This morning we woke up early around 5:00 am and after taking down our tents and before long we had left the shed in the dark.  Starting from the town of Sapri, which overlooks the Gulf of Policastro and after appreciating the surrounding views, we head towards the municipality of Maratea Marina, a short coast of the Region of the Basilicata. We rode with constant wild and natural views and the road was peaceful with very few cars.

At one point on the road we could see the statue of the Redeemer in the distance while on our right we saw the coast and green hills overlooking the sea. Ssomewhere along the way we had stopped for breakfast and it was always prepared by Arturo with a good coffee, biscuits and a banana. Thank you very much and of course when the time comes when our paths head in two different directions I will certainly miss his company and also his good and simple dinners!

The first stretch - After the short stop we continued pedalling coming across the sign indicating that we were on the SS18 "Tirrena Inferiore" road. A coastal road with up and down curves and splendid panoramic views and there were road signs for Reggio Calabria.

Breaks of the day:

During the day we stopped for lunch in a closed seaside center but still equipped with an open shower on the beach and some open bathrooms. In this beautiful deserted place surrounded by a long beach we had taken a dip in the sea, a shower and in addition we had washed our clothes and hung out on ropes that were already there. Arturo had found a perfume bottle nearby with a few drops of Calvin Kein's "ck one" fragrance. We perfumed ourselves with a few drops and continued cycling instead of for an evening in some club, ehhh!

We also stopped for a large container of ice cream that we had eaten together and then somewhere else we stopped for a break drinking some water and a lady from the balcony of her house started talking and then offered us a coffee served on a tray and also gave us two bottles of still water. We exchanged a few words with her and also with her daughter and another person, also taking some group photos. Thank you so much for your kindness!

The second stretch - Looking for a place to sleep which Arturo then remembered where it was, a large building without windows in the middle of the greenery and too far from the road from where we had arrived. I had set up my tent while he went to get some water which obviously he also knew where it was.

The last leg - The evening ended with the curtains both up, dinner prepared by him with his stove and we didn't need to open the windows, there were no windows or even doors in that building which was certainly an illegal one of the building works carried out without the authorisation required. It was the first time for me in such an accommodation, it was certainly a bit scary to think of staying there for a night in the middle of a phantom land with the sounds of dogs barking and who knows where they were, maybe they were stray dogs but we didn't see them. But I trusted my friend, he has a lot of experience like this and then our tents were placed close together and if something had happened we would both have noticed.

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