Apulia (Peruglia) to Albania
Happy Easter from Apulia :-D
15th - 19th April | 2022
After all was packed this morning we drove off, along the coastal road towards Santa Maria di Leuca. After some pictures, we carried on to the most Eastern point of Italy Punta Palascia. From there we could see in the far distance just the silhouettes of the Albanian mountains - wow, that is close!
As we have our ferry only booked for Monday night, and Apulia is not very big and easy to drive (so far), we looked out for a wild camping spot just outside of Otranto. We found a lovely spot in an olive grove, right on the edge of Lago Alimini Piccolo (O Fontanelle). Unfortunately, we nearly got eaten alive by mosquitos as soon as the sun was down and the swallows stopped hunting.
About 7 am the next morning we got woken up by the noise of a tractor ploughing the field next to the one we camped in. Great! Hopefully, we are not in trouble! James got up then and later on the driver of the tractor waved friendly to us and asked us if we are ok. So, no trouble! Packing up took this time longer as it was difficult to dry the outer shell of our tent as the weather was cloudy and there was nowhere to hang it to dry.
Once on the bikes, we searched for a supermarket as a long weekend is coming up and knowing finally the opening times of supermarkets in Italy, we better get ourselves organised! We went to one at a shopping mall and it took Steffi a whole walk around the premises to get a shopping trolley! Total madness! However, once a trolley and in the shop went all fine and actually at the cash out surprisingly fast!
We wanted to pass by the "white city" of Ostuni, which reminded us more of places like the Pueblos Blancos in Andalucia (Spain) or Marrocco. We re-checked the weather forecast during our lunch picnic, but it was still forecasting rain for early morning and all Easter Sunday. So we booked a hotel close by Alberobello as we wanted to see the famous Trulli houses.
The owner of Hotel Donatello (www.donatello.it), Pasquale, is himself a biker and at the same time with us checking in, one of his biker friends pulled up. We had a brief conversation about our travels during a cafe.
For dinner, we went to a close-by Pizza-restaurant as the hotel restaurant was closed due to a private event. For the rest of the evening, we watched some videos on Youtube ;-)
The next morning, Pasquale gave us a lift to Alberobello for us to see the famous Trulli houses. That was very handy as it was drizzling, so we didn´t need to go by motorbike. It was very interesting to see the houses and be a bit of a tourist strolling through the old part, but all these tourists ... ;-)
The rest of the afternoon we spent watching videos, posting on social media, catching up with friends at home and some re-packing as it looks like it will be cold (winter) in Albania.
As it is only 50km to Bari, we took it easy in the morning with packing. Pasquale even got his old Yamaha TT600 out for the picture - how cool is that!
Once in Bari, we went first to the ferry company to book Schimmelchen on to Steffi's ticket. Even though the sales counter was open, he said to come back at 17h00 to do so; and it would be no problem. So we went to Lidl just down the road to get some shopping done that we are a bit organised for tomorrow in Albania. Surprisingly they were open on Easter Monday; meaning again tackling the way through for shopping! Good, we did it at that time, as about 13h everything that still was open closed for the day. Now it was time for our laundry.
For the rest of the afternoon, we stayed around in the ferry port until 18h30 when it was time to go on the ferry. 30mins later our bikes were on Adriaferries. The ferry will only leave at 22h00. It was a bit bumpy during the night. On one occasion we hit one wave that woke us both up and our bottle of red wine well over.
At 7am we got woken up by the announcement that we have to return the key to our cabin. At about 7h45 we stood around in the corridor waiting for the door to open to get to our vehicles. The ferry arrived on time, so by 9am we were out of the port meeting Pavel ("Far and Further"). After a short welcome conversation, we headed to a cafe shop where the ATM and a SIM card shop are. Whilst we had a cafe, Steffi spotted a shop that looked like it does sewing, as she is desperate in the need of getting her motorcycle jeans repaired. Yesss, it is one! So she left her trousers there whilst we got the SIM card sorted.
Finally, we could drive off towards Vlorë and from there on the SH8 up into the mountains to 1000m altitude, and 4C - brrrr! There we had a lovely lunch; James was happy as he finally got meat for lunch! After lunch, our route went back down to the coast towards Himarë. Pavel got the information about a great wild camping spot close to the beach. The final track to there was not really Steffi's favourite, and guess what ... yes, Schimmelchen down! That threw a bit the confidence for the rest of the day; so she used the first Joker card (after a long time not using it!). However, this track took us to an amazing stone beach, with blue water - like on a postcard! As stone beaches are not really applicable for tents, we just found another one a wee bit further on.
It was such a fantastic camp spot; directly upon the cliffs next to the sea! And we had a great sunset and later on the massive nearly-full moon coming up behind the mountains! What do you want more?!
You are welcome to find out in our next blog how our adventurous tour in Albania with "Far and Further" went and what amazing places we visited.
….PLEASE NOTE, some pictures are courtesy of Pavel (Far and Further) - thank you that we can use them for this blog!
Places | Cities:
ITALY:
Gallipoli, Santa Maria di Leuca, Tricase Porto, Castro, Punta Palascia, Otranto, Lecce, Ostuni, Alberobello, Bari
ALBANIA:
Durres, Vlorë, Himarë
Driven km | Trip:
From home: 8605 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
./.
Health issues:
. / .
Special thanks to:
Pasquale and Antonietta of Hotel Donatello (www.donatello.it) of looking so well after us.
Pavel aka Far and Further (www.farandfurther.org) welcomes us into Albania and guide us through this amazing country he fell in love with; also please check out his interesting non-profit-project of Trees for Lurë (https://treesforlure.org/)