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!