8 March 2024 – The thin blue line

Miles driven today = 29

Total Miles to date = 2,154

Having effectively given ourselves an additional day before we head for Cefalu and then Palermo we had to decide what to do with it.  We could have stayed for one more night among the Eucalyptus and the palms at Oliveri but we had seen all there was to see there and we fancied a change of scenery.

I feel a bit bad that we have done so much driving on the autostrada since we arrived in Sicily but we would have had to wriggle our way around 3 headlands in very short succession to complete today’s journey any other way so we plumped for the easy option, breaking the longest tunnel of the trip record again with one of 3.5km.

We landed at Agricampeggio Alessandro, which is midway between Capo d’Orlando and Torrenova and immediately headed for the beach, which is a lot stonier than our previous stopover.  It’s also less sheltered, facing northwest rather than east, so despite glorious sunshine for most of the day there is still a nip in the air in when the wind gets to you.

There’s supposed to be a bar/café on the beach which was “open” according to Google Maps.  We thought this sounded extremely unlikely and sure enough it’s all boarded up but we found a short cut back to the campsite with a re-purposed boat next to the gate.

After lunch we got the bikes out again and headed along the coastal path towards Torrenova and after just a couple of hundred yards we stumbled across what appears to be a brand spanking new bright blue cycle path.

A little way inland we could see the hilltop village of San Marco d’Alunzio which was originally built around a Norman Castle.  You can also see the huge scar of a stone quarry to the left of the village.

The cycle path finished as abruptly as it had begun in Torrenova so we made our way through the village and over a bridge to the next coastal town of Sant’ Agata di Militello.  We didn’t hang about.  Like so many places around here it seemed rather run down and the sea wall had completely collapsed at this point.

Although, I was rather intrigued by the basketball court they have there which is actually basketball shaped.

We retraced our steps back to Agricampeggio Alessandro and have enjoyed sitting in the sun for the remainder of the afternoon and watching the bats as evening fell.  It’s a €21 per night ACSI site.  We were amazed how busy it was when we got here.  We are parked somewhat on the periphery as all the delineated pitches were fully occupied with a League of Nations of long-termers, all presumably taking advantage of the site’s reduced rates for lengthier stays.  If you hang around for a month or more it’s only €10 a night including hook up.  There’s a fruit and veg van comes round daily, you can order takeaway pizzas and they will even do your shopping for you for a 10% surcharge.  If I was the type of person who enjoyed hanging about in one place for weeks at a time I’d certainly consider this a being somewhere to do just that.  But I’m not, so we’re on the move again tomorrow. 

9 March 2024 - Cefalu