April 19, 2023
Day 63: Rocca Imperiale Marina to Bernalda
Wildflowers or trash, take your pick
As travelers, what do we focus on? Only the beautiful and ignore the ugly? Today is a beautiful ride, once we are away from the Interstate RWGPS took us down some awesome back roads. The orchards and wildflowers are fantastic. We are cycling through an agricultural section of Italy. We can smell the strawberries in the fields ready to be picked.
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Or, the ugly: today is also depressing. In a country that seems to have a robust recycling system, It seems like some of the population dumps trash wherever they can find a quiet pull-out on little back roads. We see everything from construction debris, house waste, mattresses, old tires and a whole river bank littered with discarded appliances. And it is not just here and there: it is pretty much everywhere. We are just visitors appalled by it, they have to live here. Yet, our own country has a history of problem with trash.
We eat our bowl of cereal in the apartment, load up the bikes and head out. Another nice morning with possible thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon. As we leave the Marina part of Rocca Imperiale, we can see the other part of town draped over a nearby hilltop with a castle perched on top. Too bad the weather yesterday prevented us from making the effort for exploring.
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We start again with dealing with the Interstate thing. RWGPS has earned our trust, but it makes us do some strange things. We miss the first zigzag and have to backtrack a bit from a dead-end road. Then there just is no way to get through and we are guided inland about 10km, climbing our first two hills before returning to the Interstate. The detour is nice though, we see lots of fruit farms: lemons, oranges, jasmine, and strawberries. What choice would we have made if the interstate did not keep us from following the coast uninterrupted? Would we have chosen the more difficult hills by going inland?
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1 year ago
Back at the coast we stop for a nice cappuccino and pastry. We’ll miss this once we get to the Balkans. Then back to playing hide and seek with the Interstate. We are sent down a dead-end road once again, and this time it seems like it truly just ends at a river bank. But wait, behind the bushes is an abandoned bridge and a faint trail leading towards it. “I remember seeing this in the Anderson's journal from 2019,” Patrick says. We push over it. Some more zigzags, and then we leave the coast for good. Can’t say we are sorry. Inland has been much prettier, but also harder because it is either up or down. We climb another hill and can see our destination on the next ridge.
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1 year ago
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One more surprise as we near Bernalda. The last bridge where we need to get across one more river is blocked off. We would have to go further upstream, then backtrack on a very busy road. A road crew passing by stops to watch us as Patrick is already between two barriers. One guy says something, but we don’t understand. The thing about not understanding a language, one can always imagine they are saying something positive, “Like keep going through the barriers”. After they drive on we haul our stuff around the first barrier. The bridge looks fine to us, but there probably is an unknown issue. The blockade on the other side is a little sturdier, but the tie-wires holding the metal barriers can be undone by hand. The plastic barriers were never filled with water so are easily moved. We get through one more time.
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First though, there is a downhill and then a final climb into Bernalda. We arrive at about 2:30 and find the street the apartment is located on, but there is no house number. As we backtrack from the square, the family comes out and invites us in. They have their shy teenage daughter to translate, but the father and mother take great effort to show us every feature of the unit. Then we get the keys, more instructions on how to leave the keys tomorrow. On their way out they point out a nearby food place. Patrick walks over and finds a bakery that also sells cold beer.
The unit has a clothes washer which we use to do two loads. We should be able to dry it overnight in front of the unit heater. We guess this makes up for not having Wi-Fi tonight. We have data on our phone plan, but we are not sure how much we have left over and don’t want to use it before we leave Italy.
We have a bit of a surprise this evening when our host tomorrow night in Matera informed us we could not check-in until five instead of the original arranged time of one. That does not work for us, way too late and also past another schedule test launch of Space X Starship Patrick very much wants to watch. It’s a bit of a scramble but fortunately we can cancel for free and find another place in a good location. In high season this would not be as easy.
We decide not to cook tonight and walk over to the Memphis Pub. There is a giant screen playing a Pearl Jam Concert, posters around the walls including the Blues Brothers. More importantly, they have quite a few beers on draft, including a Leffe Strong Ale. Very nice! The pizza is good too.
Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 2,224 km (1,381 miles)
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It ended up better for the better! The place we found is great, and the owner fantastic! Had a booklet for things to do, was ok with the bikes on the balcony and a better location. See you soon.
1 year ago