Ciao to everyone,
Moving along the coastline and we are at PUNTA BRACCETTO BAY on the Iblea Coastline, Camerina is just a few klms away in the province of Ragusa. This site is open all year round “thank goodness” we have spent so many useless klms trying to find places open. The beach walks were great to stretch the old legs.
LICATA: Yet again we arrive it’s closed,two guys come along as we are trying to turn around and gesture to us to follow them, “god we’re trusting” I thought and ended up at a partially closed sosta on a cliff top location at a “closed for the winter” Restaurant. We are the only ones there, Rosa the lovely owner, has a little English, everyone we meet has a relative in Australia and hers is in Leichhardt. She is very proud of her wooden carved sign that says, "AUSTRALIA 16,766 klms".
Also a clock with our national icons surrounding it. We are parked just near the chicken coop that houses the obvious but also a CAT, an interesting combination.
They also have this huge dog called “Hugo” who insists on marking his territory on our outside step, to which I insist on going over and washing it off. We think he is a Shar Pei Cross.
He loved is scratches from Terry.
I walked down some decaying steps to get to the beach for a dip very refreshing, this place has so much character, it’s hey day would have been spectacular.
As usual the sunsets were spectacular.
As I was contemplating this, I could hear planes overhead, the sound was delayed and finally into view came 3 planes, obviously Military Jets, doing circuits over the ocean, so loud, they were grey in colour and shaped like a triangle, I don’t know who’s side they were on, interesting ????.
AGRIGENTO: Is Sicily’s largest Archaeological treasure trove, it sits on a high plateau facing Africa (which is where all the red dust comes from) over the Mediterranean Sea. It still has the culture of ancient Greece. There’s was the golden age between 5C & 6C. BC. Now that was definitely a long time ago, and you might say they were conquered a lot.!! We ended up at a free Sosta for the night, all the facilities that were there were very new & modern, but nothing worked. Water pump not working, power turned off, scenery fantastic,10 steps down and your on the beach.
I also befriended a black & white stray cat, who loves Mortadella so I gave her a couple of chopped slices out of Terry’s lunch pack, she also finished off our spaghetti bolognese, she was very hungry.
The Valley of the Temples we had to miss, as we missed the turn off and couldn’t turn around, so up, up, the winding roads we go to the city itself and being directed by the Police! We ended up in the assembly area of a street march, Brass Band and all, so all we could do is wave our flag and smile and hot foot it outa there. We really didn’t mean to take another wrong skinny turn, H.H. likes the attention I think, we gave up and came back down the hill. I managed some long distance shots.
MARSALA: The home of the grape ( I can’t remember if this is an aperitif or a dessert wine), it has a lively port and with a mixture of many Tunisian people which influence the area. We drove through the town and around the docks and ended going through to TRAPANI: This is the home of the Salt trade, and is within sight of the Egadi Islands.
It’s a medieval district with lots of narrow streets. H.H. is not good with these!! We also drove through a town called PURGATORIO! What a great name, tried to get a photo but the sign at the end of the town had fallen off. It would of been a great Kodak moment - we escaped purgatory??????
Now how is this for another novel new idea, ( it’s just formed !!!) Forget the owning of a Toilet Block in Venice,(charging 1 euro a use), it is owning a Panel Beating Shop in Italy. Most cars are either scratched or trashed, (just a thought - it should be an almighty business) As parking is an art form - sideways - back to front -right angles - double parking is the norm ( i.e; going off to have a coffee or buy cigarettes etc), but no one seems to care.
The above photo is typical! There is plenty of room for this guy to park properly, i.e. parallel, but NO, just sticks the nose in and in the small streets with oncoming traffic, someone has to stop and give way…. Bloody nuisance.
Their parking of boats is a little better!
I know I keep going on about this but it’s truly extraordinarily amazing to be involved in this - Terry says his reflexes have sharpened by at least 200% and I’ll keep taking the B.P. Tablets. He and H.H. have passed the ‘ADVANCED EVASIVE DRIVING COURSE’ I would say with flying colours. We thought we’d also let you know that we have been passed on the motorway on two different occasions by HEARSES’, either heading to or finishing a job (hopefully unoccupied). We however passed this old beauty!
There are still lots of these Fiat 500’s still here of course, along with the new ones. If you lived over here it’s definitely the type of car you would buy…. SMALL…
PALERMO: What an alive city, we have been here 3 days, it’s never quiet, it’s loud with people & car tooting. We have risked our lives crossing the streets and are forever vigilant for dodging dog poo on the pavements. This is a huge melting pot of customs and people and the public markets about 6 in total are an exotic mix of those.
It’s fabulous we did lots of walking to and fro. We have become semi addicted to Arancine Balls. Traditional southern Italian snack foods and bought some from these lovely blokes!
The Capuchin Catacombs (worth a google) contains adults & childrens mummified bodies, dressed and appended to, or propped up against walls.
We didn’t find it spooky, just an incredible sight to see. The last to be mummified there was a two year old girl in 1920. The first in 1599. The 2yr old girl is so well preserved she really does look just asleep - she’s in an open coffin, enclosed in glass.
CEFALU: A coastal fishing village, very impressive from the road but we had to drive on as our campsite was further on. We are parked on a hill side overlooking 5 Volcanoes in the distance and we are 600 mtrs walk from the campsite into the village of FINALE, we have a 180 deg view of the Tyrrhenian Coastline, its stunning.
Amongst other things, we have been feeding yet another stray, very sick, tiny kitten, I have had a good cry over this, he put himself to bed in one of our outside lockers after a good feed.
I think he’s starving and has got cat flu - he’s not long for this world (after writing this) our little friend passed over "The Rainbow Bridge” 2 days later, so,so, sad, it’s probably the first time in his little life that’s he’d purred and was happy, he lost the battle, Terry buried him.
RANDAZZO: we called into to do a shop and this small town is dangerously close to Mt.Etna.
It is also known as the “black town” due to its lava paving. We wound our way back down to the coast with some very hairy, windy bends and turns, Terry & H.H. handled the roads superbly, these were also very narrow at times. The countryside is just beautiful with all the falling leaves and changes of colours and we ended up back were we started from on the south west coast of Sicily. We didn’t get to see Catania or Taormina etc. maybe next time, they had had some really bad storms that we were lucky to have missed.
I also had to try this interesting fruit “Prickly Pear”, tastes like watermelon but with lots of tiny seeds, I liked it, Terry didn’t. It was one of the most invasive “weeds” ever to be imported into Australia! But they eat it by the box load over here.
It’s Sunday morning and we are off to the Ferry Terminal back to the mainland.
For a 30 klm drive to the terminal, we went through 23 tunnels, that tells you how hilly and mountainous Sicily is. I still do not like them and neither does the GPS, but we really enjoyed being there.
Anyway that’s all folks for now. We are back on the mainland and heading for Pompei, the Amalfi Coast and then Roma!
Love to all, from Susie,Terry = H.H. x x x .
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