Going up, burning.

Lars-Inge and I woke up at the agricultural centre, had breakfast (they used cereal bowls as coffee cups! Humongous!), spoke a little with a couple that was fluent in English and who talked about the old opera in Verona with its amazing acoustics, waved bye bye to the very nice people who operated the place and set off to pick up Miles who was at his friends place with the motorcycles.

After some checking of our machines, repacking and off reasonably early today and went back to Mantova, bought a memory stick for a measly 17 Euro (What happened to the prices of these things? They have fallen stright through the floor!). We transferred our daily transmission to the memory stick directly at the parking lot and went into town. I went to the internet point and transmitted while Miles and Lars-Inge went to find band aid that Lars-Inge uses as nose protection from the sun, and to sort out why Miles Mastercard isn't always working. The memory stick method worked like a charm and I could do the fastest transmit hitherto. I did some tidying up of the blog and had time to read my mail. Then the guys turned up and Miles mailed Pat and did some other things while we still had the Internet computer, and then we went back to the bikes, having a sandwich on the way.

We were ready to set off on today's leg at noon. Again. When it is at its hottest. I guess we never learn. The distance we were to ride today was not THAT long but some roads take more time than others so it took time. We rode and rode and rode, stopping only for sustenance at a trattoria that seemed to have seafood as their speciality. The risotto... Man IT was good. What was NOT good was that we had been lost without knowing it. So, we got directions and turned back where we came from and turned where we SHOULD have turned, but didn't, and in short time we were at the foot of a PRETTY dang long and grueling incline.

Lars-Inge had the lead and he was trying to be kind to his bike by going easy at around 40, which his bike could manage pretty well since, although his bike looks the most overloaded, the cargo it carries is mostly bulky and not heavy. Miles and I haul the rattling stuff that weighs a lot and we both are heavier than Lars-Inge. 40 is a terrible speed to go up hills if you have a side car transmission or the four speed gearbox that I have had the honor to participate to develop. We all rode bikes with four speed gearboxes but were not using them right in this speed. Eventually Miles and I had to pull over since the oil had begun to push out of the engine on both of our machines. We let them cool down and fed them more oil and talked sternly to poor Lars-Inge and set out separately up a particularly grueling section. The sections here were not steeper than some we had negotiated earlier but they were definitely MUCH longer. The best way to take these inclines is to let the power of the engine do the work and NOT the torque of it. You go in 30-35 kmph in second gear and when you use the third, you go at around 45-55. Listen to the engine and put your hand at the manifold heat shield from time to time. A perfectly adjusted engine in good working order and with tight exhaust valves, emits surprisingly little heat and you can hold your hand on the heat shield without getting burned. If the heat shield is so hot that you can not even touch it, the engine is overheating. When going down hill, on the other hand, you should go briskly on a high gear (if safety admits it) or even pull the clutch and let the engine idle when going down hill at a fast pace (remember to have the correct gear selected or there is going to be trouble when you let go of the clutch). The air flow cools the engine down and the less energy you develop in the engine, the faster it will cool.

We went up hill, down hill, twisted to the right, curled to the left but did not find the camping. Eventually we found A camping but it did not look like the campings we had spent nights in before. It was more like a trailer park with permanent trailers that people had built hut like annexes to. That camping was full though but the guy directed us three hundred meters back and there was another trailer park. Here we were allowed to set up tent at a HIGHLY reasonable 10 Euros for all three. We were reluctant at first at the shanty town like appearance but the camp facilities was very clean and Miles was extatic by the shower (FREE hot water) and the water itself that was very very good. We have to fill all our canteens and containers with this water. Wonderful spring water.

I replaced a bolt that fell off Nimbelle and decided to shape it and heat blue it with the propane soldering iron from the spares box, so that it resembled the other bolts on Miles black ride. It did and I was highly satisfied at this and let EVERYBODY know it (Lars: MAN – I'm good! Lars-Inge and Miles: *GROAN!*). Lars-Inge went to town and bought cheese, bread, red wine and beer and we had a nice and relaxed evening. I look forward to a good nights sleep. I LOVE to sleep in tents. I sleep like a baby and wake so refreshed. The last two nights had been at different in doors facilities and I always need to adjust to one to be able to sleep well.

The plan for tomorrow WAS to do Verona and then spend another night at the camping but I am worried that the guys might have other plans. The camp owner also gave us ONE night only, although this could perhaps be negotiated. We'll see. I really would like to spend a whole day not riding with all the gear and be able to see things, do some shopping and relax a bit. But, this just might not happen. I hope it will though...

We also might have a problem with images in the future, dear audience. The license of one of the programs I use to transfer images to and from the camera has expired, which is NOT good. I might be able to sort it out or you have to live without images.