26 March 2024 – Wash Day Blues

Miles driven today = 20

Total Miles to date = 2,766

We haven’t had the best of days today if I’m honest.  We woke to the sound of rain on the roof for the first time since we were in Palermo more than a fortnight ago and, although it stopped before we hit the road this morning, the skies have remained steely grey for the majority of the day.

Our drive was relatively short but also a lot more stressful than it should have been.  We made it through Gaggi and onto the Autostrada without incident but had to come off again shortly afterwards near Taormina to follow the rather more urban SS114.  At Letojanni I took the first exit at a roundabout as Google Maps instructed, only to find that I was heading down a one way street which didn’t even exist according to what I was seeing on my screen.  We had to go under the railway line and double back through the middle of the town, which was a tight squeeze to say the least.  With one injudiciously parked van I barely had half an inch to spare even with wing mirrors folded in. Once again we made it through unscathed, although I’m feeling a bit like a cat who has just used up his 8^th life at the moment.

We pulled in at Camping La Focetta in Sant’ Alessio Sicula.  Our initial intention was to stay for two nights, although we haven’t actually communicated that to the chap who runs the site and whose English is barely any better than my Italian.  Plans may change but based the provisional itinerary I put together before we left home we’re not likely to be on a campsite for more than one night for another week so clothes washing was a priority.

I’ve already mentioned how expensive laundry is here in Sicily and this place is no different.  The machine seemed tiny and the was cycle was only 21 minutes with a max spin speed of 800 RPM.  For that they fleece you €8!  So our laundry came out barely clean and sopping wet.

We put it all on a line for a few hours while we admired the coast line through the murk.  We sat and read and we went for a quick walk on the beach, which is nothing special.  We even had a game of ping pong to pass the time away but given the less than ideal drying conditions the washing was still very damp indeed at 5pm so we had to splash out another €8 on the tumble dryer.  At least we got an hour for that and once again we can stop fretting about having to recycle our underwear which is actually a quite gratifying feeling once it’s all tucked away again in the clean clothes lockers.

So the plan for tomorrow was to visit Taormina.  It’s supposed to be beautiful. Lisa holidayed there with her father as a child and fancied a trip down memory lane.  A couple of our friends on facebook have also urged us to drop in there.  BUT… it’s not remotely motorhome friendly.  The only usable car park is a way out of town and from what I have been led to believe they charge €8 an hour, which just seems like extorsion.  Likewise the sosta there which is €55 a night for the privilege of attempting to sleep between the two lanes of the autostrada!

The alternative is to get a train but those only run every 90 minutes at best, it’s a 15 minutes’ walk to the station at this end and a solid 30 minutes uphill at the other unless you manage to get a bus, which again only runs every hour it seems.  So, sorry Ian, sorry Jamie, we’ve decided to skip it and unless we have a last minute change of heart in the morning we are going to say "Chao Sicily" & get ourselves onto the ferry and back over to the mainland.

27 March 2024 - Back On The Misty Mainland