October 8, 2023
Day 32: Monteleone di Puglia to Castelpoto
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A long day of riding and climbing, followed by confusion as to where the heck our lodging was located, left us with little time and no energy to explore what we hoped would be a very interesting town. We didn't even have energy to explore the house!
Let me explain. The house has what we would call a mother-in-law apartment in the lower level. There's a separate entrance with a separate key. In this space, there are two beds, a bathroom, a rather elaborate bar/kitchen, and -- surprise, surprise -- a wine cellar!
I have to admit that our hearts weren't into discovering all the nooks and crannies of Monteleone di Puglia. We still had some packing to do, some planning to do, and some riding to do! In addition to the photos we took, there is also a very nice park in the "back" of town.
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Here's the view from our terrace:
We finally said goodbye to our refuge, looking forward to reaping payback for our hard-earned elevation gain.
It didn't exactly work out as planned. See those little dips in the elevation chart? Well, when scale is taken into account, those are really big dips, and more importantly, really big climbs. Only one of them -- the first one, I think -- was super gnarly. It was Lavello all over again! At least we weren't dealing with cobblestones this time.
After a few of these ups and downs, we needed a little break. There was a dirt bike event of some sort taking place in the hills all around us, so we stopped and watched for a few minutes.
Eventually, the real descent began. The asphalt was decent enough, but we had to keep braking to find the sweet spots in the pavement. As we neared our last curve into the river valley, we witnessed a fellow cycle tourist starting his ascent. We cheered him on, but also felt quite sorry for him. It was going to be a very tough day for him!
We still had quite a few hills to climb. The engineers of this road couldn't make up their minds as to whether to follow the river or the curves of the hillside. I'm sure they had their reasons, same as I have my reasons to curse at them. We did manage to find a nice bar for our first afternoon break.
Eventually we made it into Benevento, where we followed the signs to a Lidl for supplies. The roads we took were designed for heavy traffic, but on a Sunday afternoon they were pretty empty. I don't think we could handle riding through there during rush hour.
This is the point at which I introduce our surprise lodging for the night. A few days ago, I contacted a Warmshowers host known only as "Eurovelo 5 Hub". His name is actually Massimo, and he volunteers for a nature organization called LIPU. They have an office on a bike path just outside of Benevento. It was one of those situations in which getting to the start of the trail involved a leap of faith, as it seemed to be getting more industrial than park-like. That's not uncommon for rail trails. Strangely, this seemed to be an abandoned or repurposed road, although one of the two lanes went through a tunnel. I'm still scratching my head about it.
We arrived at the office at 3:30, where Raul, a volunteer, was waiting for us. He's from Argentina, so we tried to brush off our Spanish and communicate that way. We were mildly successful. He gave us some options for where we can set up our tent. He also provided us with water, bathroom access, and one of those solar shower setups. We almost refused the latter, but we caved and performed something between a wipe-down and a real shower, leaving us feeling much fresher. We cooked a nice meal, went for a walk, and settled in for the evening. We didn't see a lot of birds, but we sure heard a lot of them in the middle of the night. The only one whose call I captured on BirdNet is the Little Owl, otherwise known as the Owl of Minerva. They're very common here. They're also loud as heck.
This was posted on the office door. Birds and bikes! What a great combo. This is their web site if you would like to contact them when you're riding through the area.
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 1,876 km (1,165 miles)
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