After a rest day of sorts, we were more ready to tackle the final scheduled walk of our holiday. We knew that one of the paths detailed on our walking notes was closed for urgent repairs, and alternative directions had been provided. These meant that rather than approach Monte Saraceno from the beach, we’d approach from the landward side, which after reading the original notes, which said ‘the ascent was steep (vertiginous in places)’ I think I was pretty glad to be honest.
The amended route would take us up Monte Saraceno which is home to a necropolis with 500 tombs dating back to the ancient Daunia civilisation, and armed with our supplies bought on yesterday’s jaunt into Mattinata we set off, after stopping to take this picture which shows where we were heading.
After leaving the hotel instead of heading to walk along the pebbly beach (that was another bonus of the changed route!) we headed back towards the road we’d arrived on a couple of days before, and past many more olive trees than we’d seen that day.
There was more to see alongside the olive pruning that kept our interest up.
We walked until reaching these roadworks which thankfully weren’t in the direction we were heading, but as we orientated ourselves we worked out this was the route we would be due to take to head into the town of Mattinata later on our walk. But that was for later so on we went admiring the plants and scenery that surrounded us.
By now we were heading up, and already the views were opening up. The headland in the distance is where we’d walked from, and where we would be walking back to later on. I always like to keep that in mind!
The amended walking notes which had been emailed to us before we left were pretty clear, but nonetheless I’m always grateful for clear directional instructions such as this:
Now we were getting a glimpse of what was ahead of us, and it looked fascinating.
And we had a perfect view of the small white town of Mattinata which we’d visited yesterday.
And up we went.
Until we realised we’d gone wrong following the path pictured above. It could have been right, but it wasn’t, and when we continued to skirt around the wall with no mention of it in the notes we checked again, and then retraced our steps before fairly easily finding the correct path, noticing that this one matched the walking notes more - and for longer.
Up we went, and down (and across) we looked. Just look at all those olive, and most likely some almond trees, growing in their grid layout.
It was idyllic, and we saw very few other walkers, or in fact anyone until we were much closer to our destination.
Excavations on Monte Saraceno have identified the remains of a necropolis with over 500 tombs, showing that the area was already inhabited in the C6th BC, by the Dauni population. The deceased were huddled along with the objects dearest to them, and shields and other objects covered the graves of stone slabs, some of which can be found in the town’s Archaeological Civic Musuem.
Reaching the top we were unsure quite where we’d arrived if you know what I mean, as the original and more detailed walking notes would have had us arriving from the beach. We explored for a bit, found a nice rock and tucked into our lunch working out our next move.
After sitting and enjoying the tranquility for a bit, then weaving our way through the many paths for a much longer bit we decided to retrace our steps and head back. This time with much less reliance on the walking notes, and more reliance on our memories - which generally seemed to work.
It always amazes me that by walking the same route in reverse you see so many different things. On this walk I think that was because we weren’t finding the way, and so were more relaxed, which meant there was more capacity to take in our surroundings.
Arriving back at those roadworks we’d seen earlier, we decided to rebel again and head back to the hotel rather than detour rather the town. We were off home the next day, and wasn’t in need of anything more that the beach bars or the hotel couldn’t provide.
A great week’s walking around the Gargano Peninsular had been completed successfully, and with a crocked ankle too, which at one point I wasn’t sure I’d be saying at the end of the week. I’ve a few more posts pencilled in from this trip sharing more of the flora, and those gnarly olive trees which seemed to grow any which way, so look out for those.