The group reassembled under the lighthouse in Torre Canne ready for departure, but were delayed first by the arrival of the official lighthouse stamp for our pilgrim credentials, then by a reporter from the regional news of Puglia who interviewed Luca Bruschi (who has just rejoined the group), Myra Stals and myself - presenting the collective diary of the Ragazze in Gamba. If I'm going to carry the darn thing - which must weigh nearly a kilogram - for the better part of 900 kilometres, I might as well make sure it gets some media exposure! 😅
You can watch the clip broadcast on the television news in the region of Puglia by clicking here.
After taking our daily group photo across from the lighthouse we were finally good to go. We set off along the waterfront, then directly on the sandy beach. Which was fine until we came to a fence, blocking our way from the wall at the top of the beach all the way down to the water! There were only two ways of getting around this obstacle: clambering over the fence, or dashing around the end of it between waves.
Once everyone in the group had got past the fence one way or the other, we continued along the beach, heading inland for a bit when it became impossible to walk on the beach due to high water and then heading back through a wetland zone populated by birds and fish. As well as toads, according to a new road sign I had never seen before: Warning: toad crossing!
Our group then split in two: eight of us continued along the waterfront, on the coastal variant of the Via Francigena, while the others veered inland on the variant leading to Ostuni.
Our group of eight consisted of myself, Marco from Milan (another blogger), Alessio and Massimo, who are nearing the end of their 4000 km walk to raise funds for children with cystic fibrosis, Alfredo, who started with me back in Rome, and three members of the Alpine Club of Casale Monferrato, in Piemonte, at the other end of Italy, who have travelled all this way to walk the final week with us!
We walked along the beach, which is beautiful, inspiring, but also tiring, as you sink into the sand with every single step!
When we came to Villanova, a pretty little fishing port with benches on the waterfront, we stopped to lunch on the provisions we carried in our backpacks. By the time we had wrapped up our lunch with coffee and a pastry at a nearby café it was beginning to sprinkle with rain, so we put on our colourful plastic ponchos and backpack covers before setting off again. A local man advised us to walk a more direct route along a service road by the highway rather than on the beach, where the rocks might be slippery in the rain, and we followed his advice, walking along a monotonous straight access road running parallel to the highway for about an hour. I'm not sure this really saved us any time.... But in any case, when it stopped raining we took a cycling path back to the waterfront and followed this the rest of the way to Torre Santa Sabina. The cycling path was dotted with... "souvenirs" of the recent passage of a large herd of sheep, accompanied by their shepherd and sheep dogs.
We crossed the sleepy town of Torre Santa Sabina, a beach resort which is pretty much deserted in October, to our lodgings on the far side of the town, in a rented house with a sea view! Here we showered and changed, put our laundry through the washing machine, and went grocery shopping in the town's tiny grocery store, then prepared ourselves a dinner of pasta with tuna sauce, followed by salad with chickpeas and fresh mozzarella. Accompanied, naturally, by a bottle of Negroamaro, one of the characteristic wines of the Salento peninsula.
Simple but delicious, after a long day of walking by the sea!
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| View of our street from across the bay: on arrival... |
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| ... on our way out to do the shopping... |
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| ... and on the way back! |
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