17/12/24
In the morning we thought we should visit the cathedral before we left. It was right on the water and only 200m from the house. It was another building that looked brand new. It had an interesting layout, you had to go upstairs to the main hall. It was very quiet and there was no one else there.
Leaving Trani was easy, we rolled around the harbour, before meeting an azure path of dreams. We hadn’t had such a thing in ages. It followed the coast for a fair few miles and was exactly the kind of coastal path we’d been hoping for.
The route passed through a few towns and at Bisceglie we thought we’d take a dusty track rather than stay on the tarmac and leave the sea behind. It was a little too hardcore in places and we decided that it was enough of an adventure for the day.
Once we were back on the road we were pushed onto a large wide road with few lane markings that wasn’t very cycle friendly. Staying off this road was incredibly difficult and the route did its best. After 500m we took a side road, and were on a small olive grove road. From here it was plain sail-nope.
Just a kilometre down the road we suddenly happened upon a huge blockade of rock boxes and a new channel being dug. Our route had imagined the road to go straight over and now we had to get to the other side by negotiating a different kind of hardcore. Fortunately it was only time consuming and completely manageable, though it could prove a little difficult for some cycle tourers.
Once back on the road, it was suddenly and magically perfect brand new tarmac. Ahhh Italia. We were back on a road and went through Molfetta. Then the pretty harbour of Giovinazzo where we had to navigate through some roadworks that had blocked our route. We didn’t see many things of interest and were keen to get to Bari anyhow. After a final stretch of good cycle paths, not overly littered with glass, and with plenty of car separation technology, we arrived in Palese.
Palese was as far as the route would take us. There is no cycle route into Bari along the coast for sure, and arguably not one at all. Bicitalia tells you to take the train. Not to be deterred we had spent an hour the previous night finding another option. There was nothing that we could find by searching online and it seemed to be an accepted situation. The problem seemed to be the airport, and a drainage canal. The former created a system of highways that were impenetrable. The latter was previously crossable, as per the Via Francigena website, but was blocked recently, as the satellite photos show, by some kind of gigantic pipe line.
The route we finally settled on took us down a first narrow and little used section of the SP204, where we had to wait for ten minutes for the train crossing. Then we missed the gap because we were using the toilet, and so had to wait another ten minutes. Meanwhile, people who were obviously workers also trying to find a way in and out of Bari, simply walked back and forth under the barriers. As we crossed we could see that there were people simply walked next to the tracks all the way.
Once over the crossing, the SP204 got much busier. It was now two lanes and we had to endure it for a kilometre to the airport entrance. There however, was a cycle lane, newly constructed this year going by google street view. It took us along the SP156 where we were able to take an old road down and across the drainage canal before entering Bari in its industrial zone. From here were some horribly wide roads, and one expansive roundabout. They weren’t too busy and we trundled along until we reached a clever little cycle path that snuck us under the cursed SS16 and onto a road with a suicide lane that took us all the way into the city.
Pleased at our success and now ready to leave Italy, we visited the Eurospin to collect enough food for our ferry ride that would see us leaving at 7:30pm and arriving at 2pm the next day. After stocking up we found the port offices opposite the busy port and secured our tickets. We were able to sit in a lovely little terminal, Harwich take note, and wait until 5pm when we could board to await departure. We were also treated as pedestrians rather than moronically being funnelled into car lanes. Stena Lines take note.
The only caveat was that getting to the boat from the terminal required navigation of a lorry park, in the dark. No biggy though. We went through security, no one wanted to search our bags, and were shown a little corner in the cargo bay to secure our bikes. We took a few minutes to get everything we needed and headed up the escalators onto the deck. This was to be our home for the night.
Yes, you can book a cabin. But it’s an extra €200 euros and we considered one night of sleeplessness an acceptable trade. We found a little corner where there were sofas and cheekily turned the volume on the TV all the way down. It was already low but it was also crackling a bit. More and more people boarded and occupied the areas around us. Eventually a lady with her two young children sat near us.
We ate our bread and assorted bits of salad before the ferry had departed. After it had we ate our bread, jam, biscuits etc. the clock on board had jumped an hour and we were now on Greek time before we’d even left the port. Slowly everyone started putting their heads down. A steady stream of truckers walked back and forth to the deck to smoke.
We drew a bit of a short straw, the lady had been feeding her kids cakes, biscuits and also pouring coke into them. They were obviously hyperactive and as we tried to sleep they were nowhere near doing so. We dipped in and out of consciousness. At one point, it must have been after midnight, the youngest girl was basically screaming down the phone. An older man nearby started telling the lady off. We couldn’t understand a word but it was obvious what was going on. We just observed, we’d accepted that we wouldn’t be sleeping.
The night dragged on and we sailed down the coast of Italy. It was a little bit of a jump that we were making by taking the ferry. Eventually we lost phone signal. We were finally heading to Greece.
Surly They Won't Make It 