4 April 2024 – Coast Hopping

Miles driven today = 71

Total Miles to date = 3,359

Today we started driving in a generally North Westerly trajectory, which to all intents and purposes can mean only one thing – we are on our way home.  We didn’t go very far initially.  Just a few miles in fact before we were tempted into pulling over to investigate the beach at Cocobay.  A long stretch of golden sand which, judging by the satellite image on Google Maps, is plastered with sun shades in the Summer months but for now was almost totally deserted.

It is also the point where a dam underneath the road bridge keeps the waters of the Alimini Grande Lake at bay so freshwater and seaside activities can be enjoyed side by side. 

Then we continued a few miles up the coast to Roca.  During the Summer you would have to pay to use the car park and enjoy the sights here but for now they are all free.  We found our way through some unlocked gates for this view across the first of the bays to the statue of the Madonna of the Rock.

On the other side of the inlet these steps were carved into the rocks to lead down to what appeared to be man made caves down by the shoreline.

There are so many old towers to be found along the coastline here.  This one was built by the Spanish in 1568.

The Grotto della Poesia is a naturally formed pool.  Some youngsters were jumping from the rocks into the crystal waters below.

The Grotto della Poesia Piccola isn’t anywhere near as inviting and is fenced off for safety reasons.  It actually contains fresh water and studies of some of the engravings on the walls have revealed both Greek and Latin text.  Nowadays it appears to just be a sanctuary for the local pigeon population.

Another beautiful Bay with the village of Roca to the left.

There is evidence of human occupation all over the area, although, with little in the way of information available, it was difficult to work out which era most things were from.  But I do know that these are the Messapic Walls which date from the 4^th and 3^rd Centuries BC.  The walls extend to a total length of 1,500 metres.

We had pencilled in Lecce as a possible place to visit.  It’s often referred to as the "Florence of the South" and one of the guys at the campsite who we spoke to this morning before leaving was almost incredulous that we could possibly leave the area without paying it a visit.  But in all honesty we just weren’t into the idea of traipsing around another largish town full of castles and baroque churches today, so Lecce is another place which we are just going to leave on the shelf for now and perhaps re-visit on another occasion.

But before we navigated our way around Lecce’s ring-road I made a costly boo-boo.  It’s common practice in Italy for filling stations to show 2 sets of prices.  One for self service and the other for getting somebody out to assist you, which costs roughly €0.20 to €0.25 per litre more.  I pulled into a Q8 station to fill up on what I thought was reasonably priced diesel at €1.79 a litre and only noticed that something was wrong when the counter had already flicked past the €90 I was expecting a full tank to cost. 

I’d unwittingly pulled into the assisted service pump and helped myself without realising that the diesel price on that pump was a whopping €2.04 a litre.  I sheepishly wandered into the office and tried to explain what had happened but there was very little that could be done so I ended up about €10 out of pocket.  Once again an Italian filling station has flummoxed me, and once again I will learn to be a lot more careful about which pump I pull into in future.

The next town along the road was Brindisi, which was never on the to-do list given that, apart from a few historical buildings, it’s little more than a rather grubby port.  You can get a ferry from here all the way down to Greece.  The Peloponnese is one area which I would very much like to explore someday on another tour during the cooler months, so maybe we will come down this way and explore a bit more en-route to there.  We did try to make a quick stop at Lidls but the car park was rammed, so we decided that we could make do with what we already have on board and carried on our merry way.

I’m fairly sure that at this time of year you could pull over for the night at any one of the many small seaside resorts which dot the coast and not bother anybody.  We stuck a pin in the map and came up with Torre Santa Sabina.  It’s a lovely little place and a number of the restaurants seemed to be doing a steady lunchtime trade when we wandered past.

Naturally, as the name of the town would suggest, it has yet another of these defensive towers standing guard over the harbour.

There are so many great little sandy bays along this coast interspersed with small rocky outcrops.

We are parked about 10 minutes’ walk from the centre of the resort in a quiet lay-by.  This is the view we have from our door.  Home is where you park it, as they say.

If we were to sail in a straight line out to Sea from here it would be first stop Montenegro.

And this is why Lisa is so brilliant at rustling up something magical from what little was available after our aborted attempt to shop today.  Tuna Nicoise with sauteed potatoes and some pickled anchovies which have been knocking around in the fridge ever since we were in France.  I’m such a lucky lad.

5 April 2024 - Ostuni & Alberobello