Venosa

June 4, 2019

Before jumping into today, let’s make amends for another journaling oversight - we left out the video for the ride to Lesina. After all the work Rachael has gone to learning to speak to her GoPro, I’m sure you won’t want to miss even one. This one is especially good because it features me.

We unexpectedly have an extra day in our schedule - the dropped second night in Lesina. We considered just staying here in Foggia a second night and taking a day ride back to Gargano. That would have been fine, but we came up with a more interesting idea. Our plan from here was to take the train to Salerno, which requires a change of trains at Potenza. Instead, we’ve decided to spend the next two days biking to Potenza, and tomorrow catch the afternoon train to Salerno. It will give us a few more miles on the bike and a chance to see some of the Basilicata interior we gave up by including Gargano.

Brilliant, no? We’ll see.

Another new quality standard - a ten grain breakfast! An amazing seven varieties of cereal, plus an assortment of breads.

Today’s ride to Venosa doesn’t sound too tough - 46 miles, a moderate amount of climbing. We get an early start, trying to beat the heat as much as possible - after over two months on the road, for the first time we’re running into seriously warm conditions. Neither of us does particularly well biking in the heat, so we’re starting to feel ready to see the end of the tour.

The first half of the ride goes smoothly. It’s mostly flat for the first ten miles as we continue along the agricultural plain. We’re on fairly busy roads at first, so with not much reason to slow down we make good time. At Orta Nova though we start bending inland and gaining elevation. Soon we transition to quiet minor roads that will characterize most of the rest of the day. Eventually we’re up high enough that we’re in the upper Murgia again, the same beautiful country we found a bit further south around Altamura.

Unfortunately, about midway through the ride I experience an SVT episode - the first in over a month, and by far the worst. It persists for the next two hours or more, leaving me quite drained and wondering if I’m going to make it to destination or not. I think it was probably triggered by the heat somehow, but I don’t really know.

In the Alta Murgia again. Beautiful country.

Rachael’s pulling away from me here, but in this open country I can spot her a mile off.

Monte Vulture, an ancient volcano, will be the dominant feature for the rest of the ride. I love rides like this where you slowly close in on a major feature in the distance, watching it gradually grow as you draw closer.

Somewhere around Borgo Liberta, I think.

Our road deteriorates a bit, which is a fair trade for the absence of traffic. We’re pretty much all alone out here.

I’m not doing too bad, plugging away and counting down the miles. We’re only about fifteen miles from Venosa - or so we think - when we’re undone by a mapping mishap. My mapping tool allowed me to plot a route connecting two roads about a mile and a half apart. Unfortunately, the connector proves not to be viable, as it steadily deteriorates, turns to a slender track through the tall grass, and then ends completely. With imagination we can see where there could have been a path beyond this at some point in the past, but at this point there’s nothing to be done but reverse course, backtrack to the road we just left, and plot a new course. Not the best news, given the situation.

Image not found :( — Uh, oh. Here comes trouble.

Back on pavement again, we pick the shortest detour available. Eventually it will connect us back to our planned route, but at the cost of an extra seven miles. The ride goes reasonably well until we get to Lavello, where we encounter a series of short but brutally steep hills that do me in completely. Nothing to be done but get off and push, slowly.

Then, spontaneously, the episode stops and I feel still weak but normal again. I’m not even conscious of the change at first - Rachael is the first to realize I’m coming around again, because suddenly I’m interested in my surroundings and am stopping to yank out the camera. And, in fact, the remaining miles of the ride are very beautiful.

Venosa finally appears, on the opposite ridge.

We arrive in Venosa at six, a full two hours after we had expected (we called our host some time ago when it was obvious we wouldn’t be arriving at the declared time). We check in to our apartment and I flop on the bed to regroup a bit while Rachael heads off to the store to forage for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Not long before sundown, we head out for dinner. Venosa is actually quite an attractive little town, but we only see a few highlights on our way to and from the restaurant. Which is exactly what happened last time. This is the second time we’ve been here. On our first trip to Puglia we biked up here from Trani, but arrived too late in the day to see much of anything then either. Perhaps we’ll make it back here again some year and arrive early enough to actually look around, but I doubt it.

Dinner though was excellent, and memorable. We ate at Santa Maria della Scalla, an excellent restaurant we highly recommend. We really enjoyed our host/server/owner? - an older man, somewhat deaf, but full of personality. And we especially enjoyed chatting with the couple at the next table: the man is from Vienna and his girlfriend is from Moscow. Both of them were quite social, entertaining and interesting. It made for an excellent end to the day.

So, if you bike through Venosa, eat here. And send some photos of the place back so we’ll know what we missed.

The ceiling of our restaurant is also brick, like the ceiling of our room back in Lesina. It seems to be a commonly used material here.

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Ride stats today: 53 miles, 2,800’; for the tour, 2,176 miles, 133,000’

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 2,162 miles (3,479 km)

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Suzanne GibsonSorry to hear about the SVT episode, glad it passed und you were OK for the remainder of the ride! Take care of yourselves and your bikes, you two.
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4 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonThanks, Suzanne. It’s a frustration, alright. So unpredictable.
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4 years ago

Jen RahnHope that's the last SVT episode of the tour and that the heat is tolerable in the remaining days!
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4 years ago