We took the car to explore Lecce’s coast, leaving before 9AM to get the best of the day. Our target was the village of Otranto and eventually the bauxite lake. On the way we stopped to find the Cave of Poetry, basically a sink hole, with some archeological finds in the small cliffs.
We then pressed on to Otranto itself. We found parking on the outskirts and walked down to the front. There was a large and shallow bay and I had my first swim in the Adriatic Sea (had put my swimsuit on before we left Lecce - much easier!)
We then walked through the old town with lovely views over the bay and marina
We pickedpicked up the car before heading further south to an attraction called the Bauxite Lake. This is the site of bauxite mining in the 1960s and 70s. It’s all finished now but there is a hole partially filled with water where the mined the bauxite. The colours are quite amazing - the intense red of the bauxite ore with the turquoise water in the lake.
Having looked at the lake we took our swimming stuff and walked down to the shore. Sadly there were no sandy beaches on this part of the coast but we did go for a swim in the Adriatic after carefully crossing the sharp rocks on the shore.
A drink in the Orte bar and then we headed back to the car. The track we took turned out to be impassable due to private land so we retraced our steps to the bar and took the original track back to the car. Howard by this time had had too much sun and too little water so I drove us back to Lecce.
After a couple of hours in AC We had recovered so we went out for our last night in Lecce. It was as busy as ever! We couldnt get a table outside at Blend (great beer 1st night Lecce) so we sat at the bar next door with the barrel tables. I tried an Aperol Spritz and liked it this time. We ordered aperitvo, or so we thought, but what arrived was a groaning board of cheeses, meats, tomatoes, olives, grapes etc. We ate some of it and took the rest home in a doggy bag. At €40 it was as expensive as some dinners we have had on this trip. Sadly it meant there was no room left for a cake or ice cream on the way home as planned. Just as well probably!
Daily drive 60 miles
Total trip 2094 miles
