Day 67: Santeramo In Colle to Bari

April 23, 2023

Ferry Bari to Durres Albania

Today is a dawdling kind of day.

The Anderson’s have a short distance today, and us as well with mostly downhill ride so we want to dawdle. According to our ticket check-in for the ferry to Durres doesn’t start until 7pm so we are in no hurry to get to Bari.

Rachel makes the first move at “bladder-thirty” and slowly we realize we are all awake. We are on the same schedule it seems. We eat our breakfast cereal, and then go to Bar Bistro with the coupon for free coffee and pastry provided by the B&B.

Check out is at 10, and we are delaying as long as possible. By 0930 Rachael and Scott are off and we leave not much later. Our paths diverge here, but with confidence that we will meet again. We’ve tried to convince the Anderson’s to visit us in Boise.

The intrepid travelers, Rachael and Scott Anderson

Looks like this driver made his own parking sign.

Leaving an Italian city takes navigation out of the labyrinth of streets. We come around a corner and meet two Italian bike packers who are headed to Matera today. We make it out into the countryside with the thoughts that the road is mostly downhill. That’s the catch word “mostly” as initially we have a few hefty inclines. There are local cyclists out on what looks like training rides. And there is a short road block of goats and sheep. Patrick stops for pictures.

After all we are dawdling.

Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers.

The intersection where we stop for a food break and watch the traffic

"I like old bikes but I'm punished for it," the cyclist in the middle says when Patrick says our bikes are 30 years old. He has a flat and his buddies are trying to slime the tire.

In Sannicandro di Bari we ride into the plaza for a break. There is a table set up for selling books. Patrick asks the man if there are any in English. He pulls out a bag and starts one by one showing us books for 3 Euro each. We buy two and as we are packing them away, he comes over to give us a third book. We reciprocate by giving him one of our books. He comes over again to give us one more, a huge book by Charles Dickens, not one that we want to read or carry for long. So loaded down with books we leave town.

In the background Patrick looking at the books

We continue dawdling.

This includes stopping to make a sandwich at a round about. And close to Bari, we stop at a Lidl supermarket to pick up more lunch supplies for passage to Albania. There’s a bike path into Bari, and since it’s 230pm we go look for a restaurant that might be open. We ride across the center of town, but all we see are closed shutters and very few people out.

So, we ride on a bike path back to the port and the find where to check in. We know where the GNV office is, but the road into the port has signs everywhere banning pedestrians and cyclists. We have been touring long enough to ignore these signs and find our way to the office. We are surprised to see a nice, covered area and two snack bars. There is a sign that check in for GNV will start at 5pm. This is good news as we thought the check in would start at 7pm.

This day’s ride has been different rhythm than we are used to doing. Our style is to get going early and getting to our destination. Rachel quietly liked the dawdling. When solo cycling that’s what she did best; dawdling.

We find a spot at a snack bar, order a plate of fries and cokes and wait.

Check in office is under the white roofs.

At 5, Patrick gets the boarding pass and security tag for the bikes. We wait a little longer then hear that boarding will start at 7pm. We cycle to the passport control gate following the signs. A man watches us for awhile then comes over to try to explain sometimes this passport gate that should open at 6pm doesn’t always open on Sunday. We decide to wait then close to 6 we realize that it’s not going to open. We cycle back to a terminal building and see the passport control and we wait.

We ride past this point following the signs to Passport control only find out that one doesn't open and we return here. The passport control is just to the left out of the picture.

A little after 6, we are finally through and cycle around to the ferry, and wait. One of the cr ew comes over to talk with us. He is from the Philippines and speaks some English. He lets us know boarding will start at 7pm. We are the only ones waiting at the boat, it seems cars are held back somewhere else. To our pleasant surprise we get to go on board first just after 7:00. The Philippino crew member helps us stash our bikes and he straps them down. We go up to our little cabin on the eight deck. This time we do have a tiny interior cabin, but actually we get two interconnected cabins so we each have a lower bunk and our own bathroom. Patrick takes some pictures of the sunset over the Bari harbor, both of us fall asleep before the ship leaves port.

Again, Rachel's camera without the flash, so picture is blurry.

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Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,353 km (1,461 miles)

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Rachael AndersonI can’t wait to read about the next part of you tour but I wish the two of you would have come with us to Gravina! It’s very beautiful and I could have used Patrick’s navigation skills when I tried to find a grocery store this morning. My phone went wacko but I did finally find one.
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1 year ago

Rachel and Patrick HugensTo Rachael AndersonWe love reading how your day went as we thought about you two on our ride. We are so happy meeting and so easy to get to know you and even more meaningful now when reading your journal. Until we meet again, stay safe and happy travels
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1 year ago