Left Barletta at 8.30 am. They were warned that this stretch was very unpopulated and there would be no villages or places to eat for lunch, so they bought bread and ham for a picnic. They cycled through a landscape of vineyards and olive groves, the weather not too hot.
They stopped for their picnic in the gateway of a house beside the road, and as they sat there a man came out, offering something to eat. He was followed by a son with some cake, then granny with some coffee. She poured out her heart about having lost her husband some weeks before, receiving a warm hug from Gerard. Eventually another son and the daughter in law joined the throng at the gate and Edith and G set off with a chorus of fond farewells.
Later on they came across an Afghan man c 30yrs old, well educated and with good English, who it turned out had been an interpreter for the Canadians in Afghanistan, and was now seeking Asylum in Italy. They had an interesting chat about the situation out there.
They arrived in Foggia at around 3.30 just as the weather broke into torrential rain. They are in high spirits and debating whether to have a rest day tomorrow or to press on for the finishing line….they fly back to the UK on Tuesday having packed up the bike.
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Gerard and Edith de Lisle are riding from Tower Bridge in London to Jerusalem in summer 2008 in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care of the UK.
The Great Trip
- London to Jerusalem
- Gerard & edith de Lisle are following the route set in the Middle Ages by the great medieval writer Matthew Paris. This goes from London through Northern and Eastern France. Crossing the Alps via the Mont Cenis Pass (where Hannibal crossed a couple of millennia ago). The across the Lombardy Plain of North Italy to the Via Emilia (an old Roman Road) which skirts the northern edge of the Appenine Mountains of Central Italy to hit the Adriatic Coast. South along the Adriatic to the port of Bari in south east Italy. Ferry to Patras in the Greek Peloponnese. Along the north of the Peloponnese Peninsula across the Isthmus of Corinth to Athens. Take ship from Piraeus (the port of Athens) to Limassol on Cyprus and then hop on again to Haifa in Israel. South along the Israeli coast then up the Judean hills to Jerusalem. This exploit by Edith & Gerard follows on from a 1500 miles ride from their home in Leicester to the Christian shrine of Santiago de Compostella in Galicia, North Western Spain. They are coy about their age but Gerard and Edith have two sons (age 49 and 51) and six grandchildren (aged 22-17): they are not spring chickens!!!
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