Back to the trail

I never did tell you about the rest of our hike. We hiked for 2 hours uphill in the deep dark forest to come to an area where the trees suddenly ended and we had great views in all directions. Lori had the right idea and settled down in this field (you may have to open the picture to see her in the photo below). She just relaxed and took in the views while Kent and I ran around snapping pictures. The only sound was the wind and the dull clacking of cow bells echoing from the valley below.



This is the spring we found and it was soooo good and just when we needed it. We could have made it back with the water we had but this made the return much nicer.

We didn't see much wildlife but I did get this shot of butterfly.

This is the last photo I took before we entered into the woods again and headed back to civilization. We were just up there!

Travelling on...

One of the beauties of travelling without a set schedule is that you can change ideas quickly. With the lake boring and sad we moved on. I didn't real have a destination in mind until I saw Terranova di Pollino on the map. It's position as a town at the end of the winding mountain road well inside the park seemed like a good place to be to start a hike. We would find out later the road continues but there's a good reason it's not on the map. So Terranova was agreed on as the place to stop for the night, if we could find a place to sleep. We arrived in town and actually were very lucky to find one of the two hotels they have, the Hotel Picchio Nero. Hey it's good enough for Robert MacNamara and Whoopi Goldberg so we thought it was good enough for us. We dumped our stuff and headed into the town. It was late afternoon and the town just starting to stir again. I've grown very attached to watching Italian towns come back to life after the afternoon siesta. Watching the shudders roll back and clerks put out their little displays or potted plants outside the doors. Tables and chairs appearing on what was once a barren piazza. I need a caffe just thinking about it.

I took this photo of the center of town because I loved the "Bar 007". Lori liked the roundabout.
The sun was going down and we were getting hungry fast so we headed back to the hotel. Lucky for us the hotel owner is some kind of master chef because he whipped up a dinner fit for kings. I can't believe I didn't get picture of pasta dish. It was homemade spinach pasta (green) with local type of ricotta (white) and secret tomato sauce (red), so Italian! The only thing is that I found out that I don't like truffles. I'm sorry but there is just something about the taste that I don't like. I made sure he didn't see me scrape the finely grated truffle from the top of second dish.
I woke up early the next morning because people in these parts get up at the crack of dawn (that's around 5:30 AM) and then proceed to a beat big steel fender back into shape with a huge hammer. That's what it sounded like to me. After breakfast the hotel owner highlighted on the map exactly where we should go. I loved it because it involved driving down a road that doesn't exist on normal maps (we bought a local topographical map) and then starting our hike from there. He frowned as he had to give us an "easy" hike because we didn't have proper hiking boots.
Kent took this photo of Terranova as we said goodbye to the town on the street with no name. He used my camera because he's in love with my lens that goes down to 18mm. It lets him get in the sky and give the photo depth. Meanwhile, I was watching the road because it was in many wonderful states neglect. I think my Alfa Romeo has done more offroading than any 99% of the SUVs in the States. So it was huge surprise when we arrived at the trail head and the place was packed. I forgot it was Sunday and there were tons of families up there having picnics. We went straight to the trial and the noise quickly died off until we were alone with the only the shuffling of our own feet and the random buzz of a fly or mosquito harassing us. I took this photo of a typical trail scene.

The next part will be photos from near the top where the forest opened up to some nice views....

Lake fun in Southern Italy!

What do you do for fun in the Midwest in the summer? You go boating on a lake or river. Hell yeah. That’s good fun. Well there are no lakes and rivers in Puglia but we (Lori, Kent, and I) saw one not far away in Basilicata called Lago di Monte Cotugno. Our midwestern mentality says, “Let’s go there!” and “There are mountains near by, bonus!” We took off relatively early, ok it was around 11:30 AM, Saturday and drove towards Taranto. From there we followed the signs towards Reggio Calabria but thankfully we weren’t going nearly that far. The drive along "the arch" is nice at times when you can see the Ionian Sea. In fact, it was so nice that we missed our turn inland. A short detour was required but we were soon back on track to visit the unique lake, which is on the very northern edge of the Parco Nazionale di Pollino. As we approached, the dam was the first thing we saw and it’s an impressive dam, which was a dam good sign. I had to get one dam joke in there. We later found out it’s one of the biggest packed earth dams in Europe. After that view, things went downhill fast. The pictures show more than what I can write. The water was strange milky blue-green color and there was absolutely nothing built “on the water”. Not a single house, dock, boat ramp, restaurant, nothing. In fact all we found were old stone houses in the water and a washed out road complete with a bridge that went nowhere.

With the scenery here sad and dead we decided to head for the mountains. Surely that wouldn’t disappoint?


Doesn't look like much fun here.


What's Gimli's line from Lord of the Rings, "You could find more joy in a graveyard." In the lake's defense, it's a very important source of water for Taranto and Brindisi. It wasn't made for having fun!

Did they have to go?

Well Lori and Kent are gone. I guess they had to go. Now things will get back to normal. How am I going to go back to the way it was? Lori was cooking up some great dinners and then Kent did the dishes. I was spoiled and now I have to go back to raiding dumpsters for scraps of food or cooking for myself. Anyway, I guess I’ll have the memories and a lot of photos. There’s always good news so with them gone I can post more here and catch up other blogs that I haven’t had time to read. Also I have Kent’s photos to use. Kent is great at going up to complete strangers and getting their photos like the one below. I just can’t bring myself to do it. I always feel like I’m being a pest but almost everyone he photos enjoys it.

Can I sum up Lori and Kent's visit quickly?

Let's see... It was everything from earthshaking to mountain climbing to chillin’ at the beach. I do mean literally earth-shaking because we were all in the same room when Kent said, “Did you feel that?” I thought it was just me until his comment. We all agreed that the chair or bed felt “wobbly” for short time. We checked out an earthquake website and sure enough there was a small shudder centered near Corfu (5.5 on the Rictor Scale). We filled out an online report to document the experience.
Mountain Climbing: As I mentioned in the other blog one of the really cool things we did was to go down to the Basilicata-Calabria border to visit the Parco Nazionale di Pollino. I loved our hike and now I understand a few Italian things more clearly. One is the love for mountain spring water. We found a spring of cold refreshing wonderful water that came out of the ground at about 2000 meters above sea level. That’s amazing considering the highest point around us was 2200 meters. Also in the park we saw cows grazing around freely. Its no wonder Italians are so proud of their cheese. The biggest problem for these cows was annoying hikers between them and their spring water. Pesticides, hormones, stalls, no way! They were living “La Dolce Vita” of the cow world. Then when we hit the summit we were treated to some beautiful vistas from a place called “La Grande Porta di Monte Pollino”. Kent and I even got close enough to a several hundred-foot cliff to get my fear of falling going (it’s not the height that’s bad, it’s the fall!).

Chillin' out: Then on the other end of the spectrum, we spent several days chillin’ at the beach. The first day was by far the best. Calm seas, nearly empty beach, and on the last snorkel of the day Lori and I saw my first real octopus. I say “real” because it was the first time I caught one out moving about. Usually they dart into a hole and hide and then all you see is a little part, usually an eye peering back at you from the hole. If you want to eat them you just stick your hand in, or use a stick, and pull it out. I wanted a photograph without torturing the animal to death! This particular octopus was in the perfect position to get photos without harassment. It was funny because every time I swam down too close to him he would change to white and puff up to scare me off. I gave him his space (I’m not Jeff Corwin after all) but I knew that later I would wish I tried a few more photos. Video, I should have made a video! I always forget! The other days were a little windy and not good for underwater photography or snorkelling. However, the wind couldn’t stop us from throwing the Frisbee and I can honestly say in 3 days at the beach not one innocent bystander was maimed, knocked out, or even hit. Hey we’re professionals. Other sporting news on the beach is that Kent is starting to become a legend in Bocce. I knew he would have the touch necessary for the game but wisely Marco and Gianluca didn’t allow him to warm up so Kent and I lost our first match. Later when Kent matched up with Gianluca they beat the pants off of people. Kent was pretty consistent while Gianluca was just plain lucky! Admit it Gianluca!

Other sights, sounds, and tastes we took in… We had a great lunch with my Uncle Joe, Ruth and the Girls at the Penny Restaurant. I have to thank Ugo’s uncle for staying open to accommodate us. For taste buds there was also the Sagra del Pesce at Porto Cesareo. The biggest sagra I have been to with the least amount of food! The fish was good but I want more variety at THE Sagra del Pesce. Throw in a visit to Gallipoli, Polignano a Mare, and Monopoli and I think it was a pretty complete trip. We had thought about a ferry to Greece or Albanian but with Lori and Kent we always seem to have plenty to do in this area.
See Lori and Kent’s blog for other photos and stories. If our stories don’t match up then I’m pretty sure I’m right and they’re wrong. I’ll try not to duplicate photos but I see my sister has already used my best picture of the octopus but that’s ok because I’m sure I’ll use a few of Kent’s photos.