Back to Manfredonia

May 3, 2023

Back on the bikes!

And we’ve got a tough one lined up for our first day back after our little break - the fourteen miles back to Manfredonia, over that six hundred foot climb across the snout of Mount Saraceno. Today Manfredonia, tomorrow the world!

Checkout time here is ten and checkin at the other end isn’t until four. We don’t really need six hours to cover fourteen miles on the bike - we could walk it in that time - so we appeal to both hosts and get help at both ends. It’s eleven when we meet the guy here, pay our bill, and roll our bikes out of his garage.

Leaving Mattinata. Before we go, Rocky irks me by pointing out how much more limber she is than I.

We enjoy one last admiring look at Mattinata as we roll out of town along its pedestrianized heart, alive this morning with the usual pedestrian crowd walking, talking and just sitting around. It’s a reminder of how much everything changes if you take the cars out of the picture.

And then, we drop down from town into the sea of olives that surrounds it. And because I’m not so smart, we’re taking the direct way down rather than the sensible indirect one and find ourselves cautiously walking down a 20% cobblestoned slope, the stones still slick and wet from the last of the rains.

And after that, the climb. Scenic, no big deal, and just a bit easier going in this direction. Even with a few last stops to look back at the wonderful views for maybe the last time we’re at the top soon enough and coasting down the other side, the long pier of Manfredonia visible ahead.

A comfortable ascent, averaging maybe 5% from this direction.

Seeing Mattinata from this direction is really the most striking angle, surrounded by a carpet of green. The City of Olives, indeed.

I wanted to stop for this shot going the other way, but Rachael instructed me to stay ahead for the video.

On the descent now, though from the looks of it here we could be still climbing.

I remember this carve out from biking past it on the way up. It’s nice to get a perspective from farther away.

After the drop it’s a flat eight back to Manfredonia. We’ve had these miles in our minds as the most worrisome part of the ride, remembering from before how sloppy and rough the path was in spots. We wonder how it will be after the last two days of rain and imagine some slow, sloppy miles and clogged up cleats. Maybe we’ll get to see those goats again though as compensation.

We can’t remember how long it went on rough like that, so its a pleasant surprise that the first three or four miles are all reasonably well paved and a very pleasant ride. It really wasn’t a mess for as long as we remembered. Finally though we come to the point where the road ahead turns to a rocky two lane track with weeds up the middle. We get off and prepare to walk this first, especially rocky bit as we did coming the other way.

But I stop to wonder about the pavement, which continues on but at a right angle, heading inland away to the sea. I suggest stopping a minute to check the map and see if we might go that way instead and make it back to town a different way; and then we notice there’s a bike navigational pointer at this little junction. It looks like the biking route comes in this way.

It’s the right decision. The road remains paved as we slowly climb away from the coast for the next mile, gaining maybe two hundred feet before coming to the coast highway. And the highway’s busy but fine, with a generously smooth shoulder that we fly down as we lose these two hundred feet back.

So if you come this way yourself some day, use this map rather than the earlier one. It adds a mile but it’s well worth it. No goats though.

We’re a mile in from the sea here, and the mountains rise straight up just ahead. We’ll turn just before we reach them.

Video sound track: Claridade, by Oregon

We’re in town about 1:30 with still an hour to kill before we can check in, so we find a seaside bench on the promenade and settle in to break out the snacks and wait. It’s pleasant sitting in the sun, watching the waves, and closing the eyes while Rachael walks around with the camera to see what catches her interest. This is so different in the past. I remember talking with her about photography six years ago right after my food poisoning incident, the first time I can remember her taking any interest in photography. Leaving Foix we were, on a magical day I still look back on the best day on tour of my life.

It wasn’t our plan to come back to Manfredonia of course, but it’s a nice town and there’s compensation. We’ve been away long enough so that the Xoom transfer we set up for ourself is finally ready for pickup - so says the email from Xoom that came in right after we arrived, at least. Soon after we’ve checked into our room Rachael walks off to the same tobacco shop where we picked that life saving cash infusion from Kelly and Jacinto five days ago. A half hour later she’s back, empty handed - for reasons she’s not clear on, they tell her she needs to wait until six.

So a little after six we walk back together, on our way to dinner. In a half hour of her life I suspect Rachael would like back, she waits at the counter while they attempt to complete the transaction. After multiple repetitions of taking her documentation, scanning in her passport, collecting her phone number, interrupting their work to sell another pack of cigarettes to a customer, they finally give up and tell her there’s a problem. The amount’s wrong they say, whatever that might mean. Go find a different Ria outlet, they say.

So that’s frustrating and perplexing. But at least in the meantime I pick up two more birds, my camera aimed at the sky hoping a swift will come into the frame close enough for me to be able to capture and identify it.

On the way to the nearest Ria outlet. Again.

Note the time. it’s about 7:30 when we finally leave, still empty-handed.

#141: Common swift (on the left); #142: Alpine swift

I like this shot for the encounter between the two friends, but also for the shot of the laundry drying on the sidewalks. We skirted past these racks on the narrow sidewalk all the way up this street, cars backed up beside them kicking up dust and belching exhaust. Seems like they’d be dirty all over again before they’re dried.

We ate dinner here once before, but I can’t remember for sure - Vitus Vellum, I think. I checked in the blog but there’s no mention of the meal and neither of us can remember anything about it. So we find a new place that looks attractive by the castle that we head for now, passing Vitus Vellum on the way. It looks vaguely familiar, but I still can’t remember eating there.

The new place, Moody’s, is closed. Their Facebook page lied. We decide to walk back to our neighborhood and eat at Coppola Rosa instead. We’re almost there when we pass another restaurant and wonder if we should check its menu. In the doorway is a familiar figure beckoning us inside, and it all comes back.

The last time, it was Vitus Vellum’s turn to be closed when it was allegedly to be open. Then, as now, we decided to head back to Coppola Rosa as the fallback plan. And then as now, we were lured in to Baciate del Mare and enjoyed a terrific meal. Might as well take note of it this time.

One for those IPA fans out there. This one’s from the Peuceti brewery in nearby Bitonto. From their website: “Birra Levante takes its name from the wind that blows mainly at dawn and laps the Apulian coasts, bringing with it the scents of the Orient. This beer is American IPA style. It is an amber, intriguing and intoxicating beer with floral, fruity and citrus scents delicately supported by the taste of caramelized malt.“

Our feast tonight. We shared the pasta, each had the tuna steak, and still found room to share a pistacchio/white chocolate semifreddo.

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Ride stats today: 15 miles, 1,000’; for the tour: 831 miles, 45,000’

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2023 Bird List

141. Common swift

142. Alpine swift

Today's ride: 15 miles (24 km)
Total: 865 miles (1,392 km)

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