Even though I’m further south, the landscape is greener, less parched. The mountains are covered with trees, the coast lined with luscious gardens, thick lawns spilling down to the water’s edge.

The sea doesn’t get much flatter than this. Unfortunately a headwind picked up, so I stopped for lunch in Scalea next to an old lookout tower. Splitting the day in to two makes 40kms feel easy.

I need to stop buying tasty things to treat my low sugars. I was trending down so ate a biscuit, and as soon as the sugar got in my system I compulsively ate a banana and polished off the rest of the biscuits, knowing full well it would screw up my levels. Discipline! I felt really annoyed at myself and sure enough had high sugars the rest of the day. I don’t know what pyschologists say about cheat days, but I think deliberately ruining myself like this once in a while does remind me to focus the rest of the time.

I pushed on into the headwind, until I reached Cirella, where I walked up to some medieval ruins above the town. It was nice to get a different perspective, and it made me realise that this paddle is getting a bit repetitive. I need to get out of my comfort zone more and live more spontaneously. The thing is, once you’ve done something once, you don’t get quite the same buzz off it the second time. You need to set new limits, do something more extreme. My paddle down Italy hasn’t been easy – diabetes management, heat, physical exertion, big mental battles – but the challenges haven’t been new ones for me. Maybe my expectations are too high.

If I’m going to get to Brindisi I need to start hitting certain distances each day, but I really can’t make up my mind. It’s forcing me to plan even further ahead, and it’s just impossible to know what will happen and how I’ll feel.

The wind finally died as the sun set and I drifted in to Diamante, where they have a chilli pepper festival in September each year, to spend the night on the beach.