We did it!

We left Matera this morning and for once found our way out of town quite easily. Bruce, Rob, Charlie, Dan and Jack all welcomed us into Taranto at several points on the way in and at one stage followed us  with hazard lights flashing and a big notice to say who we were and what we had done!  Champagne was waiting for us on our doorstep and we felt very special. We've cycled almost 3000 kms, had about 4 punctures between us, one boil, one 'ski knee' lots of laughs and our friendship remains in tact! Charlie has taken some great shots of the last couple of days which i will put on the blog tomorrow. We are both very sad its over and.....yes! we are wondering what to do next!!

Pics from our journey across the Appenines.

We watched Lake Conzo North east of Potenza getting smaller and smaller as we climbed higher and higher 

We reached the peak of Mt Carruozzo after cycling along a ridge which separated two hills/mountains. Amazinly we looked over three valleys and it was absolutely stunning. We will never drive along an Autostrada again without wondering what the alternative route might be like.

Even a workman at the peak was surprised when two Brits appeared over the top. He took a photo of us with his own camera as well as this one! At the end of his day and several hours later, we heard non stop tooting behind us. He gave us great encouragement once again!

Castelgrande

Muro Lucano

We fed our drivers well! Dan and Charlie actually asked for one each of these enormous pizzas but the  chef warned them off!

With no car or caravan sal and i spent our last night in Matera......on carnival night. We only had our cycling gear, toothbrush and nighties . Thank goodness none of our children were there because we had to go out .......

in our nighties !!!!!! We got some very strange looks !!