Retiredish. Now 2 Wannabe Globetrotters. Baca selengkapnya Cuckfield, United Kingdom
  • Hari 15

    Day 15 - The Mysterious Pasta Eater

    15 Juni, Italia ⋅ 🌬 24 °C

    It was a windy night in our tent and it had nothing to do with Jackie’s pasta dinner from the previous evening.

    As we lay in bed listening to the wind with the tent flapping around heads. It suddenly started raining for about two minutes, which we later discovered left horrible dusty rain spots on every exposed surface. We checked the weather forecast for the next few days and saw that the winds were here to stay and on Tuesday it got decidedly blowy. We checked the east coast of Sardinia which is much less windier, but the temperatures are up in the 30s next week.

    Our bladders finally got the better of us and we dragged ourselves out of bed to survey the damage to our outside camping area from the wind. To our horror we realised that we had made a schoolboy error and gone to bed leaving the saucepan of pasta out on the table. To our amazement, the saucepan was now on the floor away from the table, the right way up and empty. The saucepan was empty with was no sign of our pasta lunch and the plate I had covered it with was now neatly stacked. I utilised my detective skills and deduced that it almost certainly wasn’t an animal and most likely to be someone, maybe sleepwalking (NOT us) had visited and eaten it.

    I got excited when I thought the Von Trapp’s were packing up to go. Sadly they weren’t. Every time either Jackie or I walk past she stares at us with pure hatred or just turns her head the other way. The mother has the face of a slapped arse with her youngest child permanently clamped to one of her withered nipples. Remind me, what nationality was Hitler? Maybe she is the great granddaughter or other close relative of Eva Braun. I hope it is not too obvious that I don’t like her!

    After more ‘blurry’ toast for breakfast, we had a rock walk around the coast in our little bay. The gusty winds were recording as a ‘Strong Breeze’ on the Beaufort Scale. They were too strong to justify sitting on the beach.

    We returned to camp and reluctantly decided that it was probably best to move on tomorrow. We researched campsites halfway up the east coast and selected a couple.

    At lunchtime, we had a couple of wines and some Laughing Cow cheeses. We then retired to our tent for a siesta and woke up all hot and sweaty around 5.30pm. The wind had dropped, but on the downside the flies were out in force.

    Jackie (and I) cooked up dinner of meatballs, pasta and salad. We supped our white wine between the football and the initially non-existent cricket on the radio, before going to back to bed.

    In bed, I contacted IT expert, JP, one of my NMA Magic Bus buddies, who gave me some advice on the best VPN to download, so I can watch the sport, not just listen to it. Hopefully I can sort it out.

    Song of the Day - It’s A Mystery by Toyah.

    2nd Song of the Day - She Hates Me by Puddle of Mudd.

    3rd Song of the Day - (I Never Loved) Eva Braun by The Boomtown Rats.
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  • Hari 14

    Day 14 - Taxing The Beach Bar

    14 Juni, Italia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    The weather is getting hotter and hotter and we are not complaining…..honestly.

    This morning we tried out Jackie’s new toaster device, which we had written off as a hopeless gimmick. Well how wrong could we have been. You set it gauze side down on top of the gas ring and place your bread on the top of the device. Within seconds we had nicely cooked toast. Lovely.

    The highlight of the morning was when Jackie managed to trip up on one of the guy ropes landing on the shingly ground on just her knees and palms with a thud. I accused her of being a clumsy cow as she staggered to her feet and she had the audacity to accuse me of being unsympathetic. Apparently it was also my fault, because I had moved a chair too close to the tent.

    We paid for 2 more nights at the campsite reception and headed back to our spot on the beach and settled down for the day. For an hour during the morning, families with kids arrived and disturbed the peace with their excitement, which irritated me, but eventually everything calmed down and it was a lovely day.

    We did nothing and just had our own wine, crisps and a banana. We remained on the beach until 5.30pm, when a 2nd wave of families started turning up, so we packed up and left. We decided we may have to make alternative beach arrangements this weekend.

    We went directly to our campsite beach bar and ordered 2 bottles of beer. They were small 33cl bottles of beer, but still cost us €4 each. Despite providing us with a nice bowl of nibbles and it being a fantastic location, we taxed them by stealing their very nice beer glasses. We ordered a 2nd large draft beer for the sensible price of €5 and nibbles. We left trying to avoid our bag clinking too much.

    After showers, Jackie knocked up a tasty tomato, pancetta and chilli pasta dish with salad. There was still enough for a second helping, but Jackie insisted we keep it for lunch tomorrow. I put a plate on top of the saucepan and left it on top of the camping table. I then washed up.

    After dinner, I entertained myself by saying ‘hello’ to every person who walked past our tent, even if they were passing by for the second or third time. I had a 100 percent success rate of responses. In fact, everyone generally says hello, except our Von Trapp neighbours, who look away when we pass by. They have probably heard me moaning when one of their kids starts crying or screaming!

    Song of the Day - Hello by Oasis.
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  • Hari 13

    Day 13 - Almost Perfect, But Not Quite!

    13 Juni, Italia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    I woke up too early, read for a couple of hours, then fell asleep and woke up again at 8.30am.

    The first negative to our campsite pitch was that we now have a young Austrian couple next door to us with three screaming toddlers, one of which is still breastfeeding. There were lots of spare pitches, but they chose to be our neighbours. Amazingly they all sleep in the one small tent on top of their Mitsubishi 4x4. My mission is to sneak a photo of their setup.

    After a shower, we had a healthy breakfast of yoghurt with blueberries and I had the one remaining sausage from last night. We packed our bags for the beach including .75litre of white wine AND my sunglasses.

    We had aa nice morning on the beach (apart from the 3 adult women and 3 children with their poorly secured 3 umbrellas, who sat down in front of us hence ruining our view). Around 2pm we headed to lunch at a restaurant, Bar Tratorria A La Playa, that Jackie had seen and was keen to try just set back from the beach. It looked perfect when we walked in and it was quite busy. We sat down at a table, then the gammy eyed owner presented us with the menu of just 6 antipasti dishes. We explained we were from England (probably our first mistake) and he rattled through the menu in broken English. We chose the most expensive dish, €20, of meat and fish to share, plus 2 beers.

    A short while later old gammy eyes plonked down a basket of bread and what I can only describe as a plate of scraps. The plate consisted of a little prosciutto ham, salami and pecorino cheese which were ok, as well as 2 slivers of artichoke, 2 eighths of a hard boiled, 2 wilted lettuce leaves, a small triangle of a fried sandwich containing an unidentified seafood and the piste de resistance - 2 tiny triangles of stale pizza.

    It was shite, but every time I made any comment about it, Jackie accused me of moaning and ruining the ambiance. An Italian lady had the same dish, which seemed decidedly more appetising than ours. I mentioned it, but apparently I was moaning again.

    We grabbed the olive oil and balsamic vinegar for our bread and as we squeezed the balsamic vinegar it poured out of a crack in the side of the bottle creating a sticky mess on the table cloth. This had been our 2nd balsamic incident of the day, when earlier Jackie found that our food bag and hiding place for the car keys was dripping in balsamic vinegar. For those who know her won’t be surprised to learn that she hadn’t tightened the lid when she last used it before putting it in the bag!

    When we left the restaurant, I did let the owner know what I thought of his food. He didn’t seem concerned, but Jackie was annoyed and didn’t speak to me for several hours.

    We left the beach too early for my liking, collected the car and drove around to a beach I had seen up the road on Apple Maps. It didn’t compare to ours, in fact nothing compares to our beach. We continue on to Lidl in Saint’Antioco and bought loads of stuff including 2 steaks and litres and litres of white wine for Jackie.

    We returned to camp where we (Jackie) cooked up steak, chips and salad. It still amazes me how we do it!

    I listened to the England v Oman T20 cricket match, which was over in a flash. It was a still evening and we got bitten by a persistent mosquito. Come back wind all is forgiven. And then it was bed.

    Song of the Day - Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O’Connor.
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  • Hari 12

    Day 12 - Finally, Our Utopia……..We Hope

    12 Juni, Italia ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    Our tent has a baggy rear end and that is not a euphemism. After settling down for the night, the back of the tent flapped violently as the wind rushed through from the door. It forced me to sleep back to front, but Jackie persevered.

    We slept well until around 6am, but didn’t get up for at least another couple of hours. It was a beautiful sunny morning, but we noticed that most of the campsite was packing up to leave. There was a mass exodus around us. We wondered if it was something that we said, until we saw on the weather app that it was forecast as windy from midday today and all day tomorrow.

    Oh my god, are we going to have another Dorset storm camping experience where our tent tried to fly away like a kite with us clinging on to it for dear life. On that occasion we ended up shoving everything sodden wet into the car and driving to the Bambridge’s where Angela kindly allowed us to dry out and made repairs to our ripped tent.

    After coffee and croissants, we ventured down to our campsite beach and along the rocks to Cala Sapone, a small cove of a sandy beach, which Jackie fell in love with immediately. It was our idea of a perfect beach, calm turquoise sea and sheltered from the wind. We even had a small cormorant swimming and diving in the shallow water oblivious to the paddlers. We prayed that the forecasted winds wouldn’t ruin everything.

    Before midday, Jackie returned to camp to get some liquid refreshment, her mat and my sunglasses. She returned with 1.5 litres of white wine and her mat, but no sunglasses. She informed me that the tent was already shaking from side to side and we discussed renting a little hut on the campsite if our tent flew away or disintegrated.

    After our lunch of wine and a few crisps, we both had a lovely siesta on the mat. The wind had got up slightly and Jackie started panicking that we would return to a shredded tent. Reluctantly I returned to camp with Jackie to find that our tent stood erect and proud. With relief, we treated ourselves to a swim in the very nice swimming pool and sunbathed until dry.

    After showering, we set about cooking dinner. Jackie was in charge and she had me as her sous chef, or more accurately ‘bitch’, running around from pillar to post. In the end I’m sure she was taking the piss and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had asked me to get things like a tin of tartan paint or a left handed screwdriver.

    WE made a delicious dinner of sausages, mashed potatoes, peas, fried onions and a jus. I don’t how we managed to cook it all so perfectly on just the single gas hob and electric plate and serve it all up together still piping hot!!

    We had an unrestricted view of the sunset from our pitch, then retired to bed at just gone 9pm. It was less windy than the previous evening and I was able to sleep the right way round!

    Song of the Day - Something That I Said by The Ruts.
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  • Hari 11

    Day 11 - In Search of that Sardinian Sun

    11 Juni, Italia ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    At 5.30am Jackie woke me to tell me it was raining. If that wasn’t bad enough she told me that I needed to get the table and chairs in. Running around in just my pants was probably not a pretty sight, even at that time in the morning. Needless to say I didn’t get back to sleep again. Instead I watched 3 episodes of Clarkson’s Farm, whilst the rain thudded down on our tent.

    It was around 9am, that the rain stopped and we got up and out of our tent. With damp pine needles sticking to everything we started to pack up camp and load the car, whilst being attacked by mosquitoes. It was exactly 11am, when we drove out of the camp. We noticed that an awful lot of other campers were also leaving today, even our Devil’s Lettuce smoking neighbours. I fear the throng of teenagers and maybe the weather had put people off, albeit we didn’t see any of the teenagers that morning and the sun had come out.

    Jackie paid our bill at reception, just €50 for a 2 night stay. I would say that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the campsite, apart from the kids and the weather, but camping under pine trees is not for us….too dark and dingy.

    We headed to the nearest town, Oristano, and sought out the McDonalds. We both had a Big Mac and Jackie also had French fries and a Coke Zero (just saying). With decent WiFi we chose a campsite in the most south westerly corner of Sardinia, which did not have a shady pine forest.

    Our ‘scenic route’ took us over a mountainous region before dropping down into the coastal town, with the fantastic name of Buggerru. What did the town name namers know?

    We continued on to Cala Domestica, that Lonely Planet described as a ‘A sensational sandy beach wedged into a natural inlet between craggy rocks, Cala Domestica is a heavenly spot’. I had extremely high expectations for this beach, but without the sun it looked a bit too grey. It was still busy with sightseers, probably thanks to Lonely Planet.

    We continued to a horrible scruffy little town called Carbonia, where we stopped at their Lidl Supermarket. We bought sausages, potatoes, a tin of peas (no baked beans), yoghurt, bread, mossie spray, a few other odds and sods as well as a couple of bottles of our new favourite beer.

    Forty minutes later, we arrived at Camping Tonnara on the Isola di Sant’Antioco. The campsite is on a tiered slope down to the sea and a small beach bar. We had a walk round and selected our pitch number 75, then returned to reception and paid for 3 nights.

    We erected our tent in the late afternoon sun, then stopped for a much needed beer break. We finished unloading the car and setting up camp, including tying the washing line to the car roof rack. What could possibly go wrong?

    We were much much happier and the weather forecast for the next three days was sun, sun and more sun, BUT also windy. We spent the remainder of the day showering, drinking and making the most of a decent 4G signal. We even had a bread roll with bovril and the missing Philadelphia, which was hidden in a saucepan!

    Song of the Day - Gotta Gettaway by Stiff Little Fingers.
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  • Hari 10

    Day 10 - A Day of Three Halves!

    10 Juni, Italia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We both slept really well, however during the middle of the night we both independently were awoken by some creature rustling around outside our tent.

    It was gone 8.00am when we both surfaced from our tent. It was cloudy, so we had a couple of coffees each and shared a marmalade croissant. It was not too long after 10am, that we ventured down to our sandy beach which one would describe as having untamed natural beauty. It is about 5 kilometres long and to the south of our position there is the a derelict factory of some sort. Some would call it an eyesore, but I didn’t find it offensive.

    We set out our mat and chairs, then settled back to sunbathe. Unfortunately, a black cloud lingered over us and refused to disappear. We were the only sunbathers and we got more and more irritated by the bloody rubbish weather.

    By midday the weather hadn’t improved, so we walked the short distance to the little beachside town of Torre Grande. Grande it wasn’t. Along the promenade there were several Asian’s who had set up stalls and were trying to sell cheap crap. We checked out the restaurants, but none were appealing. We then encountered tons of teenagers on the beach and in the cafes, as if it was Spring Break. We thanked our lucky stars that they weren’t staying on our campsite.

    Feeling very disillusioned with our first impressions of Sardinia, we decided to return to the campsite. En-route back, we saw a little cafe, Riva Nord, and decided to have a drink. The cafe was very easy on the eye, so apart from beers, we ordered a local cheese platter that came with fruit and honey and also a portion of french fries. It was posh and gorgeous. It made life seem so much better again.

    After lunch we returned to our spot on the beach and basked in the sun all afternoon until 6pm. The beach was now busier with other campers and locals. We even both had our first swim of the year in the Mediterranean. We were now really happy, life was good, and we talked about staying at the campsite until the weekend.

    We returned to our tent and put the kettle on for a coffee. All of a sudden, we saw a procession of teenagers descend on our campsite. I estimated there to be about 50 girls and 30 boys. The Swiss hippie couple behind us didn’t seem to notice let alone care, but this was probably because they had been smoking the ‘Devil’s Lettuce’. For us, this was our very own private hell.

    Before we knew it, every single one of the girls walked past the front of our tent with dressing gowns and shower accessories to the one and only shower block. To say Jackie was not impressed is an understatement.

    The 50 girls were not happy to visit the shower block just once, but after dressing they all marched back down again to dry their hair and apply their makeup. It wasn’t until 8pm, when the shower block had emptied sufficiently to allow Jackie space for a shower.

    We returned to the restaurant that night for dinner only to find all the children and their guardians were in one corner of the restaurant. After the initial horror of this discovery, we have to admit that the children were extremely well behaved and very quiet. I ordered Ricotta Ravioli and Jackie had clam spaghetti, both of which were very tasty.

    Over dinner we made the momentous decision to move on in the morning as we suspected the kids would be here all week. Another deciding factor was that the weather forecast for tomorrow was cloudy, yes bloody cloudy! We plan to continue further south.

    We had a couple of wines and went to bed.

    Song of the Day - Private Hell by The Jam.
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  • Hari 10

    Day 9 - Sunny Sardinia?………Er…No

    10 Juni, Italia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    The alarm woke us up at 6.00am. After showering and packing our bags, we were out of our cabin by 7.30am. The ferry felt like it had docked, so we hunted for a window to admire a view of sunny Sardinia. To our shock it was a grey day with low cloud lying over the port. Not what we had ordered, but maybe the sun will burn away the cloud soon.

    By 8.30am, we were sitting in the poshest McDonald’s McCafe that I had ever visited. We ordered coffee and croissants, one marmalade and one Nutella, which we consumed whilst taking advantage of their WiFi. It was the a perfect start to the day.

    I had an itinerary and 1st stop was Pelosa Beach, just north of Stintino on a long peninsula on the north western corner of Sardinia. It is a famous beach, known for it’s sandy beach and turquoise waters. It also has a scenic turret on a small island off shore.

    I’m guessing half the vehicles on our ferry had the same idea and it was a procession of motorbikes, cars and campers, some of whom we recognised, travelling up and down the solitary road.

    It was a 20 mile drive and when we arrived we caught a glimpse of the beach and its turquoise sea, which was already chockablock with people and more sunbathers streaming towards it. There were parking attendants everywhere so we abandoned the car on what we think were the empty disabled bays, peered over a hedge and took a photo which from our angle didn’t look turquoise, just grey.

    We were relieved to leave and we soon stopped at Saline Beach, which was windswept and covered in seaweed. It didn’t even warrant a photo.

    We followed the coast down to Alghero, which was bustling with Italians enjoying a cloudy Sunday morning on the promenade. We then passed Alghero’s old town with its very picturesque ancient looking Cathedral and Sea Walls. The roads were too busy for us to stop for a photo opportunity.

    South of Alghero, the road followed the coast along what can only be described as a scenic drive, albeit often in low cloud, which we were not impressed about. We wouldn’t have had this miserable weather in the Greek Islands!!

    We continued through Bosa and down to S’Archittu, where the sun finally started to make an appearance. Luckily for the town name namers, S’Archittu has a big arch in the rock. It also had quite a nice looking beach.

    We continued to Putzu Idu, which has a road and a thin strip of beach between a lake and the sea. The beach was full of more ‘Eyetyes’. After just a quick leg stretch, we drove on to Is Arutus Beach, where incredibly we found a non metered parking space which were as rare as hen’s teeth. The beach was fairly busy, but seemed nice & one which we could definitely come back to.

    That ended the itinerary and we rolled into Spinnaker Campsite around 3.00pm. We found a satisfactory pitch all of which were under a canopy of pine trees and set up camp. 90 minutes later, we were all set up and we went in search of a cold beer at the campsite bar. It wasn’t particularly relaxing, because there had been some sort of celebration and a throng of Italian families, who still in the restaurant area being rather vocal.

    We returned to the restaurant now starving at 7.30pm and ordered 2 pizzas and a beer. I ordered a pizza with Gorgonzola, apple and crushed walnuts, whilst Jackie had the Sardinian pizza with sausage, tomato, chilli and local cheese. We still couldn’t eat them both.

    After a nightcap we retired to bed absolutely exhausted.

    Song of the Day - Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers.
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  • Hari 8

    Day 8 - Total and Utter Port Chaos

    8 Juni, Italia ⋅ 🌬 32 °C

    The alarm went off at 7am, but only I jumped out of bed and set about dismantling camp. 30 minutes later, Jackie reluctantly surfaced from the tent, just seconds before I was about to deflate her airbed with her on it or not. I was like a whirling dervish and by 8.30am, everything was packed up bar the tent.

    We were well ahead of schedule, so we stopped for breakfast. I bought a couple of croissants from the shop which we had with a couple of coffees. I then took a final photo of our lake view. After breakfast we showered, then collapsed and rolled up the tent and packed up the car

    After paying up at reception for our pitch rental, a bargain at €216 for 6 nights, we rolled out of camp. We stopped at the local Carrefour, where we purchased our evening meal, 4 ciabatta rolls, a large tub of Philadelphia cheese and 10 litres of white wine. We then set off on our non-toll road journey to the ferry port address on our tickets in Genoa.

    Our route took us south down the western shore of Lake Lugano, driving back into Switzerland and through the apparently posh lake side town of Lugano. We headed back towards Como and had to queue for 10 minutes to pass through the Border Control back in to Italy.

    The route took us south through the some of Italy’s northern industrial towns that were fairly run down or just plain derelict. We circumnavigated Milan and continued south on roads that were dead straight and bisected more boring towns. One of our biggest achievements was filling up with fuel for €1.76 a litre, which we didn’t find cheaper all day.

    We stopped for a comfort break at a service station, for a homemade ciabatta roll. We hunted high and low for the Philadelphia, which should have been in the fridge but it was nowhere to be found. Instead we had to make do with just Bovril, which Jackie managed to get absolutely everywhere, but in the roll. We had a mini domestic over this, which meant that what followed was a blissful hour of silence!

    The journey continued with the last hour climbing up and over mountains to Genoa. We were due to arrive at the port at 4.20pm, which seemed like perfect timing, as last check-in was at 5.00pm for the 7.00pm sailing. As we drove into Genoa, I started to get nervous because we encountered lots of roadworks, which diverted us from our scheduled route.

    Eventually we arrived at our destination according to the SatNav, but we hadn’t, in fact there wasn’t a harbour or boat in sight. We were in the middle of a one way street, surrounded by tall office like buildings. Strangely other foreign vehicles were also here apparently lost. We redirected the SatNav to the port on the map and tried again. After lots of traffic lights, lane swapping and jostling for position with the impatient Italian drivers and riders, we arrived at our new destination, only to be stopped at the port entrance by police officers who told us we were in the wrong location. Again we weren’t the only ones being turned away.

    Luckily, Jackie had the foresight to get a policewoman to put the correct address on my phone, whilst I was turning round. 6 minutes later we ended up at another port entrance, where there were lots vehicles, but no-one seemed to know where to go. We switched between several different queues and had our tickets and passports read at least 4 times.

    In the queues it was utter chaos. Some vehicles were being told to turn round, presumably because they were in the wrong place or didn’t have the correct documentation. At the passport control area we witnessed a security guard and passenger almost coming to blows. They were yelling and trying to hit each other, whilst another man was holding them apart.

    Eventually we had our tickets checked for a fifth time at a kiosk, where it was confirmed we were in the right place and we were told that we had to follow the arrows to dock 3. For some reason, we ushered onto the ferry almost immediately and given a ticket to confirm that we were parked near Door D3. We weren’t, we were ushered to park near Door A3. These 2 ferry staff then had an argument.

    As we were just starting getting our bags out of car (and look for the missing cheese), some bright spark allowed all the motorcycles to drive down and park in the narrow corridor beside our car. It was a miracle we didn’t get hit!

    We located our cabin on Level 8 and cracked open the white wine and necked a couple of glasses to repair our frayed nerves. At 6.45pm, now de-stressed, we walked up to the top deck and we waved goodbye to mainland Italy with a glass of wine. The only disappointment was I had lost all wi-fi connection on the ferry and wasn’t able to listen to the cricket.

    Once land was out of site, we returned to our cabin, had a roll (without cheese) and went to bed.

    Song of the Day - Sailing by Christopher Cross.
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  • Hari 7

    Day 7 - A Headless Turtle in Lake Lugano

    7 Juni, Italia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Well after smugly declaring that we sleep better in our tent, we totally disproved that theory by both waking up at 3am and not properly getting back to sleep again. We eventually got up at 8.30am to discover it was another gloriously sunny morning.

    I made the coffees, whilst Jackie set about the domestic chores for a change! She washed our dirty laundry and made us a healthy breakfast of fruit and yoghurt. Once the washing had been hung out to dry, we headed to our spot on the beach.

    After settling down in our chairs, I contemplated what breed the black diving birds were that I have previously referred to as Shags. After googling it, I lost the will to live and I am still not much wiser, but my best guess is that they are Great Cormorants.

    We spent the remainder of the morning observing life on Lake Lugano through our binoculars. We also discussed our onward plans in Sardinia and I think Jackie has come round to the idea of camping for the majority of the time in Sardinia rather than being holed up in an expensive apartment.

    We had a liquid lunch of flasks of white wine on the beach, when the sound of silence was disturbed by a paraglider who circled overhead and managed to land on our beach and stop just before careering into us. He told us that he had taken off from the highest mountain, Monte di Tremezzo, between Lakes Lugano and Como.

    After lunch we had the misfortune to see a headless turtle float past the shoreline in front of us. Not a pretty sight.

    We sat and dozed on the beach in the sun until just after 6pm, when we packed up and got ready for a night out on the town.

    We walked back to the Millennium Bug restaurant, after stopping at the little church which on this occasion was locked. I had the Gnocchi allez Chef and Jackie had the Tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms. Both were simple dishes, but extremely tasty. Just like mama used to make!

    The walk home was dry and we had a quick nightcap before yet another early night.

    Song of the Day - Sound of Silence by Disturbed.
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  • Hari 6

    Day 6 - A Turtle’s Head in Lake Lugano

    6 Juni, Italia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We definitely sleep better in the fresh air. I had a good 8 hours and Jackie had more than 10. Yet again I was on domestic duties making the coffees etc in the glorious sunshine. After breakfast and showers we headed out of camp around 10.30am.

    Today’s plan was to have an easy walk to the L’Orrido Val Sanagra. It was a hike on the website of our fantastic campsite that had been also highly recommended by Marco, our Dutch neighbour.

    We drove the 6 miles to the starting point, a free car park in Codogna-Cardano. The website described it as a 3km walk. It wasn’t. We walked through the village then headed down into Val Senagra Park with a raging cascading river at the bottom. We crossed the river and hiked along the path that followed the river, the Fiume Senagra, along the steep bank. When we arrived at an overhanging rock face, a long, narrow suspended metal walkway allowed us to continue. In places, it was particularly low, requiring a person of normal height (5’8”+) to have to bend down or lean out over the railing.

    Jackie and I have been on some incredibly scenic walks around the world and without a doubt this walk was right up there with them. The dramatic scenery was just awe inspiring. It felt like we were in some lost or undiscovered world (apart from the half dozen dog walkers who came past the other way).

    After a 2km plus hike through the the valley, we arrived at the derelict Galli Furnace where bricks and roof tiles used to be made. After I had fallen down a grassy slope in search of the perfect photograph, we about turned. Half way back we took a diversion onto a cycle path that was a shortcut back to the car. It was pretty much the perfect walk. Hopefully my photos do it justice!!

    We drove back to Porlezza and stopped in a huge supermarket, where we purchased fruit, yoghurt, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, more tonic waters and bread rolls. We then parked up in town and walked to our favourite little cafe. We had a couple of beers each in the sun and agreed that its location and ambience was hard to beat.

    Whilst enjoying our afternoon refreshments, I ESPIED a turtle’s head (as evidenced with my prize winning wildlife photograph). To make sure I wasn’t going delirious, I googled Turtles in Lake Lugano & it confirmed there were turtles in the lake. I did also notice that in 2007, Lake Lugano was deemed to have the most polluted water. I didn’t want to know any more and I didn’t mention it to Jackie. I also read that the surface level of Lake Lugano is 271 metres above sea level.

    We returned to camp, donned our swimming gear and went for the swim in Lake Lugano that we had promised ourselves. The water was surprisingly warm and I reminded myself that I shouldn’t drink any, just as Jackie re-surfaced spitting water everywhere. After our swim, we set down our chairs on the shingle beach and supped glasses of white wine, whilst wallowing in the late afternoon sun.

    Around 6pm, we returned to our tent and cooked up the remainder of the Chilli con carne, which we had with salad and Jackie’s amazing homemade garlic bread. We had several G&Ts and just chilled around camp before another early night.

    Song of the Day - The Walk by The Cure.
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