Summer 2017 Second Post - Southern Italy and Sicily

25th and 26th April 2017 - Punta Alice - Calabria
2731 miles

After passing high inland mountains, lost in clouds, and crossing incredibly wide, braided rivers  on long viaducts ended up a few miles down the coast for a couple of days near Ciro. Not all of southern Italy is picture postcard - this place was a cross between Morecambe and the third world! 

27th April to 1st May 2017 - Tropea - Calabria
2851 miles

A morning's drive across the heel to the west coast of Calabria, near Salerno, then south along winding mountain roads and coastal towns - much more like your postcards. The destination was a campsite below the ancient cliff-top town of Tropea with houses clinging to the cliff above the harbour and small hill top monastery below - out to sea, in the distance, Stromboli and some of the other Aeolian Islands in the horizon. Spent a few lazy days just wandering around, enjoying the sun and yummy ice cream. Interesting to see blind Norman arcading on the exterior of the cathedral.

2nd to 3rd May 2017 - Riposto - Sicily
2986 miles
Eventually, after solving the low headroom bridge problem in Tropea, and a long circuitous route, north instead of south, to get on the autostrada, headed south through wooded mountains to catch the ferry to Messina at Villa San Giovanni. Complete chaos! Goodness knows what it us like when it's really busy the whole town must get jammed with ferry traffic. Bloody expensive at 56 euro for a 5km trip. Headed south through Messina to a coastal town below Etna. Unfortunately, Etna was covered in cloud most of the time. Luckily, woke early the next morning to find it crystal clear at 6am. Clouds quickly built up and then what l thought was a strange brown one turned out to be an ash plume that rose up about three kilometres then slowly streamed out to sea.

4th to 8th May 2017 - Avola - Sicily
3060 miles
Along the east coast, which is busy and heavily developed until Catania's past to a small coastal town called Avola. Located on a coastal plain, mainly covered with lemon groves and hills rising to about 500m a couple of kilometres inland. Stopped at a great, small, shady campsite. Bike trips out to the ancient Greek city of Syracuse, some 25km north and the beautiful Baroque town of Noto, 15km south, with masses of churches and town palaces all built around 1700 following a massive earthquake in 1693.

9th and 10th May 2017 - Ragusa - Sicily
3109 miles
Around the southern tip of Sicily, to a free well maintained Aosta at Ragusa, a small coastal town. Actually south of the latitude of Tunis. Biked around to visit a couple of small coastal nature reserves - not much natural left around these parts most areas, often now abandoned were developed for agriculture.

11th May 2016 - Agrigento - Sicily
3194 miles
Along the south coast to the large modern town of Agrigento, with its sprawling apartment blocks (omnipresent in ltaly), below which lies the extensive site of the ancient Greek town of Akragas. Which is a UNESCO Heritage site because of the remains of a number of Doric temples on a ridge just inside the southern perimeter wall called the Valle dei Templi - which is odd as they are all on a ridge.
The previous day l visited another UNESCO site, the Villa Romano di Casello. A Roman hunting lodge that was buried in a mudslide that preserved its mosaic floors - just room after room. Unfortunately, hoards of Italian school kids were visiting at the same time which rather ruined the visit.

12th to 19th May 2017 - San Vito lo Capo - Sicily
3376 miles

Spent the last week in the northwest corner of Sicily in a well hidden campsite surrounded by large nature reserves with the hills rising to 600m to 900m - reminiscent if parts of Scotland - but a lot drier and warmer! Odd bits of hiking and biking; but now getting too hot to be very energetic after 11am. Should be heading for Palermo on Saturday to take the over night ferry for Cagliari on Sardinia.

Summer 2017 - First Post - Home to Southern Italy

2016 Retrospective

Last year's blog ground to a halt in August when the power supply on my laptop decided to self destruct some where in the middle of Romania. Finally arrived home at the end of October via Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands on the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. On route - five rabies inoculations after I was bitten by a dog near Moldavia in Romania (Romanian and Croatian hospital and clinic services were brilliant -  no queues, no hassles, no waiting) and also managed to avoid a couple of earthquakes in central Italy by a couple of days.

2017 Plans

Decided on an earlier start this year and left home on 2nd April, stayed a couple of days with my sister in Kent and then headed off on the Dover to Dunkerque ferry on the 5th April. The first part of this year's trip is down to Southern Italy and then across to Sicily. After that A few options but no definite plans as yet - may be Sardinia and Corsica.

5th to 7th April 2017 

Made use of the free motorways through eastern France, Belgium and Luxembourg, stopping off over night at aires, to get down to Nancy and then on to the Jura by the ordinary roads where I stopped-over at a Clairvaux-le-Lacs.

Clairvaux-le-Lacs

8th April 2107 St Jean en Royans - 1168 miles

Great drive through the Jura and down to the edge of the Vercors to overnight at a simple aire on the edge of St Jean en Royans at the north-western tip of the Vercors. Weather great blue skies and low twenties.

St Jean en Royan and the Comb Laval 

9th April 2017 - Mison - 1262 miles

Super drive through the Vercors although one pass I wanted to use was dtill blocked by snow. Finally over the Col de Rouset to head on down through Die to end up just north of Sisteron at a wee village, Mison, the birth place of the guy that invented 'le horlage parlante' - also home of three WC's and two donkeys and that was about it.

Col de Rouset - Brilliant drive

10th April 2017 - Gourdon - 1396 miles

Weather remained great for a day driving through the Maritime Alps where I finally ended up at an amazing parking area above a cliff on the southern edge of them at 750m, at the hillside village of Gourdon overlooking The Mediterranean, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Nice.

11th April 2017 - Torrita di Siena - 1828 miles

A long day's drive through Nice, Monaco then into Italy where it is totally impractical to make progress on the coastal route which passes through congested towns nearly all the time - so headed of onto the autostrada which is just seems a continuous series of tunnels and viaducts crossing the ridges and valleys running down into the sea. Eventually ended up at a great little sosta at Torrita di Siena a few kilometres off the autostrada to the south of Florence. Free electric and water so a nice hot shower and haircut the next morning.

12th April 2017 - Ficulle - 1856 miles

After a long drive the previous day a few miles on to a small village with a sosta at Ficulle and a relaxing afternoon in the sun. Weather has been mostly blue skies and warm since leaving Luxembourg although cold at night.

13th April 2017 - Cassino - 2008 miles

Decided that I needed to plough on south pretty quickly - otherwise I'll never get there! Nearly got side tracked in France. So back on the autostrada - where the tolls are generally much cheaper than France - and south to stop at Cassino - home of the hill top monastery of Montecassino founded by St Benedict that was bombed to the ground by the Allies in 1944. It's now rebuilt. Walked up from the town, a steep 90 minute climb.

14th April 2017 - Stangolagalli - 20039 miles

 A few miles away a sosta with a great view was listed on Camper Contact - a great Dutch app for finding places to stay with the van. So headed there on Good Friday - a super view over the hills - but houses all over the place! There was a long Passion Play in the town square in the evening which lasted about three hours. 

15th April 2017 - Capracotta - 2115 miles

Sort of south and up into the mountains to a sosta in a small town at around 1450m that is a ski centre during the winter. The good weather continues; but, not so keen parking up in these places in the south - lots of dodgy looking youths around in the evening - probably harmless but feeling uncomfortable - so I'll probably stick to campsites in southern Italy unless some where looks ok and there are a few others parked-up.

16th and 17th April 2017 - Bisceglie - 2283 miles

South of Italy at last! The weather is on the change, it was still cloudy, grey,wet and and jsut 6C at  11:00 in the hills so decided to head on south east into Puglia - the province on the Adriatic coast that runs down into the 'heel' of Italy. Free super-stradas most of the way. My goodness! The roads in Italy off the autostrada (generally tolled) and the super-stradas (free and generally not too bad) can be anything from sort of OK to absolutely abysmal - probably the worst road pavements in Europe - Hungary and Romania last summer generally had better maintained pavements. Ended up a a campsite just south of Trani that was jam packed for Easter and virtually empty when I woke up on the Tuesday morning! People were leaving in middle of the night! Walked into Trani one day with its harbour and cathedral by the sea.

18th April 2017 - Borgagne - 2444 miles

Driving south the landscape is very flat and endless wheat fields change to more or less endless olive groves, past Bari and Brindisi, with drystone walls and odd circular stone buildings called thulli.  The whole heel is a gently undulating limestone plateau (I had expected more mountains) with unbelievably impoverished run down towns away from the coast. But spring flowers abound in the fields and along the roadside. Ended up staying near the Adriatic coast at an agriturismo, a sort of up-market farm campsite - beautifully landscaped and only 6 euro for the night. Bugger - the weather has turned cold the last day or so with a bitter northerly wind - fortunately relatively dry. Stopped off at the fortified town of Acaya, just south of Lecce for lunch.

19th to 21st April 2017 - Gallipoli -  2480 miles

 Across to the west coast of the heel to stop at a great little coastal campsite just outside of Gallipolli , not the Turkish one! The old town sits on an island linked to the mainland by a long arched bridge. Cold and very windy again! At least the sun came back ..... some of the time....on the last two days. But only about 14C or so during the day. The Austrians next door said there had been 50cm of snow in their home town of Kufstein (just south of Munich). It should get warmer again on Saturday, thank goodness. according to the paper and accuweather.com.

22nd April 2017 - Salice -  2682 miles

 A morning's drive around the Gulf of Taranto, mixed roads! To spend a few days in the extreme east of Calabria (the toe of Italy) at a coastal campsite in a pine forest. Then the next couple of weeks travelling around Calabria. And! The days are warmer with clear blue skies; although, the nights remain chilly.

Apologies: The formatting has gone crazy and I can't sort it or caption most  of the pictures - better luck with it next post!

Summer 2016 - Fifth Post - Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary

8th to 9th August 2016
Velehrad (South Moravia, Czech Republic)
Sector 72 miles
Total 51367 miles

Relatively short drive along reasonable roads past the site of the Battle of Austerlitz (1805), where Napoleon comprehensively defeated the combined Austrian and Russian armies. To a very basic campsite (reminiscent of a Communist Workers Camp - seemed little changed since around 1970!) in wooded valleys with numerous signed cycle paths. Tried those one afternoon and the next day did a 20km hike to the Hrad Buchlov (Buchlov Castle). The town has an important baroque basicala that was visited by the pope during the fall of communism in eastern europe in 1990.

Battle of Austerlitz Memorial

Zamek Buchovice

Velehrad - Basilica of St. Cyrillus and Methodius

Velehrad - Basilica of St. Cyrillus and Methodius

Velehrad - Hrad Buchlov

10th August 2016
Cerovo (Slovakia)
Sector 165 miles
Total 51632 miles

Twenty four hours of wet weather started at 4pm on the 9th - so decided to head on into Slovakia - much less developed than the Czech Republic. By-passed Bratislava, which I had visited about ten years ago and ended up at a Dutch owned campsite in the hills just outside Cerovo.  There was a help yourself vegetable plot! The weather remained cold and decided to head south to try and find warmer weather in Hungary the next day.

Cerovo - Farm and Campsite

11th to 13th August 2016
Budapest (Hungary)
Sector 106 miles
Total 6099 miles

Crossed into Hungary and followed a motorway (started off as a two lane single carriageway!) into Budapest and stopped at a campsite about 9km from the centre on the Pest side of the Danube. Amazing dense and integrated public transport system of trams, metro, trolley buses and trains! One stop on the train then the metro into the centre in about twenty minutes. There were two british couples at the campsite (which was totally packed) for the first time at the campsite since Belgium! A couple of days doing touristy stuff around Budapest. The hills are on the Buda side and the Hungarian Plain that stretches for hundreds of kilometres is on the Pest side of the Danube. It's hard to believe that most of the city was flattened in 1945 when the German's, defending castle hill, were besieged by the Russian army for seven weeks. Part of the hill is still in ruins and some pre-war government buildings are still being rebuilt.

Budapest - Buda - Castle Hill
St Matthias Church (left) and Fisherman's Bastion fronting it, St Anne's Church (right)
Bus hills in the distance.

Budapest - Remains of the Roman town of Aquincum in the northern outskirts of Buda

Budapest - Parliament Building in Pest (holds the St Stephen's Crown)

Budapest - Buda from the Palace - The Chain Bridge and Basilica of St Stephen (they have his right hand!)

Budapest - Paprika!

Budapest- Buda, Matthias Church

Budapest - Buda, Fisherman's Bastion

14th August 2016
Erdotasca (Hungary)
Sector 46 miles
Total 6145 miles

Escape from the city heat to yet another Dutch run campsite adjacent to the small village of Erdotasca. There were a number of wooden statues in the village - reflecting a total different history to western Europe of Magyar, Mongol and Turkish invasions and settlement from the east.

Erdotasca - One of many wooden statues

Erdotasca - Endless fields of sunflowers

15th to 17th August 2016
Eger (Hungary)
Sector 143 miles
Total 6288 miles

After a drive through the Bukka NP stopped off for a few days at the town of Eger (campers included Hungarians - popular for the local Bull's Blood wine - Poles, Dutch, French, Estonians, Czechs and German - as usual I was the sole UK representative!). Eger has a well preserved baroque centre together with a castle and archbishop's palace. The surrounding countryside is mainly vineyards.

Eger - Minaret
Remnant of the seventeenth century Ottoman occupation

Eger - Basilica and Minorite Church from the Castle

Eger - Castle

Eger - Basilica

18th August 2016

Tiszafured (Hungary)

Sector 61 miles

Total 6349 miles

Away from the hills and onto the Great Hungarian Plain (with too many mosquitoes this evening!). Stopped at a German run campsite in the holiday resort of Tiszafured with thermal spas and some large lakes. Cycled through hundreds of swallows feeding close to the ground when I cycled round part of the lake in the late afternoon.

Tiszafured

Summer 2016 - Fourth Post - Bavaria and Czech Republic

27th July 2016
Arzberg, Bavaria, Germany

Spent two nights here and enjoyed a shaded forestry walk today. Lots of historic mining in the area and a couple of old mine adits encountered - for metalliferous ores - but not exactly sure what!

Arzberg - Mine Adit

Arzberg - Town Church

28th July to 30th August 2016

Frantiskovy Lazne, West Bohemia, Czech Republic

Sector 30 miles

Total 5477 miles

A short drive into the Czech Republic - picking up a motorway vignette at a service station near the border (about £13,50 for one month - bargain compared to the cost of French, Spanish and Italian motorway tolls). Unfortunately, perhaps fortunately for the Czechs, the Czech Republic has not adopted the euro so I had to get some Czech crowns from an ATM.

Gorgeous small spa town, the old part founded in 1794, full of late eighteenth century and nineteenth century hotels, villas and pavilions in shaded parks and gardens - nearly all covered in yellow and white render. Some dilapidated buildings still reflect the impact of forty-one years of communist rule.

I think Lazne is the czech equivalent of the german 'bad' or english 'spa'. No, or very few aires in Czech Republic, and not that many campsites either - or perhaps I lack a decent guide book. However, stopped at a clean. efficient site adjacent to a lake about two kilometres from the old town with a pleasant cycle track through forestry to the town parks.

Cycled out to a Nature Reserve about ten kilometres from Frantiskovy, called Soos, which has strange bubbling hot mud pools (mofettes or bog volcanoes), in marsh and birch forest, that emit CO2 and He originating from the earth's mantle. Proven, apparently. from the isotope of helium present. Saddening to see in a small zoo with large birds of prey, such as a beautiful buzzard and a gorgeous goshawk, kept in 3mx3mx4m cages.

On the second day I walked to the adjacent town of Cheb a few kilometres away. Impressive fortifications (oddly like many of the buildings mainly constructed of brick rather than masonry) and a large cathedral church- but mainly rebuilt in the nineteenth century. 

Frantiskovy Lazne - Symbol of the town
It brings good luck if you touch the very shiny item - not his toes!

Frantiskovy Lazne

Frantiskovy Lazne

Frantiskovy Lazne

Soos Nature Reserve

Soos Nature Reserve

Soos Nature Reserve - Little Owl (?)

Soos Nature Reserve - mofettes

Cheb - Town Square and Cathedral

Cheb - Fortifications and Castle

Soos Nature Reserve

31st July to 2nd August 2016
Marianske Lazne (Marianbad), West Bohemia, Czech Republic

Sector 25 miles

Total 5502 miles

Another short hop to the larger spa town of Marianske Lazne. which still has an amazing network of single deck trolley buses and no polluting diesel buses. A long linear often wooded park runs along along the bottom of the valley for about three kilometres into the centre of the town with forested hills on one side and the main road on the other. There are about forty springs which can mostly be sampled. As Frantiskovy Lazne a multitude of yellow and white colonnades. arcades. hotels and pavilions. Apparently. this was one of the favourite summer resorts of Edward VII among other late nineteenth century european notables. Both still very popular as spa resorts. 

A long forestry walk, from the campsite, one afternoon revealed a lot of deteriorating farm buildings and hamlets - showing that a lot of the countryside has not recovered from the communist era even after twenty years.

Marianske Lazne

Marianske Lazne

Marianske Lazne - Patton Memorial
The US army liberated western Czechoslovakia

The last day was grey, cool and very wet. The weather forecast for the next week was similar - so I decided to leave the mountains of West Bohemia and head for what looked warmer and sunnier climes in Southern Moravia in the south-east of the Czech Republic some 350km away.

3rd August to 7th August 2016

Jedovnice, South Moravia, Czech Republic

Sector 254 miles

Total 5756 miles

A long drive, mainly by motorway, around Prague to Brno in South Moravia and then pottering around for a few kilometres trying to find a suitable campsite. The first one I visited look like a black ski run - no chance of getting the van any where level or probably back out again with the recent rain and soft ground! The second one seemed to have vanished, at least at the GPS coordinates that I had - fortunately the third next to a large lake at Jedovnice at the edge of the Morvasky Kras (Moravian Karst) National Park was both cheap (£7 a night including 16amp electric and a reasonable internet connection) and well located to visit a number of local attractions.

Cycled around and down the Macocha Gorge and visited the Macocha Abyss - a huge swallow hole about 400m by 150m in plant at the surface and in excess of a kilometre deep. Absolutely impossible to photograph so I have pinched and aerial shoot via Google. Similarly, the gorges - up to 90m deep - where densely forested. Great for cycling in the shade on a hot day - but hard to photograph.

Macocha Abyss- Visitors on viewing gallery part way down

Macocha Abyss

Another day cycled via forestry trails behind the campsite to Krtiny to visit a huge Baroque Church with amazing ceiling frescos. Then on to the Jeskyne Vypustek (Vypustek Cave) where a long guided tour (all in Czech - I understood one word - radiation!) revealed a long history: paleolithic inhabitants; eighteenth century tourism; nineteenth century potash clay mining; pre-WW2 ammunition store: German WW2 underground factory for aircraft manufacture to Cold War Nuclear Bunker and Czech Army command centre!

Krtiny - Baroque Church

Krtiny - Baroque Church

Next move, on Monday, should be heading further east with the Czech Republic towards the Slovakia border.