In the heart of the Forest

After heading into the Forest with a dodgy ankle and resting it overnight, today’s walk was a circular 14.4km walk to explore the forest. Predicted to take 4 hours 30 minutes, which both of us knew would be optimistic, even at best.

I’d debated with myself if it made sense to do the walk, but as the notes said that the walk would immerse us into everything the forest had to offer I was keen to see what it had in store for us. It also looked as if the walk was a large figure of eight so, if my ankle was playing up there was an option for us to cut it short as tomorrow was a ‘move on’ day and so I needed to be able to do that.

So off we set.

We took a picnic from the hotel and headed back the way we’d arrived yesterday, this time though taking in more of our surroundings, including these peculiarly ‘ribbed’ trees, but still looking out for the signs to ‘Laghetto’ - or small lake or pond.

Our walking notes told us that the Foresta Umbra is devoid of watercourses due to its karst nature, meaning that the topography is formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite.

Collections of rainwater form though, and they were fundamental for the development of settlements in the past, and still used as a key resource for animals living in the forest today. The largest of these is Laghetto d’Umbra with a depth of a couple of metres occupying the central part of a large sinkhole and the home to carp, the common toad as well as non-native species such as the golden carp, the catfish and the red-eared pond turtle.

Having spent some time at the lake we headed off for our next destination, the temporary waterhole ‘Cutino d’Orti’ but more on that when we get there, as it was truly amazing and like nothing I’ve ever seen before so I was so glad we opted to do the walk.

But we had plenty of forest and forest paths to navigate before we got there, and many directional markings to admire - thankfully today, we were following well signed footpaths.

These views of paths flanked by trees never get old, even looking back at my photos as I write this post I can feel the cool calmness that they exude, which was great then experiencing first hand and also very welcome today as the temperatures have notched up again here.

There were glimpses of sunlight coming through the tree canopy too - whether it was right down to the forest floor or just caught in the leaves, it’s no wonder that we find forests captivating.

We approached the clearing with the temporary waterhole ‘Cutino d’Otri’ and we couldn’t quite believe what we were seeing. We knew to expect a circular shape, bordered by an ancient dry stone wall with two gaps, or passages, which allow wild animals to drink without being trapped in its stagnant waters.

But we didn’t expect this.

It was stunning. The colour especially so.

And mesmerising. We watched the small insects dart about the surface, a toad appear every now and then and make a tremendous racket and unknown creatures below the surface. We even saw a small turtle crawl out of the water to enjoy the sun.

Totally amazing, and not something to miss - even to rest a dodgy ankle.

Eventually we drew ourselves away and headed into another part of the forest, this time to Falascone a further protected segment and a rare example of mixed beech forest. It was as amazing as the rest of the forest, but by now I was keen to get back and rest my ankle as I knew tomorrow’s walk could be more challenging. It was short, just 8.6km but it was the total ascent of 485m and a total descent of 315m that was playing on my mind!

I was momentarily distracted though by spotting a Granny’s Bonnet, and then lots of lichen!

And then there was the road back to our hotel, which was almost as picturesque as being in the heart of the forest. Almost.

See all of my posts from our self-guided walking holiday in the Gargano Peninsular. We started the walk on 18 May 2024, returning to the UK eight days later.

Into the Forest

I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger in my last post, longer than I anticipated too.

In short, a night’s rest didn’t solve the issues I was having with my ankle; knowing that we were heading into the forest and out of civilisation, such as towns and shops, for a couple of days that was a concern.

Thankfully Google told me there was a pharmacy opposite our hotel which opened 30 minutes before our scheduled departure time. So we opted for an earlier than intended breakfast, as we already had supplies for lunch it was down to MOH to deal with checking out of the hotel while I went in search of ankle support, quite literally.

The pharmacy over the road opened on time (phew) and with a bit of gesticulating and some broken Italian and English I was measured for an ankle support, and I left the shop wearing it and with a topped-up supply of painkillers and with more confidence that the day’s 14.5km walk might be ok.

The walk started with a 17km taxi transfer, and we were literally dropped off at a trailhead into the Foresta Umbra - the taxi driver helpfully pointed the way, no doubt noting that this was yet another mad English couple!

So off we headed.

It was immediately different to our coastal walk yesterday, not only in scenery but also in temperature and somehow more tranquil. The Foresta Umbra is the last remnants of Puglia’s ancient forests, with dense and lush vegetation. It contains monumental specimens of beech, oak and chestnut trees, with many secretive and shady paths which would take us (we hoped) to our hotel for the evening, which was located in the heart of the forest.

Our walking notes warned that the route is ‘very remote’ amid dense vegetation, and that the paths were not clearly shown on the map provided. Great!! It suggested we follow the written notes carefully, especially in bad weather or fog, and as the primary reference. Then to top it off it added that there was limited mobile phone coverage in the forest. If I were already unsure, none of that information helped.

The scenery gave us plenty to look at, and while we hardly saw anyone, a few cyclists did go past us and occasionally we’d catch glimpses of others out walking, but none seemingly on the same route as us.

The funghi in one section of the forest was amazing, and these are just a selection of the photos I took. We knew that our hotel for the next two nights offered a ‘forest-to-fork’ dining experience, and we were hoping that mushrooms weren’t on the menu.

We weren’t just looking up at the tree canopy, or for the various way marking signs. Our notes told us to look out for the many wonderous flowers such as violets, cyclamen, anemones, snowdrops and wild orchids. We potentially saw some orchids but the photos are poor, but we were surprised to find snowdrops out in May.

We got the message to go right…

We had a wrong turn or two along the way, which meant some backtracking but we found our way onto the gravel track and then the road in the heart of the forest, known as Baracconi. Then we knew we were close to our hotel.

My ankle held out, the ankle support and painkillers did their job - and actually walking on the forest floor surface turned out to be much easier than the tarmac road, but even so I couldn’t wait to rest it and enjoy a long cool drink from the hotel bar, before contemplating tomorrow’s ‘leisurely 14.4km circular route’.

See all of my posts from our self-guided walking holiday in the Gargano Peninsular. We started the walk on 18 May 2024, returning to the UK eight days later.

Exploring the Vieste coast on foot

It’s been a while since I shared some of where we visited on our trip to Italy’s Gargano Peninsular last year - I know a whole year already! - so I thought it’s about time I shared more. On our first day’s walking we headed along the Vieste coast on a walk that was billed as following ‘the low-lying shoreline for virtually all of its route’. And it was mostly flat, though some walking and in places scrambling across rocks didn’t help my tender ankle, which I’d somehow turned walking on flat ground through the airport somewhere! But it wasn’t until much later in the day that I realised this.

Our walk started by going across the car park at the marina, which is not quite the auspicious start you imagine is it?! But as we headed towards the jetty the view improved, and I was happily snapping the flowering succulents.

It wasn’t long before we got our first view of the beach, and what a beach. Sadly though we had most of a 10.7km and four hour walk ahead of us, so no time to stop.

At the end of the beach we joined the narrow path just to the right of the wooden balustrades and followed that around the coastline. Then we got our first view of a Trabucchi, or more precisely the Trabucco San Lorenzo.

TRABUCCO SAN LORENZO

Trabucchi are widespread along this stretch of coast - and our walk would take us up close to three of them. They are fantastic constructions made with Aleppo Pine which is very resistant to salt water. This local tradition dates back to the Phoenicians and consists of wooden poles in the rocks which hold a very large fishing net in the clear coastal waters.

After a brief stop, we were on our way and then we paused and looked back to where we came from - I think this view trumps that of the beach at the start of the walk.

LOOKING BACK TO TRABUCCO SAN LORENZO

The views ahead of us though were equally spectacular, especially as we walked through this pined section.

At the next sandy bay our route took a turn upwards, and the plants changed too - a particularly dog-earred prickly pear caught my eye.

And with a bit of here and there-ing, and a walk along the road and climbing over the crash barrier the next trabucchi, the Trabucco Punta Lungo, was in sight, looking very similar to the one we’d already passed - but no less amazing.

TRABUCCO PUNTA LUNGO

Again we paused to admire the view, and look to see where we’d been, and where we were heading to. And to breathe in the fresh air, even now these photos bring that right back to me.

The trabucchi are essentially a small pier with a complex architectural structure, anchored to the rock, with arms jutting over the water with ropes attached to huge nets underneath. It usually took a four-person crew to manoeuvre these fishing machines, two to operate the winch, one in charge of the net and one to monitor the shoals of fish.

LOOKING BACK TO TRABUCCO SAN LORENZO

AND LOOKING AHEAD TO TRABUCCO MOLINELLA

Although we were keen to get on, it was also good to stop and admire the coastal plants, such as this creeping sour fig with its bright flowers. Not that I knew its name at the time, a more recent phone update enables me to look up the names of plants from the photos, and that’s so very welcome.

Having reached halfway - and the final trebucco on our walk - we stopped to eat our picnic lunch; we’d bought rolls, cheese and sliced meat and some fruit in the supermarket near our hotel before we set out. It was quite the lunch with quite the view, but little did we know that there’d be many more lunches with views as special over the next few days on our trip. I mean we hoped, but we didn’t know for sure.

The trabucchi are no longer actively used by the fishing industry, but they are of immense cultural and historical interest and are protected by the Gargano National Park. There are restoration projects in place and some of the trabucchi offer organised visits and fishing experiences, which is a great way to ensure their history is not forgotten.

TRABUCCO MOLINELLA

The return leg of this walk was the same but in reverse, we managed this much more quickly as we were retracing our steps, and because we’d already taken the pictures we’d wanted. But isn’t it strange how walking the same picturesque route can at times look so, so different.

Our incentive to get back was an ice cream and a beer in one of the bars we’d spotted in the town the previous evening, and to suss out a potential restaurant for that evening. As the evening went on though, my ankle started to swell a little which was a little concerning with a week’s walking ahead of me.

Maybe a night’s rest would sort it out…

See all of my posts from our self-guided walking holiday in the Gargano Peninsular. We started the walk on 18 May 2024, returning to the UK eight days later.