Paestum to Acciaroli
The cup of human kindness really did over-floweth today. Firstly our hotel receptionist was determined to book our next hotel and plan our route. She showed us some new websites and spent a long time on the computer on our behalf. Successful on one count but no hotels forthcoming so we had to just set off hoping for the best. Almost as soon as we left the hotel Vivi’s gears which have never been that reliable really started to play up. So we stopped in Agropoli to have them looked at but one bike shop couldn’t and the other was closed. Santa Maria di Castellabate was only another 10 miles on so with a clunk, scrunch and much bad language on we went. This was the prettiest bit of countryside we have biked through for months – rolling hills, vines, olives and a road with a good surface but not too many cars.
Views along the Cilento coastline.
The tower and below the church in Acciarola
In Cast-etc we found a bike shop who told us our bikes were American (we knew this) and the nearest agent was – where we’d come from, but after buying various essentials they said come back at 3 and we’ll take a look. It took all of 10 minutes for this mechanical wizard to fix them, so quicker than we knew it we were off again. He wouldn’t take any money for mending them either.
Off we went again towards Acciaroli past all sorts of beautiful bays, Castellabate and plunging coastline so quite a lot of effort involved. Various road men and old ladies kept sending us ever onward saying we would find a hotel open but not in their village. We reached Acciaroli just before dark and were getting a bit desperate as everything was shut. Finally, Alec went in to a phone shop to see if we could use internet to help in the search. It was full of people and one lady grabbed us, loaded us into her car, told us to leave the bikes on the street-“we are not like Napoli here” and drove us to her house up a perpendicular cliff. She had a very pretty room at the back which she lets in the summer months so we gratefully took it. Back we went down to the town, she gave us 10 minutes to get food for ourselves, locked the bikes in her husband’s fish shop and drove us back up again.
I think we were the first people to stay since last summer so it was pretty perishing but the heating system was very efficient and for the second time in a week, we stripped the bedding off, draped it over the radiators and aired the very damp sheets etc. I don’t know where we would have been without her help as the next village was a long way on. (Di, after our conversation last week, it has happened again!)
I think we were the first people to stay since last summer so it was pretty perishing but the heating system was very efficient and for the second time in a week, we stripped the bedding off, draped it over the radiators and aired the very damp sheets etc. I don’t know where we would have been without her help as the next village was a long way on. (Di, after our conversation last week, it has happened again!)
The view from the B&B where we were spared a night in a bus shelter.
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