Varese

Somehow persuaded by Richard, Julien and myself found ourselves on bikes, following his distant outline up a steep road on a hill side near Varese.

I had done a bit of mountain biking previously, but I was a bit out of sorts and this came as something of a shock to my finely balanced body. We had parked by a small church and thereby avoiding the long stretch of steep road up from the valley. But still the road went up and up until finally it didn't go up anymore. A strange sensation of blood in my throat told me that it was good time to take a short break before continuing.

But now the fun could begin, we descended the dirt path into the woods. Julien was uncomfortable on a foreign bike so was left trailing as Richard and myself took full advantage of the downhills. Unfortunately we thought we had missed our turning, so re-ascended, realised that in fact we were right first time, and once again took delight from our mistake by re-living the downhill.

After a traverse and a small ascent we soon arrived at our high point. We stopped for some lunch, regarding jealously Richards mighty fine sandwich before descending the road section back to the car. Unfortunately this time we really did take a wrong turn and ended in the valley floor, this meant we had another 45 minutes of ascent, the section we had cheated, to return to the car. I arrived somewhat later than my two somewhat fitter companions.