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!