisers. Oh well eventually we got on the ship and settled into a really quite nice cabin, so all good in the end. Also a lot of people were sleeping in the corridors and probably couldn't afford a cabin, so I don't want to complain and seem like a spoilt brat!!
(Our cabin)
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