Day Four
A Day of Disappointments.
This day we headed north to Castel di Sangro. From there a railroad ran in three directions; an older line that once went to the Adriatic coast, and the others to Carpinone and Sulmona, the latter making it the highest railroad in Italy. The Carpinone-Sulmona section was still active as a tourist line, but the schedule showed nothing running on the days we planned to be there. There was enough riding to be done to last a week or more. Traversing the high mountains added to the adventure. There were many tunnels, some as long as two miles, but our earlier experience proved we could handle them.
On the drive to Castel di Sangro, we discouvered another abandoned line. From the road what we could see of it looked clear of growth and we made note of it for future riding.
A very dispirited Arne surveys the tracks on the Avellino line.
Arriving in di Sangro we first drove out to look at the older line that once ran to the coast. To our dismay the rails had recently been pulled up, probably within the last six months. Back in town we went to the station used by the tourist trains. The rails looked heavily used, and although there were no trains scheduled, we were concerned about maintenance crews. This is always a hazard on active lines, and with the very long tunnels it would not be wise to meet an unexpected work train. Further, we had no idea what the Italian railway response would be to foreign railbikers. Thus, we packed it in again, opting to drive to Avellino where we were told there was a line that we could ride that was over 100 kilometers. But Avellino proved to be another blackberry heaven. We had now been driving all day and going around in circles, our discouragement and fatigue growing by the mile.
Our only option now was to head back to the line we had discouvered earlier in the day, which ran from Benevento to the junction with the line to Campobasso. From what we could see from the highway it look clean and clear. We scouted the station at Santa Croce del Sanno and it looked to be okay, with only spotty growth between the rails. Interestingly, even though the railroads have not been in use for years, all the signals were still active and showed red lights.
We found a hotel in nearby Morcone, a more modern hill town by Italian standards, and hoped the next day would be more productive. We had to remind ourselves that this trip was, after all, an exploratory attempt to locate possible lines for a future tour. We had to expect failures along with our successes. And for me personally, it was just a lot of fun seeing parts of Italy where most tourists never venture.
We were somewhat encouraged by the light growth we found at the station at Santa Croce and planned to ride the line the following
morning.
Day Five
Another Failure and an Unexpected Success.
I opted to put today's failure at the bottom of day four. It seemed best to keep all the bad news on the same page and I didn't want to detract from the good times that followed.
This morning we found a spot to put on just across the tracks from a isolated country tavern that was doing a good business even at the early hour. We knew it would be a good for a cold beer after our ride was finished. As it turned out, our ride was finished almost as soon as it started. Blackberries in both directions. But the beer was good - even at the early hour.
