Our Gargano adventure in numbers

I’m ending this series of posts sharing our experiences when we explored a small part of the Gargano Peninsula following a self-guided walking tour with a summary of our trip in numbers, for the geek in me.

So here goes

Some walking numbers*:

  • Number of days walking: 7

  • Number of miles walked: 57 1/2 miles

  • Average number of steps: 21,562 steps

  • Total number of steps: 150,940 steps

  • Average pace: 25.69/mile (according to Strava) and

  • the most challenging walk I’ve ever done, but also probably the most beautiful too.

* These numbers exclude airport travel days.

the stunning view down to the coast on the most challenging walk for me

And some more numbers:

  • 4 hotels

  • 2 flights

  • 4 taxis

  • 580 photos taken

  • 12 blog posts

  • so many great memories and

  • 1 fabulous holiday!

MOH & I with a trebucchi in the background

Gargano's gnarly olive trees

It was the day that we headed back down to the coast that we saw the most amazing olive trees on the sides of the road, and as we walked through olive groves. If you’d asked me beforehand I’d probably say that one olive tree is pretty much like any other, but I’d be wrong - and I was surrounded by the evidence on that walk! Of course there were many that looked similar but there were also many, and I’m only sharing a few here, that were the most gnarliest and stubborn trees I’ve ever seen.

I could have snapped so many more, but we as had a hotel to get find that was deemed to be the priority!

A twisted trunk on an old and tall olive tree growing on the side of the road

Once we started to notice the gnarly trunks of the olive trees, that became our challenge to spur us on as the temperature’s got warmer and we got tired-er, sort of like a grown up version of I-spy as it were.

old split olive tree trunks behind railings - for whose safety?

Some where growing right up against the boundaries, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d really been grown like that from the off or if there was some kind of boundary change which caused this. It amused me that they were so close to the railings, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was for our safety, or theirs.

The same trees behind railings - showing more clearly how one was stronger to survive

Others had almost completely hollow trunks, which looked if they could easily hide a human - we didn’t try.

A large olive tree trunk - which is almost hollow

Others had walls build around them.

Another old olive tree - I think the wall was built around it

And more than one combined a number of the things I’ve been pointing out here.

Another wall built around a split trunk of an olive tree - this time with small stones in the hollow trunk

Some even appearing to have grown ‘legs’.

A twisted gnarly olive tree growing in a wall, this one has two roots (like legs) hanging onto the verge

For all the weird and wacky shaped olive trees, there were many more more uniform, and I guess younger trees to see, which made spotting the gnarly ones a real privilege.

More usual looking olive trees - growing in lines in one of the olive groves our walk took us through

Whatever their shape, whatever their size they truly are amazing aren’t they?

A dragon at Bodiam Castle

We’ve recently had a few days away with MOH’s family in East Sussex, staying in an AirBnB which looked out over Bodiam Castle. We spent more time indoors that first day than we planned, thanks to Storm Benjamin but as the day went on, and I think the rain finally ran out, we headed to the nearby castle built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dallingridge and his wife Elizabeth.

And it is the fairytale castle with a moat which was once part of a working estate with farmland, wharf and watermill. The site was ‘waterscaped’ by Sir Edward who built this castle with Elizabeth when they married. The purpose of the castle has been debated by historians and it’s believed to have been built as a defence, a status symbol and a home.

The castle had had a bit of a makeover for Halloween, and for the half term. The dragon was a great touch, because every castle needs a dragon, right?

The big kids amongst us also couldn’t resist a quick game of quoits, which was way harder than it looks. That quick game became a battle of wills, as we couldn’t leave until we’d scored at least one - and here’s evidence of the one I scored. I’ll just say that I was the only one to manage this…

No wonder the dragon was looking over us - there were also dragon eggs hatching in the courtyard!

Bodiam also plays host to one of the most important bat roosts in the UK - they’re everywhere once you start noticing them - with three types of bats roosting here: Natterer, Daubenton and the tiny Pipstrelle which we see in our garden at twilight.

As I said it had rained a fair bit, and the lower half of the kitchen was wetter than I suspect it would have been in its day - and I bet cook would not have been amused.

But I bet that large fireplace (one of two in the kitchen) would have been a roaring every day. There’s actually 33 fireplaces built into the walls at Bodiam Castle, and most of them are on the side where the Lord and Lady slept, and not on the servant’s side.

The original portcullis here is made of oak and is one of the oldest in the country, and walking underneath it really does make you wonder about its history, and what it would say if it could.

I took the photo below just above we left the castle, walking under the portcullis and it struck me that they couldn’t be more different, but were just metres apart.

Pausing as we wandered back across the moat my eye was caught by the trees arching to frame a smaller oak tree in the distance. It as a good reminder of just how wonderful nature is and how calming it can be, and how quickly that calm can be restored after a storm.