When all else fails, let off some steam
We are definitely all tangled up in confusing weather. One day it is quite nice and the next day it’s pouring with rain. And the last time I checked, it is warmer and sunnier in autumn in Sydney AND in spring in Hertford. So what are we doing in Sicily? We’re trying to find some interesting, beautiful, attractive, amazing sights and places, but we seem to be sadly failing. Neither of us is feeling inspired in the way that we always have been in France, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland and we’re questioning whether we’ve become jaded, or overloaded by the fantastic sights we have previously seen, or is it just not as ‘nice’ in Southern Italy and Sicily. We have our fingers crossed that perhaps we’ve saved the best till last and that seeing Mount Etna and the eastern coast of Italy will lift our spirits.
On Friday I needed to just sit and not search. I didn’t want to go anywhere. The swimming pool absurdly closes all afternoon, although it wasn’t really warm enough anyway, so I stayed beside Eileen and pottered. Rodney thought he’d get a bit more training in and set off along the beach to walk to San Vito Lo Capo. He found the route up through a gap in the cliffs into town and had a good wander around before heading back on the coastal route. He brought back some lovely photos and really enjoyed his stroll, apart from the last bit. He met some Germans coming the other way who tried to explain that there wasn’t really a path through, but Rodney, being Rodney, went for it anyway. He scrambled over rocks and jumped across wobbly gaps for about a kilometre. He looked like he’d been on a thoroughly strenuous ramble when he reappeared at Eileen’s door and said I would not have enjoyed it. I’m glad I didn’t attend that training session.
The next day the weather turned again, and we spent the day wandering around the hilltop town of Erice getting soaked in the relentless rain. The views from the top must be spectacular on a good day, sadly today there wasn’t going to be. This resulted in our drive on down the coast to Camping Lilybeo near Marsala with a campervan full of wet clothes and bags jiggling about in the bathroom.
On Sunday the weather decided to confuse us once again with a lovely sunny blue-sky day. It’s still not warm enough to call beach weather, so rather than follow the coast, we headed inland and took a road towards Salemi. This western end of Sicily is far less mountainous and the undulating hills are dotted with olive farms, vineyards and cultivated fields. When you looked into the distance, the scenery looked like a patchwork of various shades of green.
It was an interesting drive, but we did find ourselves having a good old whinge. We have driven across some spectacular viaducts, but the expansion joints, patchwork roads and plentiful potholes are horrific; poor Eileen feels every single one and it makes me wince. They may as well be Roman roads, circa 55 BC. Sign-posting is almost non-existent; there have been quite a few towns that we have exited twice, attempting to find the correct road out. I have no idea how Julius Caesar’s gang ever found their way to Britain, but maybe it was an accident and they were really trying to get to Russia. At all times of the day, roads are narrowed for road works and / or subsidence and yet we have never seen anyone working. Actually no, we did see a couple of blokes, once. And as for the plumbing, I thought the Romans were pretty big on it, but they have definitely lost their way in that field. Is there anyone who really would still want to use a squat toilet these days?
Camping Valle Dei Templi in San Leone was where we pulled up at lunchtime on Sunday, and we spent the afternoon making plans to visit the Valley Of The Temples near Agrigento the next morning. Now what will the weather be like tomorrow, I wonder…….?
