It Never Rains in Puglia in May!
Italy (Puglia) Stage 02 – Lecce to Otranto 63 Km (Thu 3 May 2018)
Weather: 16⁰C min – 20⁰C max, wet – torrential at times
“A bad attitude is like a flat tire… you can’t go anywhere until you change it.” ~ Unknown
Any bike tourer knows that you have to take the good with the bad, rain is inevitable and comes as part of the game. So I wasn’t too phased when I set off from Lecce in light drizzle this morning, in fact the droplets of rain falling gently on my face were quite pleasant. The problem is the further I rode the heavier the rain became, until when I reached the coast at the half way point it had become torrential. It didn’t help when the young lady who greeted me at the AirBNB in Otranto told me it hadn’t rained around here for months until today!
But no good complaining, looking on the bright side there are several things I can be thankful for:
- The 30 minutes when it stopped raining occurred while I was riding through the beautiful park Riserva Natural Le Cesine, so I managed to get a few photographs and even a couple of video clips.
- In contrast to yesterday the route was perfect, with interesting scenery and excellent roads and bike paths.
- Traffic was virtually non-existent, even on the SP366 coastal road I followed for about 20 km.
- My Garmin Edge 1000 continued to function in the downpour (just difficult to see the screen for water droplets).
- My Ortlieb panniers kept their contents perfectly dry.
- The thunder I could hear in the distance stayed in the distance.
- My fingers only lost all feeling for the last 15 km!
- I arrived safe and sound at my destination at 2 pm, having made good time in spite of the flooded roads (less stops to take photos today).
Can you imagine how good that hot shower felt when I arrived?
Unbelievably, when I ventured outside to explore Otranto there was hardly a cloud in the sky, which meant I was able to take some reasonable photos of this delightful seaside town.
The day ended on a high note with a superb meal at the nearby Terra Nostra restaurant. The mixed platter of fresh fish caught locally at Gallipoli was as good as it gets. And the good news is that I will be staying in Gallipoli this Saturday night.
Otranto looks beautiful – great pix as ever, & hard to believe you had such an awful wet ride there. Trust you enjoyed your seafood meal – that’ll keep you powered up for the next leg!
The mixed fried seafood was superb. I even ate the whole pilchards – lots of good calcium for my poor old bones. Last night’s three course seafood meal in Gallipoli was also good, particularly the Risotto del Marinaio (Primo Piatto) and the Zuppa di Cozze (Second Piatto).