Got another nice ride in – a lovely route around to Aunac, with a stop for coffee.
Bastille Day celebrations were fairly subdued – no huge parties or fireworks that I could hear or see.
We got away mid-morning on Thursday – we’re both pretty organized and packing up the campervan didn’t take long. The trip south to the time-trial course took about 2 ½ hours as we travelled on smaller, quieter roads.
The yellow route marking arrows weren’t up yet, but it’s pretty easy to tell when you’re on the route…
We looked for a parking spot along almost the entire route, starting in Libourne and going almost all the way to Saint-Emilion before pulling over and claiming our spot.
We’d passed quite a few campervans already and knew many more would come but didn’t want to risk getting stuck on the wide shoulder as the ground looked a bit soft.
We’re in a nice wide spot with room for one or two more campervans, right next to a large vineyard. This is a UNESCO Heritage area and is well known for it’s excellent wine – we’re beside a field of Merlot grapes.
They’re doing spraying of the vines right now – great timing! We kept all of the windows shut for part of the day but luckily the sprayers knocked off fairly early.
We’ve discovered a problem with the campervan – the sink isn’t draining properly. There’s a bit right at the top that’s a plastic piece of crap and has broken so all of the drain water flows directly into the cutlery drawer underneath. I am now doing dishes in the bathroom sink.
The town of Libourne had their fireworks on Thursday night – I was already in bed but listened to them for quite awhile. Mo heard them too and did her usual little barky/growly thing at them before settling back down on my feet.
Just after breakfast Friday morning a fellow pulled up in a car beside us – the vineyard side, not the road side. We wondered if we were going to get asked to move, but all he did was warn us to close all of the windows as the sprayers would be coming soon.
We knew the machine was approaching, but appreciated the warning and kept the windows closed for an hour after he’d passed.
In the afternoon we took a walk back to the next group of campervans and on the way passed a very beautiful garden that must belong to the owner of the vineyard.
We had a rather lazy day – I finished the last of the three Genghis Khan books and was left wishing for a fourth. We found a second problem with the campervan – the freezer has stopped working and the chicken as well as the salmon were both completely defrosted. Chicken is Friday’s dinner so that’s ok and I made a teriyaki marinade for the salmon so it’s all good.
Late in the evening a bunch of vehicles pulled up on the road, including a semi-truck and several vans. They commenced to put up large signs and some barriers. Apparently we’re right at the ‘4 km to go’ point.
The team had men from several different countries, including a fellow from Louisiana who said he used to do setups for the Cirque du Soleil.
It was quite a production and they didn’t finish until almost 10:30.
A few days ago we were heading home from our morning cappuccino in the bar when we stopped to look into the garden at the end of the post office building. The fellow had been clearing the place up and we peered over the stone wall to see what progress had been made.
Suddenly we saw a movement, albeit a slow one- it was a tortoise! A couple of days later we stopped again, and saw that there were two of them. Then the next day the owner of the garden was there and Colin started chatting with him. The slightly larger tortoise is female, and is 50 years old (!) and the other one is the male and is 30.
There are also a bunch of little ones of various ages – he rounded up three of them to show us, each a year apart in age. He’s got a nice little fence to protect his tomato plants – apparently they are a favourite snack
Another day we were walking down to the bar and when we were descending the 78 steps under the arch we saw that a few of the local fellows were doing some more work, both outside and inside.
We chatted for a bit, then one of them took me inside to show me the little chapel that’s right above the arch.
I also got a better view of the painting under the arch – he indicated that it was six hundred years old!
I went for a very nice ride one morning before it got too hot – the sunflowers are out and many of the fields have been cut, bailed and re-ploughed for a second planting.
We went out one night to try to catch sight, and maybe some photos of the comet, but even though we knew where to look for it we didn’t get a glimpse.
However the hundreds of fireflies flitting around in the bushes along the walk back home made up for it.
We left our free parking spot fairly early and took a somewhat faster route south to Reggio Calabria and decided to look for a campground for a day or two rather than try to get a ferry to Sicily right away.
Arriving back at Villa San Giovanni – that we’d passed by hours earlier – we found the ticket office for the car ferry. Having purchased the ticket we then drove through part of the town to get to the actual port – kind of weird system.
The crossing to Messina took only about 25 minutes – I finally made it to Sicily!! The Shark of Messina doesn’t live here anymore so we didn’t bother to stop in Messina and were quickly on our way south.
We stopped several miles south of Taormina at a campground about 300 meters from the sea – Mt. Etna looms over all, but is quiet at the moment.
The beach at the end of the road has the usual ‘private’ areas where you can rent lounge chairs and umbrellas – for the bargain price of only 13 euros a day – not sure if parking is included.
We had a lovely lunch one day at the restaurant right on the sea – there are beautiful flowers everywhere and fantastic views up and down the beach.
Sunday morning Mo and I were up at 6:30 and took a walk to the beach – even at that early hour there were a few folks there, but only 3 hours later the place was packed.
Mo quite likes my tent, and Henry pops in for a visit from time to time.
We really liked our stay at Almoetia campground – it’s actually quite large and at this time of year there should probably be about 100 campervans or more – sadly there were only four of us. Hopefully if all continues to go well here their summer business will improve.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 