6 April 2024 – Moving Swiftly On

Miles driven today = 91

Total Miles to date = 3,483

Alberobello, it seems, is another town where they feel the need to ring the Church Bells every 15 minutes from 6am, even on a Saturday.  So any thoughts of a lie in were quickly dispelled.  Surely even people who live in ancient Hobbit homes have mobile phones, watches, alarm clocks and other means of making sure they are up and about in time to get on with whatever their day may hold without regular ecclesiastical reminders.  Then the road sweepers got busy around the Sosta by 7 so there was very little point trying to get any more sleep and on went the kettle for the morning brew.

I forgot to mention something rather important the other night and that is that we have booked our return trip on the Chunnel for the morning of Thursday 25th April.  So that gives us precisely 19 days to get ourselves back to within striking distance of Calais on the 24th.  We’re not going to rush it.  We have a few things earmarked which we would like to see on the way and we fully intend to have a few non-driving days as well, but equally when we are on the road we have to start putting a few miles under our wheels so we don’t have any last minute panics.

When we left Alberobello this morning we saw plenty more trulli lining the road but they soon started to peter out and it seems that the area in which they are prevalent is really quite small.  Maybe 30 miles in diameter at the most, so they really are a very regional phenomenum.

Once we had found our way through busy Putignanno to Casamassima, Google Maps gave us the option of taking the tolled autostrada, but it only would have saved us a few minutes and for the most part the SS16 around Bari and on along the coast was dualled anyway so we took that option.

There are very few campsites along this stretch of coast and none at all in the ACSI book.  We thought about the possibility of a beachside car park but that probably wouldn’t be the most sensible option on a Saturday night, so we turned our minds to seeing what Sostas were available.

We passed through Margherita di Savoia and its bone rattling cobbled streets and on past the salt pans formed from a big inland lake.  Lisa managed to snap this picture of a veritable hill of salt.  We also spotted a couple of flamingos paddling in the shallow saline waters.

The next settlement was the primarily market gardening town of Zapponeta where there are 2 Sostas which are open all year round.  We picked La Risaia purely on the basis that it had better review ratings on Park4Night.  It’s a tiny family concern, capable of accommodating 6 large motorhomes, or maybe a couple more smaller vans.  It’s €15 a night including hook up.  We were all alone when we arrived but now have 2 neighbours, one French and one German.

I wanted to be all set up by 1:30pm Italian time so that I could stream the Old Farm Derby but we will say no more about that and as soon as the game finished we went for a long walk along the beach to relieve my disappointment.

The sand is predominantly soft and golden with lots of sea shells to sift through.  We did contemplate having a dig around with our toes in the shallows for clams but we didn't think to take a bucket with us.

For as far as the eye could see we had the beach to ourselves bar a couple of fishermen on the stone groins and somebody out exercising their horse on the sands.  In the background are the mountains of the Gargano region, which we plan to investigate a bit further over the next couple of days.

Although I don’t think the Sosta is officially part of the Agritourismo scheme it does appear to be part of a smallholding which stretches 200 metres from the road to the beach, growing tomatoes, potatoes and onions, among other crops.

They also have these fine feathered friends strutting around.  I very much hope that the big lad at the back doesn’t get too rowdy first thing in the morning.  I really don’t need an early morning wake up call 2 days on the spin.

7 April 2024 - Gargano Beach Time