In Manfredonia: bikeabit

April 29, 2023

We’re both startled this morning to realize this is our 45th day on the road and we’re just ending the first half of the trip. It feels like so much has happened already! It feels like forever since we were sitting down to dinner with Jacquie and Al in Palermo six plus weeks ago. Hell - it even feels like forever since we sat down to dinner with Rachel and Patrick just five days ago!

So today is the first day of the rest of our tour. We’ve been made financially stable again thanks to Kelly and Jacinto, and are back to focusing on the tour itself again and fretting about our normal anxieties on the road. Today these include worrying about the weather, which promises several days of rain as we round the rugged and remote Gargano Promentory; and wondering if I’ll have an arrythmia episode on the ride tomorrow to Vieste, the most challenging stage remaining on our itinerary.

For today though the weather is excellent for our layover day in Manfredonia. We have an appealing but curious apartment here with probably the most unusual kitchen space we’ve ever seen. It’s a slot canyon, fifteen feet long and 20 inches wide, with the living space at one end and the bathroom at the other. It’s a good thing we’re both reasonably slender, but even so we really need our partner to get out of the kitchen if we need to go to the bathroom. Interesting!

Not only is it so narrow that two people can barely squeeze past each other, but it’s also not even easy to open the door of the refrigerator and reach inside.

Once you read ahead and see the extraordinary hike Rachael took up into the hills behind town today you’ll undoubtedly wonder why I hadn’t joined her. Because I’m not that smart, that’s why. Instead, my plan was to head back to the roads alongside the lagoon we passed on our way in yesterday. I was seduced by the addition of those three new birds added to the list and was certain there’d be more where those came from if I had the time and patience for a slower look. With visions of Squacco herons dancing in my head I biked west, starting with a detour to the marina to see if there were any new gulls or terns bobbing in the bay.

There weren’t. Just the usual subjects that frequent the region: yellow-legged and black headed gulls. I did get to open up a new list for the tour though when I bagged my first entry in the mollusca class.

The view toward the mountains from the marina. From here we can see the course of Rachael’s hike, up into that ravine on the right.

Yellow-legged gulls are pretty easy to identify, once you know their key identifying features. The primary one is that they have yellow legs, which comes as no surprise.

Yawn. Another black headed gull. These and the yellow-legs must comprise 99.9% of the gull sightings in southern Italy.

Mollusk #1: White Italian snail (Theba pisana).

So, not the most exciting stop other than for those fantastic snails. From the marina I move on, more or less retracing our ride into town last night as well as detouring to explore a few lanes down to the waterfront. I’m sorry to say that this too was not the most exciting and productive. A few little egrets and kestrels, quite a few more jackdaws and magpies, and even more barn swallows and Italian sparrows. Plus the usual doves and pigeons. Plus probably a half dozen Squacco herons, none of which let me approach close enough for a shot before flapping off into the distance. It makes me realize how lucky I was yesterday to get the one I did.

In general though, the day is a big bird bust. As soon as I get home and Rachael flashes her colorful gallery before me I realize I’ve made a poor use of the day.

In Manfredonia. Actually this came close to being a bird shot. Just as I biked up a sandpiper flushed up and quickly disappeared, and barn swallows are everywhere.

Ring-necked dove. I also saw but didn’t bother photographing rock pigeons and wood-pigeons, but nothing new.

Hey, I did pick up a new one after all. #138: European serin, one of the smallest of the finches and a cousin of the canary.

The view north across Manfredonia. With a super-scope maybe I could spot Rachael up there looking back at me.

The view south. I think the high ground out there must be the Alta Murgia. Yes, if I squint I can just make out Minervino.

One of about a half dozen egrets that quickly rose up from an irrigation or drainage channel and vacated the scene as soon as I approached. Three Squacco herons too, which I was pleased to see that I can readily identify now - about the same size as little egrets, with slightly chunkier bodies and a light tan coloration.

The one thing I’m most pleased about from my little ride is to pass by this and the following structure again. We passed them on the way into town yesterday and I was sorry to have not stopped for them.

The other wreck, about a hundred yards away from the first.

We loiter around the apartment for awhile, reading blogs, napping, watching our laundry dry, taking turns threading our way through the kitchen to the bathroom; and then finally Rachael announces she’s ready to add a couple more miles to her walking talley and stop in at the optometrist’s to have her glasses repaired. They’re a pair she loves because they’re so light but I think is an exasperating design because the lenses are held in by a filament like fishing line. Once a lens has fallen out as it did about ten days ago it’s about impossible to reseat it unless you have the right tool. I somehow succeeded once, but not this time so Rachael’s been relying on her backup pair until she made time to stop in at an optometrist.

This one is great - very helpful, and even gives her the small ‘tool’ she needs to do the trick herself - so we’ll see if it works the next time, as there undoubtedly will be.

Whole again. Such a creative, practical design!

And, we each walk around Manfredonia and take a few pics, primarily along its long waterfront again. Manfredonia is quite an appealing town, one we’d be happy to come back to again someday. If we do, I’ll take that hike next time.

In Manfredonia. This looks like an attorney we’d be happy to give our business to.

Along the fisherman’s pier. At the far end are the lighthouse (built in 1868) and the squat Swabian castle, dating back to at least the 1300’s.

The end of the fisherman’s jetty, and the green light.

Ride stats today: 15 miles, 200’; for the tour: 802 miles, 42,900’

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2023 Bird List

138. European serin

Today's ride: 15 miles (24 km)
Total: 836 miles (1,345 km)

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