Someplace New

If you know me well, you know that two years ago I had a horrible experience on a bicycle and vowed off them. I gave away my fancy mountain bike to my friend, Brittney, and said “never again!”

Well sometimes there are moments so beautiful that you have to suck it up and jump on a bike to experience them.

Our B&B owner told us to head up to the nature reserve near by, Riserva di Capo Gallo, to see a lighthouse. After biking to the reserve, we hiked the coastline to find the most lackluster, boring lighthouse we had ever seen.  The unexpected gift, however, was the journey around the rest of the reserve.

It was about a million degrees, we were dehydrated and crabby, but when we found this view.. the day certainly turned around. The sun gleamed off the water and the rocks and we felt so grateful for our failed lighthouse ride. We rode our bikes along the most stunning coastline and stopped for pictures every few moments.

The coastline was breathtaking and we couldn’t get enough of this view. We found all these breaks in the path that would allow us to climb onto rocks and be blown away with overlooks like this one.

We had a scheduled lunch this day, but loved the reserve so much, that we left- went to our lunch- and biked BACK to spend some time swimming in the crystal-clear sea.

The entire reserve is open to swimming/wading/snorkeling at any point so we found ourselves some amazing rocks to sunbathe on and we set up camp.  We could hop right in the warm and wavy water and put our feet in little pools in the rocks.

We spent most of our afternoon and evening taking photos on the rocks and swimming in the sea. This swimming spot- standing on these rocks- was probably our favorite place we have stood in Europe.

 

To sum of the rest of the day…..

This Happened:

Just kidding.

 

This happened:

Not kidding.

 

And in case you think we are all hikes and bikes.. we finished up with a candlelit dinner overlooking the ocean.

Life’s not to shabby here in Sicily.