Kiwi Roaming

One of the day trips we were most looking forward to was a boat trip along the coastline from Monopoli to Polignano a Mare. We looked at heaps of options and as we walked along the pier saw many other boat trips advertised. We had chosen one by the Gozzo boat company and our guide was a very enthusiastic local young man Franceso who kept us entertained and was a great tour guide.

We followed the coastline and ducked into caves, they are large but not as massive or grand as the ones in the Algarve we saw in November, but impressive. The rock formation is also very different to the Algarve with seems and cracks throughout. We got chatting with our fellow passengers, at family from Venezuela (our condolences to them as the massive earthquake had happened a couple of days before) and a couple about our age from the UK.

The most spectacular part of the trip was Polignano a Mare, here the cliffs were higher and we went into a cave that is right under the massive cathedral. At the back are doors leading to secret tunnels built into the rock thousands of years ago, you can just imagine the priests escaping conflicts and angry citizens through these into boats and heading out to sea.

Here we saw where the Red Bull cliff diving event is held every year – crazy people – and watched people jumping off lower cliffs into the cove near the one tiny but crowded beach – the one you see in all of the photos of Puglia. The vista of Polignano a Mare from the sea is spectacular, you can see restaurants built into shelves in the cliffs and buildings hovering overhead (a few that were closed off due to safety reasons too). We were told that the most famous of these restaurants has a starting price of €270 + alcohol. Crazy stuff.

There was also an island off the coast there where one lone priest lived for over 30 years in the 1600’s – who knows how he survived it’s so rugged and isolated, not to mention how we captured enough rain water to drink.

Our final stop was for a swim, Steve and I were the only ones wearing togs so kept our swim short but absolutely loved the deep, warm, clear water that is just so buoyant. Hauling myself back into the boat was another challenge but so glad we did this. The swim was followed by a glass of prosecco and fresh focaccia – such a treat while we dried off chatting with the others on the boat and our guide. Really was a lovely day out.