The South
We spent nearly a week with our friends, Des & Terry, at Berry House sorting out stuff, contacting people we needed to see and generally planning our trip around southern England. With their help we lined up the shippers for Tom Cruiser and organised the local garage who sorted out the oil leak. Problem turned out to be a faulty oil filter even though it was a genuine Toyota part fitted in Libya!!
We spent our time dealing with emails, having our first pub lunch in a very long time, doing washing and walking the dogs. BW spent her waking moments talking to Blossom the budgie, playing with Steph’s Barbies and the 2 dogs, Sooty and Lizzie. One morning we went to see Canterbury Tales which was really interesting, did some shopping and then walked up to the King’s School playing fields to watch Steph play hockey.
We dragged ourselves away from Berry House and headed to Bognor Regis to visit Rich’s aunt Lein (dad’s sister) who is 92. She is in good shape and still lives on her own. She took us to the Walnut Tree in nearby Runtcorn for lunch. It was nice to catch up with her and for her to meet Rebecca, her great-niece.
It was late afternoon before we got away and then made our way to our friend Alex and her son Dominic who live in Farnham Royal to the west of London.
Rebecca and Dominic got on really well, even though Dom is 2 years her senior. They shared a room and, according to them, stayed awake all night “reading and chattering” only keeping quiet when they heard an adult. Yeah, right!!
With Alex we took a walk around Burnham Beeches, a mediaeval forest, which is home to the Druid’s Oak, an 800 year old pollard oak. Nice to get outdoors and do some tramping even though very chilly and muddy underfoot.
London – The Capital
The next day we left Tom Cruiser with Alex and took the train to London where we spent the next 3 nights with Reynold in his apartment right on the banks of the Thames. Wow! A million pound location, literally!
En route we took in Portobello Road Market and Books for Cooks where we had lunch. Not really BW’s cup of tea but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We then went across to Harrods for some window shopping and finally caught a bus to Wapping Wall.
Reynold came home and cooked us a great pasta meal. He had been well briefed by the girls in SA on Rebecca’s favourite food!
We had a nice evening catching up and even got to speak to Lisa on the phone. The next morning we were up early for another big day in the Big Smoke. Reyn was up even earlier than us as he caught a plane to Moscow for 3 days leaving us in charge of his house.
We walked from the apartment to Tower Hill tube station via St. Katherine’s Dock and Tower Bridge. It was a very pleasant walk taking in the sights. We had decided not to overdo the sightseeing as BW can do it herself when she is older. We wanted to take in a show in the West End and settled on “The Gruffalo”, a show based on a book Rebecca loves, which was playing at the Duchess Theatre. It was very entertaining and the audience made up predominantly of school kids loved it.
We crossed to the south bank of the river where we ate lunch in freezing cold weather before walking down, past the London Eye, towards the Houses of Parliament. The barricades were still up and some roads closed as the Queen had made her speech in Parliament that morning. We walked past Horseguards Parade to St. James’s Park where Rebecca got to feed the squirrels – a definite highlight. We saw the afternoon changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace before heading back to Reynold’s place.
The Sphinx
While we were in Egypt we had read in the Lonely Planet guide that the Sphinx’s nose which had been shot off by Napoleon’s troops was in the British Museum. This fact was the deciding factor as to which museum to visit. One is spoilt for choice in London and they are all free: So…should we do the Natural History, Science or British? We left the decision to Becca Weasel so the British Museum it was and off we went in search of the Sphinx’s nose.
Once again Lonely Planet had got it completely wrong! Part of the Sphinx’s beard, not the nose, is in the museum. Undeterred we tracked that down instead. The museum was fantastic and we spent our time looking at the suggested highlights like the Elgin Marbles, now more correctly referred to as the Parthenon Sculptures, and the Rosetta Stone.
We dragged ourselves away as we needed to meet our nephew, Stuart, outside the Covent Garden tube station. When he finally arrived we had some lunch and then walked to Regent and Oxford Streets to see the Christmas lights, shop windows and do some shopping. Regent Street is done up with blue lights in the shape of spider’s webs. Very beautiful indeed. Somehow a worldwide email must have been sent saying that blue is the colour for lights this year. It has been a feature from the first ones we saw in Florence, Italy to the ones we’ve seen here.
Choosing a university for Rebecca
Not wanting to pre-empt anything, we had planned to visit Des & Terry’s daughter Caroline who is reading English at Merton College, Oxford and our friend Charlotte (last seen researching chimps in Uganda) who is monkey-ing around (not really, she is a very bright and dedicated student) at King’s College, Cambridge.
They both took us for lunch in their respective colleges and then a wander around. With Caroline we saw the Bodleian Library, her college and chapel and Christ Church College where some of Harry Potter was filmed and the Cathedral. Charlotte was pressed for time so we looked at the new Corpus Christi College clock (how’s that for alliteration?) and walked with her to the Biology Department Lab where she is doing her chimp DNA research.
In between our university visits we got to meet up with more of our friends.
We spent 2 nights with Liz (our friend Anne’s sister) and her husband Ian. We got to meet the rest of the family and had a great walk around the Savill Gardens, an area of the Queen’s estate around Windsor, now part of something called the Royal Landscape. They also took us to the Rose and Crown in Thorpe Green for lunch.
Our next stop was Tring in Hertfordshire where we met our friends, Nick and Lindsay, and their 2 children, Laura and Alistair, for lunch. We were at university with Nick and I served articles with both of them! We worked out that we hadn’t seen each other for 18 years. This is quite incredible as I am only 35 now! Laura took Rebecca under her wing and they played really nicely together. We had a wonderful time reminiscing and discussing SA.
Becca weasel was very sad to leave but leave we did and off we sped to our friends, Chas & Heather, who live only 45 minutes away in Wheathampstead.
Their 2 girls were so excited that Rebecca was coming to stay that to keep the peace she had to sleep in Lauren’s room on the first night and in Shannon’s on the second. Heather had also organised for Rebecca to go to school with Lauren on Monday. She was so excited and didn’t hesitate to accept.
Chas cracked open a bottle of Veuve Cliquot when we arrived to celebrate our not-so inconsiderable achievement, even if we say so ourselves!! That was a really nice thought and it was consumed with relish.
Rebecca’s Back-to-School Day
Kaz and Heather dropped the girls off at school and when they came back we (including Chas who had taken the day off) walked to the Devil’s Dyke, part of ancient Roman fortifications, and then back home through the little village.
At lunch time we went to collect the 2 younger girls and took them home to change for their school Christmas party. Our timing couldn’t have been better! Rebecca had a great time at school and even had some work to show for it. After dropping them at the party we headed off to The Fox, a gastropub in Kinsbourne Green, for lunch. It was really busy, probably because it’s so “cheap”, Chas! Obviously the credit crunch hasn’t had a major effect on this neck of the woods yet.
Heather and Kaz then took the girls swimming as Shannon had swimming practice while Chas and I put the world to rights at home.
1st Floor – Cambridge
2nd floor – Manchester
(If you got “Painting Sudan Red” you may get this one too - Answers on the blog only please!!)
We left Chas, Heather and the girls and set off to meet Charlotte for lunch in Cambridge as already discussed above. It was then all systems go for Manchester, our final destination!
Well, not really all systems as our GPS, due to memory constraints, was missing some of the required maps. This meant that I ended up navigating using the same software on the laptop instead which did make things a bit more interesting. Luckily after driving through Africa there is not a lot that we can’t deal with.
We hit some traffic en route so it was only after 7pm on 9 December, 184 days after leaving Johannesburg that we rolled up the driveway at Kaz’s uncle Greg’s home in Sale. The whole family were there to meet us. They organised a chippy dinner with steak and kidney puddings as per Kaz’s request, Rebecca was in her element playing with her little cousins, Tom Cruiser was quietly cooling down in the driveway and me…I was quietly chuffed!
Mission Accomplished
PS
Thank you for reading this blog, I hope you found it interesting. I have definitely enjoyed compiling it as much I enjoyed the myriad of experiences we encountered on the way.
Obviously this is not the end…Tom Cruiser gets shipped home later this month, the bushcats fly home on 29 December, Rebecca starts school next year, Kaz gets stuck into tax and me…well that’s another story I suppose.
To my 2 angels who have travelled this long road with me, you have been the best travelling companions anyone could ever wish for. Thank you!
PPS Happy Christmas everyone!!
14 December 2008
12 December 2008
Catching up with family and friends
With Stuart outside Selfridge's Christmas windows
With Auntie Lien (92) in her Bognor Regis home
Our first UK stop with Des, Terry, Stephanie and Lizzie
The 3 school girls off to St Hilda's School (Rebecca, Shannon & Lauren)
Too busy to update right now but some photos to keep you going!!
Harrods, Knightsbridge
Rebecca outside the Duchess Theatre about to see "The Gruffalo"
Keeping an eye on the "Eye"
Horseguards Cavalry
Changing the guard at Buckingham Palace
28 November 2008
Pics - From Pompeii to Pisa
Drinks with Georgie on Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence
The Glove Girls in Pompeii
BW holding things together at Pisa
Where is that snowball going, Becca Weasel?
Tom with a snowy moustache
Europe - The Middle and the End (from shorts to trousers)
Mainland Europe
We had been given a return ferry ticket by some friendly campers at Raisgerbi which we flashed as we arrived at the ferry terminal in Messina. We were waved through and before we knew it – ferry crossing really quick – we were driving off the ferry at Villa san Giovanni en route for Pompei, almost 460km away to north. We had moved off the football of Sicily onto the boot of mainland Italy.
To our Italian friends in Bari and Rome, apologies for not getting in touch but the weather has caused us to up a gear and hence we weren’t able to visit!!
Pompei
Long drive along the autostrada through at least 70 tunnels and a good number of toll booths. We stopped at the services for food and drink for us and Tom (back to serious diesel prices - EUR 1.2/litre) and just kept on going until we finally found our way to the cluster of campsites called Zeus, Spartacus and Pompei. We chose Zeus. Had rain during the night and after breakfast, under a cloudy sky, walked to the entrance of the ruined city. The shorts had been packed away and the trouser brigade took over.
What a fantastic place. It made the ruins of Leptis Magna and the other North African sites come alive by showing the full extent of a Roman city. We spent 4 hours just wandering up and down the streets, looking into houses with beautiful courtyards and exquisite mosaics, gazing at the basilica, temples and theatres (one large, one small), the adjacent gyms where the gladiators trained and a huge amphitheatre. I was particularly taken with the roads where the wheels of the carriages and chariots had worn the rock down to form deep grooves. Incredible! The sky brightened and we had a good view of Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano that led to the destruction of the city in the first place.
We then walked into the new town of Pompei, which is fairly upmarket, for lunch and popped into the new basilica which was amazing. We spent the evening in the tent catching up on journals and trying to plan the rest of our trip. Our campsite was full of fruit trees so we picked some naartjies before leaving. Most campsites close from the end of October so finding accommodation is not going to be fun.
Florence
Our preferred route took us past Florence and we contacted our friend Georgie Murray, who is working there and we met her for a drink. I had forgotten how beautiful Florence is and the walk from the campsite into town was great. We again harvested some of the fruit in the campsite, this time olives off the laden olive trees.
We now began our relentless march northwards. We stopped briefly in Pisa to show Rebecca the Leaning Tower and it was nice to see it again ourselves. It seemed to be a lot lighter in colour, but it’s probably been cleaned in the last 18 years!
We started counting tunnels when we hit the mainland and went through a total of 160 by the time we got to Turin in the late afternoon! Luckily Villa Rey campsite was open and we opened our tent in freezing cold weather. Turin looked like a very beautiful city.
Poor Tom Cruiser
During the drive towards Turin, I’d noticed at one of our coffee stops some spots on the spare tyres and the back of the truck. Looking underneath the car the back axle and left shock absorber were dripping with oil. I then looked under the engine and the same thing there, oil dripping off the engine all over the place. The oil level on the dipstick was way down. It being a Saturday there were no available mechanics so we decided to press on. We topped up the oil and off we went. Of course we were now totally focussed on this new unfortunate turn of events.
We stopped every couple of hours and the leaking had got worse so we kept topping up the oil, eventually going through at least 15 litres of the stuff!
In the freezing cold Turin morning, I checked that the oil filter was screwed on tightly (thinking maybe that the cold weather had contracted the metal and the filter had loosened) and again we took the decision to press on instead of waiting for Monday and possibly finding a Toyota mechanic in Turin. We met an Aussie couple “campervanning” around Europe and he (Bruce – no joke) also agreed that it wasn’t a life threatening illness that Tom had contracted. Turin was ringed with snow capped mountains and really beautiful but unfortunately we were distracted by the oily situation we found ourselves in. We had porridge for breakfast, surprise, surprise!
Full speed ahead
The cold weather and Tom’s oil slick prompted us to speed up. Unfortunately it meant that again the James’ would not do justice to France so we definitely have unfinished business in that country. We crossed into France through the Frejus Tunnel having decided not to do the Mont Blanc Tunnel because of the cost of the toll. We needn’t have bothered, the Frejus Tunnel took its toll on us too! We stopped along the road to let BW play in the snow while I took Tom’s temperature for the umpteenth time. The French Alps were beautiful, snow capped and majestic.
We bypassed Lyon and stopped for our first French meal at one of the services. BW wolfed down steak and chips. We then headed towards the home of mustard, Dijon when it started to snow. Before long we’d put Tom into 4-wheel drive and were creeping our way through driving snow. We saw the snow ploughs clearing the other lane of the motorway and luckily only one accident. We eventually stopped at a truck stop between Dijon and Troyes around 10:30 pm and parked between 2 trucks in 2 inches of snow. Got the tent up pronto and fell asleep. It rained during the night which unfortunately got rid of the snow before Rebecca could play in it the next morning.
The next day we left early and drove all day stopping only to fill up with food, diesel and oil. Our oil consumption probably surpassing our diesel consumption especially in monetary terms.
At 4pm on the 24 November we arrived in Calais and considered our options. The Eurotunnel was our preference but not having booked online it was both fully booked and expensive so we headed for the ferry. We topped up with diesel before booking ourselves on the P&O Ferry leaving at 18:50.
The ferry was delayed due to bad weather so it was after 7pm when we drove leaky Tom
onto the ferry. The ferry was really nice but most ferries are if compared to the Wadi Halfa rust bucket!
UK
We drank coffee and played Uno on the ferry and checked out the duty free shops. Before we knew it we were ushered back to our vehicles and at 8pm UK time the bushcats drove off the ferry with the white cliffs of Dover in full view! Unfortunately BW was fast asleep by this stage.
We cruised slowly along the A2 to our friends Des & Terry who live in Chilham near Canterbury.
They welcomed us in and cracked a bottle of French champagne which was a real treat.
How nice to be in a real home again!
Our first priority was to see what Tom's problem was.
We took him to Terry's local garage where Dave diagnosed the problem as a faulty oil filter and in no time at all he was better.
Considering the terrain and trip we've done, for this to be Tom's only ailment is nothing short of a miracle.
Viva, Toyota, viva!!
The last leg of the Bushcats’ adventure to Manchester awaits!
We had been given a return ferry ticket by some friendly campers at Raisgerbi which we flashed as we arrived at the ferry terminal in Messina. We were waved through and before we knew it – ferry crossing really quick – we were driving off the ferry at Villa san Giovanni en route for Pompei, almost 460km away to north. We had moved off the football of Sicily onto the boot of mainland Italy.
To our Italian friends in Bari and Rome, apologies for not getting in touch but the weather has caused us to up a gear and hence we weren’t able to visit!!
Pompei
Long drive along the autostrada through at least 70 tunnels and a good number of toll booths. We stopped at the services for food and drink for us and Tom (back to serious diesel prices - EUR 1.2/litre) and just kept on going until we finally found our way to the cluster of campsites called Zeus, Spartacus and Pompei. We chose Zeus. Had rain during the night and after breakfast, under a cloudy sky, walked to the entrance of the ruined city. The shorts had been packed away and the trouser brigade took over.
What a fantastic place. It made the ruins of Leptis Magna and the other North African sites come alive by showing the full extent of a Roman city. We spent 4 hours just wandering up and down the streets, looking into houses with beautiful courtyards and exquisite mosaics, gazing at the basilica, temples and theatres (one large, one small), the adjacent gyms where the gladiators trained and a huge amphitheatre. I was particularly taken with the roads where the wheels of the carriages and chariots had worn the rock down to form deep grooves. Incredible! The sky brightened and we had a good view of Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano that led to the destruction of the city in the first place.
We then walked into the new town of Pompei, which is fairly upmarket, for lunch and popped into the new basilica which was amazing. We spent the evening in the tent catching up on journals and trying to plan the rest of our trip. Our campsite was full of fruit trees so we picked some naartjies before leaving. Most campsites close from the end of October so finding accommodation is not going to be fun.
Florence
Our preferred route took us past Florence and we contacted our friend Georgie Murray, who is working there and we met her for a drink. I had forgotten how beautiful Florence is and the walk from the campsite into town was great. We again harvested some of the fruit in the campsite, this time olives off the laden olive trees.
We now began our relentless march northwards. We stopped briefly in Pisa to show Rebecca the Leaning Tower and it was nice to see it again ourselves. It seemed to be a lot lighter in colour, but it’s probably been cleaned in the last 18 years!
We started counting tunnels when we hit the mainland and went through a total of 160 by the time we got to Turin in the late afternoon! Luckily Villa Rey campsite was open and we opened our tent in freezing cold weather. Turin looked like a very beautiful city.
Poor Tom Cruiser
During the drive towards Turin, I’d noticed at one of our coffee stops some spots on the spare tyres and the back of the truck. Looking underneath the car the back axle and left shock absorber were dripping with oil. I then looked under the engine and the same thing there, oil dripping off the engine all over the place. The oil level on the dipstick was way down. It being a Saturday there were no available mechanics so we decided to press on. We topped up the oil and off we went. Of course we were now totally focussed on this new unfortunate turn of events.
We stopped every couple of hours and the leaking had got worse so we kept topping up the oil, eventually going through at least 15 litres of the stuff!
In the freezing cold Turin morning, I checked that the oil filter was screwed on tightly (thinking maybe that the cold weather had contracted the metal and the filter had loosened) and again we took the decision to press on instead of waiting for Monday and possibly finding a Toyota mechanic in Turin. We met an Aussie couple “campervanning” around Europe and he (Bruce – no joke) also agreed that it wasn’t a life threatening illness that Tom had contracted. Turin was ringed with snow capped mountains and really beautiful but unfortunately we were distracted by the oily situation we found ourselves in. We had porridge for breakfast, surprise, surprise!
Full speed ahead
The cold weather and Tom’s oil slick prompted us to speed up. Unfortunately it meant that again the James’ would not do justice to France so we definitely have unfinished business in that country. We crossed into France through the Frejus Tunnel having decided not to do the Mont Blanc Tunnel because of the cost of the toll. We needn’t have bothered, the Frejus Tunnel took its toll on us too! We stopped along the road to let BW play in the snow while I took Tom’s temperature for the umpteenth time. The French Alps were beautiful, snow capped and majestic.
We bypassed Lyon and stopped for our first French meal at one of the services. BW wolfed down steak and chips. We then headed towards the home of mustard, Dijon when it started to snow. Before long we’d put Tom into 4-wheel drive and were creeping our way through driving snow. We saw the snow ploughs clearing the other lane of the motorway and luckily only one accident. We eventually stopped at a truck stop between Dijon and Troyes around 10:30 pm and parked between 2 trucks in 2 inches of snow. Got the tent up pronto and fell asleep. It rained during the night which unfortunately got rid of the snow before Rebecca could play in it the next morning.
The next day we left early and drove all day stopping only to fill up with food, diesel and oil. Our oil consumption probably surpassing our diesel consumption especially in monetary terms.
At 4pm on the 24 November we arrived in Calais and considered our options. The Eurotunnel was our preference but not having booked online it was both fully booked and expensive so we headed for the ferry. We topped up with diesel before booking ourselves on the P&O Ferry leaving at 18:50.
The ferry was delayed due to bad weather so it was after 7pm when we drove leaky Tom
onto the ferry. The ferry was really nice but most ferries are if compared to the Wadi Halfa rust bucket!
UK
We drank coffee and played Uno on the ferry and checked out the duty free shops. Before we knew it we were ushered back to our vehicles and at 8pm UK time the bushcats drove off the ferry with the white cliffs of Dover in full view! Unfortunately BW was fast asleep by this stage.
We cruised slowly along the A2 to our friends Des & Terry who live in Chilham near Canterbury.
They welcomed us in and cracked a bottle of French champagne which was a real treat.
How nice to be in a real home again!
Our first priority was to see what Tom's problem was.
We took him to Terry's local garage where Dave diagnosed the problem as a faulty oil filter and in no time at all he was better.
Considering the terrain and trip we've done, for this to be Tom's only ailment is nothing short of a miracle.
Viva, Toyota, viva!!
The last leg of the Bushcats’ adventure to Manchester awaits!
25 November 2008
Europe - The beginning
Sicily – S for “Still in Shorts”
Well, we did manage to see the boat leave Africa and we watched the lights of Tunisia grow fainter as our ferry powered its way towards Europe. Finally got to bed around 1:15am!
The ferry managed to make up some time and we docked in Palermo around 10:30am. We had been on deck watching Sicily get closer and closer until we were able to make out fairly large towns hugging the coastline. Immigration was done on board and was a breeze as we flashed our EU passports. We then hopped into Tom and waited for our turn to drive onto European soil. We trundled down the ramp, cleared customs with no problems at all and then drove smack-bang into a Catch-22 situation of note.
It went like this…to drive in Europe, one needs to have a Green Card for third party insurance, we could not find an Italian insurance company in Palermo to sell us one. They all told us that we should organise through our own insurers back in SA (Message from AA in SA; “We don’t have a clue.” Message from Outsurance in SA…still waiting for one!). We were advised that we would be able to purchase said Green Card at the port in Trapani, so off we drove – much to the disgust of said advisers who expected us to catch a bus or taxi as it is verboten to drive without insurance. Very law abiding sentiment from people living in Mafia country but there you are!
Needless to say the drive to Trapani was very scenic but fruitless except for a delicious meal in Angelina Restaurant (we attacked our plates as if we hadn’t seen food before!). We headed back towards Palermo and found our way to Sferacavallo where we camped for the night and considered our plight.
“If in doubt, surf the internet”; the saying goes, so we did. The Aussies had managed to buy their Green Card in Sicily, but where they don’t say. They did however refer to a Dutch company (Alessie) for all European insurance requirements. We contacted Maria Alessie and all our problems were solved. She was great. It did mean that we were driving uninsured for a couple of days, but are legit again now. Hooray!
We plotted a course for a campsite near a town called Finale about 100km east of Palermo. We drove through loads of tunnels to get there. We hadn’t factored in how hilly Sicily is. We arrived at RaisGerbi and found that the camp had 4 major attractions, the location – on a cliff above the sea, a washing machine (Kaz hadn’t used one of these for months), a pizzeria (we are making the most of vino della casa too) and a very friendly ginger cat (Becca Weasel was in cat heaven).
We spent a day getting sorted and of course what Tom had spirited away in Egypt, he now spat out in Sicily – yep you got it – the credit cards!! Well at least we know they haven’t been used or cloned.
We visited a nearby town called Cefalu which is built around a massive rock. The streets in these villages are so tiny and parking is restricted so we parked at the port and walked up. We found a nice little restaurant and luckily opted to sit inside as the heavens opened and it poured. After a delicious meal of bruschetta and pasta we visited the cathedral which was magnificent. The wall behind the altar was mosaic’ed, not painted and very beautiful.
We headed towards the east coast of the island where we got to see Mt. Etna with its peaks already dusted with snow and the cold air revealing the steam escaping out the top just to let us know it’s still alive. We have had our fair share of rain but the shorts brigade soldiered on. We drove through the mountain top town of Taorminia which was really stunning. We camped just outside Catania at camping Junio but stayed only one night as the road north beckons and we would have to brave mainland Italy before long. Our campsite was right on the sea and the noise of the sea crashing on the rocks was deafening.
We loved Sicily, the people are friendly, food fantastic and the scenery stunning. It is also quite refreshing to hear the sound of church bells again, instead of the chanting muezzins!
Well, we did manage to see the boat leave Africa and we watched the lights of Tunisia grow fainter as our ferry powered its way towards Europe. Finally got to bed around 1:15am!
The ferry managed to make up some time and we docked in Palermo around 10:30am. We had been on deck watching Sicily get closer and closer until we were able to make out fairly large towns hugging the coastline. Immigration was done on board and was a breeze as we flashed our EU passports. We then hopped into Tom and waited for our turn to drive onto European soil. We trundled down the ramp, cleared customs with no problems at all and then drove smack-bang into a Catch-22 situation of note.
It went like this…to drive in Europe, one needs to have a Green Card for third party insurance, we could not find an Italian insurance company in Palermo to sell us one. They all told us that we should organise through our own insurers back in SA (Message from AA in SA; “We don’t have a clue.” Message from Outsurance in SA…still waiting for one!). We were advised that we would be able to purchase said Green Card at the port in Trapani, so off we drove – much to the disgust of said advisers who expected us to catch a bus or taxi as it is verboten to drive without insurance. Very law abiding sentiment from people living in Mafia country but there you are!
Needless to say the drive to Trapani was very scenic but fruitless except for a delicious meal in Angelina Restaurant (we attacked our plates as if we hadn’t seen food before!). We headed back towards Palermo and found our way to Sferacavallo where we camped for the night and considered our plight.
“If in doubt, surf the internet”; the saying goes, so we did. The Aussies had managed to buy their Green Card in Sicily, but where they don’t say. They did however refer to a Dutch company (Alessie) for all European insurance requirements. We contacted Maria Alessie and all our problems were solved. She was great. It did mean that we were driving uninsured for a couple of days, but are legit again now. Hooray!
We plotted a course for a campsite near a town called Finale about 100km east of Palermo. We drove through loads of tunnels to get there. We hadn’t factored in how hilly Sicily is. We arrived at RaisGerbi and found that the camp had 4 major attractions, the location – on a cliff above the sea, a washing machine (Kaz hadn’t used one of these for months), a pizzeria (we are making the most of vino della casa too) and a very friendly ginger cat (Becca Weasel was in cat heaven).
We spent a day getting sorted and of course what Tom had spirited away in Egypt, he now spat out in Sicily – yep you got it – the credit cards!! Well at least we know they haven’t been used or cloned.
We visited a nearby town called Cefalu which is built around a massive rock. The streets in these villages are so tiny and parking is restricted so we parked at the port and walked up. We found a nice little restaurant and luckily opted to sit inside as the heavens opened and it poured. After a delicious meal of bruschetta and pasta we visited the cathedral which was magnificent. The wall behind the altar was mosaic’ed, not painted and very beautiful.
We headed towards the east coast of the island where we got to see Mt. Etna with its peaks already dusted with snow and the cold air revealing the steam escaping out the top just to let us know it’s still alive. We have had our fair share of rain but the shorts brigade soldiered on. We drove through the mountain top town of Taorminia which was really stunning. We camped just outside Catania at camping Junio but stayed only one night as the road north beckons and we would have to brave mainland Italy before long. Our campsite was right on the sea and the noise of the sea crashing on the rocks was deafening.
We loved Sicily, the people are friendly, food fantastic and the scenery stunning. It is also quite refreshing to hear the sound of church bells again, instead of the chanting muezzins!
Stop Press - Rule Britannia!!
The bushcats rolled off the P&O ferry at 8pm UK time on Monday 23rd November. The end of our trip in Manchester firmly in our grasp. Our whirlwind dash through Europe yielded some fantastic mments as well as some heartstopping ones. More about this later.
Lying in bed at Des & Terry's near Canterbury as I write this, it seems unreal that after 28 200 odd kilometres and after 6 months our trip is nearly at an end.
Lying in bed at Des & Terry's near Canterbury as I write this, it seems unreal that after 28 200 odd kilometres and after 6 months our trip is nearly at an end.
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