I woke up from Daniel’s excitement and eagerness to go and look for things we need for the road. It was already light and sunny outside. I looked at my wristwatch and it showed only 6:30am. It was too early for anything to be open yet, but it was a good time to wake yourself up and start the day. We had to find some basics required for the journey, such as maps, cooking gas and food itself. More importantly, we had to find a way out of Mestre. After we had found the essentials we needed for the road, we returned to the hostel for a quick lunch before heading out into to the mid-morning heat. We entered the reception and living area with the sofas. A quick rest amongst the cushions on the comfy sofas whilst looking at the map we bought to decide on a vague route we could take to the nearest beach was a must. As I was dropping my bags beside one of the sofas, I spotted this young man sitting amongst the cushions with a pannier bag beside him. I politely pointed at the young gent and whispered to Daniel: “There is another cyclist!” The young man noticed my gesture, took out his earphones and looked at me questioningly with a smile on his face. After a short slightly awkward moment I walked over and started a conversation. The young chap with his long dark hair pulled together into a top knot bun. He was on his way from Germany to Singapore. He had adopted a very similar travelling style to mine, when I was on my long cycle tour. No rush. Taking your time and enjoying every moment of the journey. After an exchange of the stories from our adventures, we went to retrieve our bikes and were ready to start our cycle. As I was applying my home made sun screen, Daniel noticed that some screws were missing from his slightly overloaded rear pannier rack. This is something you do not want to experience during your travels. Luckily, we found some potential “spare” screws on his pannier rack, swapped them about and made sure all the other screws were in place and securely tightened. We rolled in the direction of the airport and thus the beaches beyond it. The mid-day sun was beating down hard on us, it was approximately +30°C. The slight breeze kept us fairly refreshed and the cycle manageable. The route took us along some nice dirt tracks and cycle paths, though the Bosco de Mestre, where we found some ripe and delicious brambles, apples and plums. After a good wander along these small dusty roads and paths, we reached the main road leading back to the airport. I managed to recognise the winding streets we were navigating last night in the dark and the rain. Past the airport, we joined onto a cycle path that was leading to Jesolo. It seemed like a straight forward easy route to follow, however, it turned into yet another endeavour of “going into circles” and not being able to leave the place we were in.
The coast was very built up and busy. It was hard to find a nice quiet beach. A local runner stopped by as we looked puzzled staring at our map, he recommended a place we could potentially “camp”. After cycling through the flashy streets lined up with shops, cafes and obnoxious campsites, we found a small entrance to the beach. A boardwalk path lead along the coast and the designated beaches for the various hotels located near the sea. As we reached the end of the boardwalk, we came across a sign that read “free beach”. Finally. The search was over.
After leaning our bikes against each other, we stood in the white sand and listened to the raging water and the white waves breaking on the beach. The sky and the water were dark, only thing I could see in the por light was the whiteness of those waves. Suddenly a brilliant shock of white in the pitch-black sky flashed, forking silently into the immensity of the black canvas just above the horizon. No rumbling of the thunder followed as the lightning was very distant. I saw some more lightning all the way around us. There was a small ice cream shop at the beach with a roof for us to shelter in case the storm came this way. “Fingers crossed, it will not rain tonight”, we thought to ourselves. We left the lit-up beachfront and disappeared into the darkness out of the reach of the street lights, where we set up our bivvies for the night in the cold fine sand. Just as I wanted to put my feet into my bivvy it started spitting. We both moved back under the roof of the gelato shop and were considering where to spend the night. Whilst we were brainstorming, the rain stopped, and thus, we were back on the beach. Although the raincloud had passed, the horizon was still lit up now and then by occasional distant lightning strikes. However, a sharp crescent moon and shimmering stars hung in the charcoal sky above us. I was slowly slipping into the warmth of the dreamy sleep, still staring at the beautiful immense night sky, slowly blinking my eyes, until I could not keep them open any longer, and let the sleep fully wrap around me..
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