To Manfredonia: the ride

April 28, 2023

Yesterday’s ride to Margherita was the easiest ride of the tour so far. Today’s is even easier still - a mile shorter, and virtually flat the entire way as our route follows the thin strip of land between the Adriatic Sea and a long saline lagoon actively mined for salt. It’s a straight shot until right at the end when it bends eastward to follow the coastline of the mountainous Gargano Promontory, also known as the Spur of Italy. Nothing could be easier.

The first two miles are a delight as we follow a crude and rough bike path between the highway and the lagoon. The path is lined and crowded for much of the distance by dense, high clusters of daisies.

This bike path is fine, for the short distance that it lasts.

Beautiful but challenging. We’re glad that we encounter no oncoming traffic.

The trail ends just ahead, at the salt works. It looks like maybe it exists for the convenience and safety of the plant employees.

Unfortunately, beyond the salt works we come to the end of the path and are dumped back onto SS7, the narrow and shoulderless two lane coast road. It’s not bad really - traffic is light this morning, it’s a straight road most of the way so visibility is good - but it’s just busy enough that you can’t fully relax and enjoy the sights, which are interesting the entire way. On the left, lorries are driving back and forth along the lagoon shuttling their loads of salt; and on the right we’re constantly passing fields of pulled onions drying in the sun with work crews bent over or on their knees loading and carrying hand-filled trays of onions. Also, we pass one interesting structure after another - newer, well maintained homes; what look like the eroded ruins of old shelters for agricultural workers; a few towers built many centuries go as defense against invasion by the Saracens.

Onion packers. We saw these also when we were here four years ago, almost exactly a month later in the spring. Then, as now, I find it hard to believe that all this work is occurring by hand.

Many of these old shelters caught my attention. With more time and on my own I’d probably stop in and poke around. I’d like a better shot of this door for example.

Another cozy couple. Most of the architecture is boxy like this, and not quite as compelling as the trulli further south.

Church of San Michele Arcangelo, I think from the 15th century.

Beside the church next to the sea is Torre Pietra. Built around 1537, it was also called "Tower of the tip of the stone" because in ancient times it extended into the sea for about 4 km in the middle of a promontory of San Nicolao de Petra, which then slowly sank.

I’m sorry I didn’t get to see this tower before it was restored. Here’s an older photo, when it still had enough character that it was featured in a few films.

Toward the end of the lagoon we come to the beginning of the first significant birding area we’ve seen since coming to Italy. You’ve probably noticed that I’ve essentially stopped the bird quest since coming to Italy, but it’s been because there have been surprisingly few bird sightings worth stopping for. I’ll regularly see the obvious and most common species - English sparrows and magpies by the hundreds or even thousands, jackdaws, barn swallows, an occasional kestrel or buzzard or goldfinch. I’ve also seen some more interesting birds - another hoopoe, a few Eurasian jays - but always too fleetingly or far off for a shot.

Here though, alongside the lagoon, suddenly we’re seeing birds worth stopping for. We’re continually flushing up egrets from the drainage channel paralleling the road, and occasionally I’ll come to something specific worth stopping the train for.

One we’ve seen before on this tour, but still a thrill worth stopping for. Two others were nesting atop the neighboring utility poles.

This is an interesting structure. A kiln or oven of some kind?

Another one with a similar look to its chimney. We’ll see several others like this before we reach town.

Five miles from Manfredonia we finally leave the coast highway to follow the shore northeast on a minor local road, most of which is marked as a bike route. These are wonderful miles, partly through a corner of Gargano National Park. Almost immediately we’re stopped by the startling vision of a pasture of a few hundred water buffalo lying in and slogging across a small sea of mud. It’s a buffalo mozzarella farm! Then, as we bike along we keep flushing up birds, including one I’m especially excited by seeing: a squacco heron. It’s a new species for me, and one that I took at first for a new variety of night heron. I wasn’t sure about the identification at first because it’s primarily an African bird but does breed in a few specific locations in Europe before heading south for the summer. I found a range map, and sure enough there’s a small circle right here, indicating that they breed precisely here on the south side of the Gargano. Lucky!

It’s a very upbeat note on which to end the ride; and of course the day will improve even further shortly when Kelly and Jacinto succeed in refilling our empty cash register.

Approaching Manfredonia, cycling in the national park through an aisle of eucalyptus.

Looks like a lovely way to spend the afternoon - if you’re a water buffalo.

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Ride stats today: 26 miles, 3000’; for the tour: 787 miles, 42,700’

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2023 Bird List

135. Black-winged stilt

136. Greater flamingo

137: Squacco heron

Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 821 miles (1,321 km)

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Jacquie GaudetBack to birds! I watched The Big Year on the flight home and enjoyed it as much as the first time I saw it. This time I noticed that it’s based on a book, perhaps the book you got for Christmas.
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