I suppose you’d call that a normal, routine day. No highlights, no fabulous vistas, no ‘wows’. It is to be expected after the previous day’s circumnavigation of ‘our’ island, which we would struggle to better. And that turned out to be the case. We sorted stuff out, foraged, drove, parked up and that was that.
First thing as we packed Doris up I noticed that her rear offside tyre was down. I have an electric pump and, sure enough, the tyre was down at 28 psi when it should be up at 70. I had checked the tyre pressures about four days ago so something had happened inbetween. My Dutch neighbour popped over, we checked the valve (by spitting on it), but it seemed fine. The last thing we wanted was a blow out, or a flat in some difficult situation, so, after I reinflated the tyre, we vowed to go to one of the many tyre shops that we had come across on our journey and ask for advice. First, however, we parked at the local cafe to update the blog (we would have had a coffee, but it was shut).
We then spent about half an hour finding a tyre shop. Initially I stopped at a garage which had tyres in it – the young lad felt the tyre (no English) and before he took a hacksaw to Doris we quickly moved on. Then, by chance, we came across a v decent looking tyre shop, all gleaming and professional looking. Sure enough, it turned out to be so, with a v attractive young woman receptionist who did all the interpreting (as well as translating my latest Vodafone texts telling me I had run out of data – until today, I hope). The young lad took off Doris’ tyre immersed it in a bath of water and checked for leaks. Endlessly. As if he were attending the birth of his first child. Nothing. And I was looking over his shoulder as he did it. Not a single bubble. Strange but all seemed well.
The receptionist (did I mention she was attractive?) priced new tyres – Doris had had new front tyres and I was going to replace the rear ones next year so why not now? But it would take until the ninth of December to get the special camper tyres delivered. We all agreed that we should just drive off and keep our fingers crossed. No charge for the service however. (Although we separately gave the young lad a tip which he received with a beaming smile.). Brilliant.
We foraged at the local Conad supermercado and set sail. It was a dull drive after the delights of Gulf of Policastro. The cloud was high but thick enough to prevent Mr Sun from making a guest appearance and we
had a spot of rain as we pottered along. The long coast line was interesting but not overly so. There were hill top towns and the odd sandy beach, but the railway line stopped us from immediate access (although we did have lunch by the beach). The light dulled the view but, do you know what? We were v content with just moseying along. We eventually stopped at Falerna Marina in a beachside carpark with another German van; I’m guessing Marina is an Italian designation for their seaside towns – there’s no harbour here.
It was getting dark by the time we stopped, but the wind was warm and C was able to wash some smalls and dry them. We seem to be out of UK satellite TV range and I will need to think of how we can get onto another satellite, possibly Hotbird which at least gets CNN and Euronews. I’ll have to work on that as you have to point the dish in a different direction and use a separate decoder. As an ex signals officer and with a masters in electronics I will still be at my limit. I may have to ask someone… Supper was hotdogs and chips (these little luxuries) and we fell into our usual routine. Great.
Sun’s out this morning. I have Internet back on my phone and the tyre has stayed up (that’s a mystery). Our destination today is probably Tropea. I’ll leave the ‘why’ until tomorrow, but it could be special. We’re about one hundred and fifty clicks from Reggio where we aim to catch the ferry to Sicily. C and I discussed yesterday getting a foot passenger ferry from Sicily to Tunis for a couple of days, so that’s an unexpected option – we’ll see. And, as always, I’ll try and keep the three of you in touch with it all. Have a good Sunday.