1. An Italian Adventure, starting at the back of the 'calf'

covering 14 - 19 April 2019

wall walking goats - desperate to avoid us.

After a whistle-stop break in England following our five month trip to South America, we headed to Italy in our motorhome.  Our vague plan was to go straight to Southern Italy and consider that we had arrived when we got to the Gargano Peninsula.  Then it would be explore the south of Italy, ferry to Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica (which I know is politically French but it used to be Italian) and ferry to France, probably Toulon.  Nothing is booked and we have made a complete guess as to how long we’ll be in each place, so we’ll see how it goes.

should be twinned with Durdle Door !

and this one with Old Harry

Vieste old town

Leaving Calais at about 11.30 after arriving from Dover on Thursday morning, we did a little over 1,400 miles, getting to Gargano about lunchtime on the Sunday.  The Mont Blanc tunnel and toll roads the whole way meant it was an expensive run but we got here quickly which was the idea.  We had been thinking of the Mont Cenis pass because we like traversing a pass with those distant, rugged and snowy views.  However, Number 1 Son suggested we checked if it was open - and it wasn’t.  So, at about half past two on the Sunday we

Vieste old town

turned up in the rain at the campsite we’d chosen on Gargano and despite our book stating that it was open from 1 April it was most definitely closed.  Bit of a blow.  So we did what seemed sensible, stopped outside and had lunch.  Then we checked our other books and phoned a site which was open and which turned out to be in a great position, right next to the beach close to a lovely little town called Vieste. 

also Vieste old town

Spring has definitely sprung here and there are lots of Wisteria in bloom, quite a number grown as very spectacular hedges.  The narcissus have finished their early spring display and there are now lots of early summer flowers to be seen.  Lovely.   Unfortunately there are huge areas of olives being grown and most olive farmers think that the only suitable thing to have under olives is bare soil.  So everything else is sprayed out.  Thinking of it makes you want to weep when you see an area that hasn’t been sprayed, full of colour and life.

Gargano is the spur on the back of Italy’s calf.  It’s composed mainly of limestone and is hilly, very much different from the rest of the local landscape which is as flat as a pancake and that’s because in geological times it was an island more like the Balkan lands across the Adriatic.  There are large forested areas in the middle.   We’re here because Gargano is called the Orchid Capital of Europe due to it having more species of orchid (round about 70) than any comparable sized area in the continent.  We expect to see a good selection but will almost certainly not be able to identify many of them.  So we’ll just have to console ourselves with enjoying their beauty without necessarily knowing what the scientific community has named them, something we do a lot in the natural world.

Gargano Orchid (Ophrys garganica)
we think - but would be happy for confirmation

Naked-man Orchid (Orchis italica)

and an orchid whose identity we can't decide upon

The huge difference between travelling as we did in South America and touring around in the motorhome like a pair of hermit crabs is that the contact with the locals is so much less.  In the motorhome we are so much more independent, there’s no transport to sort out, shops are often supermarkets, usually small, so we only have any contact with the person on the till and we book into campsites.  The odd restaurant and garage and that’s about it.  I still find myself thanking people in Spanish though.

Mating behaviour or fighting - what do you think ?

We have been surprised at how quiet the area is even though it’s Easter, even the roads are pretty empty.  The site I mentioned at Vieste had only about seven or eight motorhomes on it.  Us two Brits (and Europeans) and everyone else German until another British van arrived after a couple of days.  In Britain prices go up on sites for Easter.  At this one, there was a special offer of 16 Euros (£14) a night until the beginning of May and that included electricity, hot showers and internet.  It would cost twice that in England. 

After a few days exploring the peninsula and as expected finding orchids we couldn’t identify we moved to another site for a night.  Again next to the beach and at 14 Euros a night !  Someone wandered around to tell us to close our windows at 8.00 because they were spraying the mosquitoes and sure enough a tractor went around the site spraying something noxious.  As we expected we didn’t see much in the way of any insects after the spraying, apart that is from mosquitoes.  The noteworthy occurrence here was before the spraying when we heard a deep musical note behind us.  It was someone playing an Alpenhorn !  Now I thought it was a single deep note machine for sending messages across Alpine valleys but this man could play it.  We were treated, without our permission and inescapably I might say, to a selection of melodies.  The only one we recognised was Amazing Grace, a few bum notes but very impressive on what must be the most cumbersome and impractical of instruments. 

You will all no doubt heard of the much publicised ‘healthy’ Mediterranean diet – lots of fruit, vegetables, olive oil and a modicum of wine.  Now we’re on the spot I can let you into a secret, the unmentioned special ingredient, widely used in great quantities appears to be an abnormal amount of cigarette smoking. 

A couple more unidentified (to us) Orchids.  Anyone who thinks they know, please tell me