SICILY - We are coming!
... We finally made it into Sicily!
3rd - 6th April | 2022
It rained ALL night, but when we finally woke up the sunshine tried to brake through, hurray! We started to pack, but always with an eye on the dark clouds... However, we managed to dry the flysheet of the tent, so all packed away dry :-)
Todays riding was only along the SS106 along the coast. A bit boring as nothing special to see or visit. What we really noticed here in this area, is the wild rubbish dumps everywhere, riverbeds, lay-bys along main streets, etc.; also is it difficult to find public rubbish bins - and this within Europe!
Also, we finally found a self-laundry to get our washing done before we both have to go comando! Whilst the washing run, Steffi went to get our shopping done before all shops will be closed for the rest of the (Sun-)day! Opposite of the laundry was a little fruit shop where we bought the most delicious strawberries!
We were throughout the day in touch with "Far and Further" to hopefully meet somewhere between him-coming-from-Sicily and us arriving at Reggio di Calabria. Due to timing, it looks like it will be the following day for lunch! We are really excited to meet him, and hearing his adventures of Tunisia and his upcoming plans for Albania.
Late afternoon we looked into a wild camping spot a wee bit away from the coast and again we found a fantastic spot along a riverbed. It is so great to be back into wild camping! And this time without any rain! It was even so warm tonight that Steffi didn´t need her hot waterbottle ;-)
The next morning we again just drove along the SS106 coastal road, which provides nothing in special to see. The last 15km into Reggio di Calabria seemed to last forever due to the traffic. We went directly to the port, to get our tickets. First we stopped at the train station, as we thought it was the ticket counter ;-) Then we found the place where you enter the ferry, but we couldn´t find a ticket office. Steffi followed by foot the cars to see what they are doing; apparently you need your ticket already with the barcode. She found someone speaking english that send us back to the motorway to get the tickets. Not that this makes any sense, but hey-ho, it is what it is!
As we drove on the motorway, panicking already that we do not get off and have to pay, we found the ticket place for the ferry. We still could exit to that, so we got our tickets for later the day. Now it is time to find a place for lunch where we can finally meet Pavel from "Far and Further" as his ferry should come in soon. Whilst we were searching around a car stopped next to us and the driver took us to a small restaurant. Not the best place, but they do pizza and are near to the port.
We just got our drinks and there is already Pavel coming! How fantastic is that to meet our first overlander! During lunch we had so much fun that the time flew by!
We had to catch our ferry to get to Sicily soon, so we started to make a move. Of course, our talking still continued outside around the bikes whilst we got ready! We hope to meet him again in Albania to spend a bit more time together as we had a good conversations and the same sense of humour.
Our ferry over to Messina, Sicily was perfectly on time: departure 1 minute earlier! It is about 30mins over to Sicily. There we were right in the chaos of rush-hour of Messina, so we had some MSDs again... how we have missed them! Whilst we were on the ferry we had booked a little B&B up in the mountains just outside of Messina. Once out of the town, it was a lovely winding road up to their little villa "La Locanda del Arte". The owner Dino and Dina are revamping an old family farm house into a B&B; what a lovely project!
The next morning we went to see the famous Black Madonna of Basilica Santuario Maria SS. del Tindari, as our hosts have recommended us - thank you! It was again such a nice tour along the coast, all so clean! We got a glimpse of the volcano island Vulcano. Due to google the sanctuary would close at 12h00. We arrived about 12h30, but still could go in! They only closed at 13h00, so we could see the famous Black Madonna and the impressive paintings on the ceiling and mosaics along the walls.
Later the road went up into the mountains where we had our picnic lunch in the sun in a small village. After that TomTom started to play up and was sending us all over the place, wanting us to even use stairs! We had the giggles, even though we drove around in circles. Finally we found our way down towards the coast as up in the mountains it was so hilly that it would have been really tricky to find a wild camping spott.
At the coast we firstly aimed for a valley, but the fields were fenced in with big gates, so we went for the coast. Here we finally found a motocross track outside of Torrenova. As there was a father with two teenagers, we asked and they said that it is not problem to pitch up our tent! Great! Steffi carried on talking to the father about our journey whilst James already got our tent ready. The gentleman and his friends gave us then tips what to see here in Sicily, so we have now a bit of an idea where we go the next days ;-)
The next morning we had first to sort out an ATM for James finally withdrawing money, Steffi finally getting her contact lens solution as it is on the last drops and then actually sorting out our shopping for lunch and dinner; ah yes, and of course our breakfast/café.
So by midday we finally hit the road direction of Enna and Lago di Pergura. The road was going up nice twisty state roads, which we really enjoyed as hardly any traffic. Also the landscape was very nice and the villages looked like they are "looked after"; what a difference to the "dump on the Calabrian east coast". We started enjoying it again! We even went up to 1200m today!
On the way down to Enna we found, a bit off track, a nice lunch picnic spot; for our famous tuna sandwiches!
The Lago de Pergura has an autodrome going around; unfortunately we couldn´t go on it, but along! As we boths are not real racing enthuiasts, we shortly went off, going back to the coast. The next destination will be Catedrale di Monreale, where it says that it got 2200kg of gold used for its decoration! In this case TomTom and google send us first down to the east/south coast of Sicily to go back up direction of Palermo as there are no real state roads in this direction.
In the area of Acquaviva Platani, close to SS186 we found a wild camping spot. As soon as we started to pitch up a tent a gentleman drove along and stopped. We explained our plan and he said it would be ok and drove off laughing. He must have gone picking up his son at a close by farm as they stopped again on the way back, asking us, if we would need anything. How nice is that!
As some darker clouds came in now, we cracked on pitching up the tent and the gearshed that we got it hopefully up before it starts raining. All day it was a weird weather, it looked all day like a thin fog or rain cloud hanging over the island; no wonder Steffi had migrane!
We were all set, James cooking dinner and then it started drizzeling, thankfully only a short shower. Lets hope it will stay like that during the night. The weather forecast gives good weather for the next days - hurray!
Let us take you around this beautiful island of Sicily in our next blog ...
Places | Cities:
Belladonna, Catanzaro, Reggio di Calabria, Messina, Tindari, San Piero Patti, Raccuja, Ucria, Castell'Umberto, Torrenova, Sant Agata di Militello, Santo Stefanio di Cavastra, Enna, Pergura, Acquaviva Platani.
Driven km | Trip:
Total: 6590 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
Schimmelchen headlight bulb blown.
Health issues:
James and Steffi still with stuffy noses; Steffi even for one day with additional sore throat.
Special thanks to:
Fruit shop owner in Catanzaro for giving us some yummie Kumquats!
Dina & Dino from La Locanda del Arte for hosting us; and giving us some insights of Calabria and Sicily.