Tuesday 7 November 2017

A gost bike path along the Tanaro river

I had never had the occasion to write a negative article, especially about a bike ride in a beautiful place like "The Langhe" area, an heritage of humanity.



Before we left we were documented looking for a path that would be suitable for all the family and would allow us to explore the Albese territory appreciating the naturalistic moments at a slow pace of the bicycle. For these reasons, we have opted for the Tanaro bicycle trail defined in more articles on the web. "Suggestive itinerary suitable for families with children on the go."

As the landscape is remarkable (despite the misty day), among the Rocks of Barbaresco and the gentle hills surrounding the city of Alba, the bicycle trail along the Tanaro was truly disappointing.

Problems already begin from Ponte Neive, the starting point of the cycling path towards Bra and Pollenzo. We takee the bicycle path from the SP3 (putting our life in to risk). A short stretch of path is on asphalt road, anyway it immediately shows signs of abandonment with partly asphalt missing and partially covered by sand.

Continuing to follow the signs firmly, the situation unfortunately worsens, and we find ourselves in the Tanaro flood area in the middle of a stone and rubbish of abandoned waste.
La cosa divertente è che di fianco ai rifiuti abbandonati svetta uno smagliante cartello di "Divieto di Scarico".

The funny thing is that beside the abandoned wastes there is a striking sign of "Prohibition of Discharge".

With the help of the map, and certainly not the signposts, we take a dirt path marked with a ban signpost, the road surface is quite bumpy for city bikes, but with some difficulty we can proceed without further obstacoles to the Vaccheria hamlet.

Here we note that the path of the bicycle is blocked by a gate bearing the words "private property ban access".

You can not think of going through the gate with bicycles, the only viable option is to take the overpass that goes over the A33 Asti-Cuneo motorway with the associated risks  of crossing the motorway entrance and exit lanes (imagine it with children to follow, I do not describe the fear).

The next stretch does not shine as well for safety, the bike path is absent, except then appear on the opposite side of the road. The road unfortunately has separate tracks, so it is impossible to cross the road to get the bicycle road. At the first roundabout, via the pedestrian crossing, we finally reach the cycle path hoping finally to have reached a safe route, but immediately we realize the bike lane ends in the wrong way in Corso Asti, we are therefore forced to proceed on this very narrow and busy road.

When we arrived at the bridge over the Tanaro River, for our safety, we decided to use the pedestrian passage so tight to require not common abilities to be able to pass, I did not tell you meeting the pedestrians in the opposite direction involved "funambolist" overtaking operations. Here we are finally in Alba obviously in SP29 wrong way, anyway finally we reach the pedestrian center of Alba. Alba with its medieval village and its historic houses and beautiful bakery pastries reward us for adventures, but only one thought darkens our visit ... The return !!!!

You can see in this picture the map, indicated with the top right red cross the point where we found Tanaro flood area and stones. With a green line is indicated a variation that allows you yo overtake this area. The botton red cross indicate where the bicycle track is blocked, the alterantives are the busy roads.

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