Another beautiful day leaving Roina, a small village adjacent to Lake Garda.

At dinner last night, the waiter told us todays ride was ‘too dangerous’ due to the tunnels. Being a Sunday we hoped that they may be quieter and we did have a mapped route around one.

So this was our lovely detour route around the first tunnel. Nice and quiet, great views. You can see the sheer rock ahead where the first tunnel passes.

Ooh, this was not looking good. This was a serious road block. Impenetrable and it seemingly had been in place for some time.

That meant one thing, that we needed to retrace our steps and head up to the tunnel.

Here we are at the start of the first tunnel for the day. The first tunnel was 925 metres in length. I was hopeful with a traffic light system that meant one way would have the tunnel to themselves.

Wrong, part way down cars were travelling in both directions.

The rider in the Tudor uniform we chatted to. He is from Switzerland and works in marketing for one of the pro teams at the Giro. It was rest day at the Giro so he was going a casual lap of the lake (148 km).

The tunnel experience today was like nothing we had experienced before, even in Japan. All up today we rode through a massive 12.5 km of tunnel en route to Riva del Garda.

The tunnels varied. Some were complete black tunnels with lighting, others had opening on the lakeside to let in light and air.

One tunnel was 1.7 km downhill.

As we have no satellite connection in tunnels our GPS does not work so it appears we do zero speed but I would have been curious about the 1.7 km section.

The longest tunnel was 2.4 km, closely connected to a series of other long tunnels so not much blue sky.

My hope for not much traffic in a Sunday morning? Seriously deluded! There was lots!

Where there was blue sky out of a tunnel and somewhere safe to stop, we enjoyed the views.

Lake Garda is developing a bike path to go around the lake. It was meant to be open late 2025, but I cannot seem how that will possibly happen. There is a 2 km section completed that is cantilevered out from the rock and some tunnels.

It is fantastic but in parts difficult to ride as there were lots of people walking in groups.

At the very end, to rejoin the road you need to get your bike onto its rear wheel and manoeuvre it through a chicane like barrier. Not at all bike friendly with packs on.

More great views as we closed in on Riva del Garda.

Riva del Garda is at the head ( or base?) of the lake, adjacent to Torbole where we had stayed on previous trips. This time we are staying in between both.

We arrived at our accomodation way too early to check in but our intent was only to dump some luggage at this point. They were ok with that and we then headed on a planned ride up Valle de Sarca towards Arco, Dro and Lake Toblino.

The Castle was built in the 12th century upon the remnants of a 300 ad settlement. There are frescoes from the 14th century. It is visitable.

At Moletta there is a very popular food and drink garden establishment aimed at bikers. We stopped for some lunch.

Feeling replenished, off we headed. The further we went up the bike path the less cyclists there were. There was one little skinny snake that crossed our path.

We had battled our way in the first five or so km with hire e-bikes, riders being a safety menace, with zero skills or etiquette, but a serious amount of pedal power available. They are accidents waiting to happen without commensurate skill sets and knowledge.

This is one of my favourite pictures for the day.

The path winds its way up and down the valley with farming enterprises predominantly grapes and plums.

Looking further up the valley towards Pietramurata, a village we rode through.

At the approach to the town of Sarche, we changed direction to head to Lago di Toblino, and then we parted ways with the river Sarca.

We skirted around Lago di Toblino, with the famous Castel Toblino ahead. This is a 16th century building, renovated, and you can dine there these days.

We took a different route heading back, but again featuring rock, vineyards, plums, and a different river, Rimone.

The hills to our left are regarded as the start of the Dolomites, where we head in a few days.

Lago di Cavedene is a popular recreational lake.

A rocky flood plain below the lake.

Today was a total of 95 km, with 12.5 km not recording due to tunnels. It was an interesting day. We climbed 847 metres.

The ride along the shorelines, high above the water was a mixture of exhilarating and stressful. The latter due to the highest levels of concentration needed in the tunnels. The views were magnificent

The ride up the valley was not quite as easy as we anticipated due to other users antics. But again, the views were great.

For dinner, we headed off to a Japanese restaurant recommended by Hannah. When they were here only a few days ago. All you can eat for 27 euros. We waddled out.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️