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The journey home

March 2019 - September 2020
It’s going to take a while but we are now heading slowly north and back to beautiful Guernsey Read more
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  • 549days
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  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 64

    Taranto

    May 27, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    From Gallipoli to Taranto, and this trip surprisingly was actually calmer than forecast making us wish we had headed straight across the Gulf of Taranto instead of into it. Our plans to anchor off San Pietro island as is mentioned in Navily, were scuppered by the port VTS who told us that permission had to be obtained to do this so we headed towards marinas. No one was responding to our radio calls except the port authorities who confirmed we were on right channel. After milling we decided on a piece of wall to go alongside and miraculously a marinaro ( here they are called ormeggio) appeared with a radio on his belt. He moved us back and sideways onto a stern to mooring but said we might have to move the next day. Once secure we had a quick mooch around the old town, it is very sad, dilapidated, deserted and dirty, we were not feeling inspired about our choice of sheltered location, we would have to be here at least two nights. Next day we had another look around after formally checking in this time, perhaps because the sun was shining, things were looking better, the new town was wide avenues trees people and we found the main historic street of old town which was cleaner a few cafes people other than groups of young men.Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 65

    Alberobello

    May 28, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We got there eventually and I’m glad we made the effort, we bought our online tickets and waited early at the first bus stop only for bus to go sailing past us even though I was waving at him, next bus was hour later but we went to different stop after visiting tourist information. Great got this one but it only went half way to destination and the connecting bus that the website listed was for some reason not happening, eventually well after 45 mins hanging around we found another stop that had an early connection so walked to the train station, no trains only buses! So we arrived Alberobello an hour and a half later than planned so visit was a bit rushed and we were nervous about getting back. But our afternoon was lovely we first went to the less visited Trulli near the cathedral before lunch and then main tourist area houses are lovely and on our bus ride to the town we could see that many homes had been built around and over Trulli. Here are just a few of the photos I took.Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 69

    Ciro Marina

    June 1, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    After a slow start we are now making swifter progress west. We spent another night in Taranto and used the day to visit Martina Franca photos attached, this is where we changed buses to go to Alberobello. The old town on top of the hill was beautiful, lots of tiny winding streets opening to Piazzas. From Taranto to Policoro Marina it’s about 5km from the town but so sheltered, clean, cheap and with good facilities. Then a night in Cariati Marina, old, expensive, no facilities but old town, again up the hill, was pretty and latte’s cost €1 each! We are now back in Ciro Marina, we stopped here about the same time last year, but this time we might have to pay as have been asked to visit an office later, not sure where, the wave from the guy who helped us moor was fairly vague.Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 73

    Ciro - La Castella - Rocella Ionica

    June 5, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    36nM calm trip yesterday from Ciro, we didn’t end up paying as no one in the office when they said or later that evening or the next morning. We watched the first half of the Champions League final Liverpool v Spurs so saw the first goal, we were watching the match with some Italian/Sicilian Canadians from Montreal apparently they do an Italian holiday every year.
    In Ciro we did a shop as we knew there were no supermarkets either here in La Castella or in Rocella Ionica our destination tomorrow. Took the day off today and did some baking more carrot cake and also some cheesecake to use some GF biscuits John decided he didn’t like. The only thing worth photographing here is the castle, but as I didn’t carry iPad here is photo from the internet, we had hoped to go for walk around the castle but it’s not open till the summer so we literally just walked around it! Over here that means July and August.
    We had another long trip to Rocella, it started off well but then 3hours of chop before a calm finish, we were underway for 8 hours. Having another couple of days off then a 10 hour trip to the Messina Straits. We have visited the castle and tower here in Rocella, wandered around town, done washing, and replaced tap washers so cleaning tomorrow. We found a random pedestrian trail up to the Castle in Rocella and only realised when we tried to leave through the main gate that it was actually closed well gates were padlocked shut. They have done a fair amount of renovation work on the old church and seaward side of castle rest still to be finished. We think that in season they have artist displays or similar.    Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 76

    Scilla

    June 8, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    From Rocella Ionica we had a 10 hour trip around the toe of Italy and up towards the Messina straits stopping the night in Reggio Calabria. We started out at 6am so were moored up around 4pm and managed a stroll through town and then back along the promenade. In this region of Italy there aren’t many old buildings the earthquakes keep destroying them, but the rebuilds in Reggio were Baroque in style and the streets were wide there were trees there that had definitely withstood many of the quakes that had toppled buildings, they were huge. We only stayed the one night then had a short 2hour hop to Scilla tomorrow we plan to go towards the Aeolian Islands but stopping at Milazzo on the way for a night.
    Scilla has a castle and lots of winding streets and two sword fish boats, they are weird most seem to do tourist trips nowadays, where you can climb to the crows nest to look for swordfish.    Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 79

    Aeolian Islands

    June 11, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    From Scilla we bearded across the straits and anchored on the west edge of the Milazzo headland on Sicily. There were a few day boats there as it was Sunday but they had all gone by early evening leaving just us it was very quiet and very calm. Next day we moved north to Port Ponente on Isola Vulcano, it’s a bit sulphurous, rotten egg smell, but depends on wind direction. This morning we had an early start and started our walk up to the crater rim at 7am, it’s been so hot the last few days that we wanted to get up and down from the sun reached melting temperature. Am glad we made the effort as the views were pretty good, there was some heat haze but we could still see Stromboli. We had planned to walk up and the around the rim but because of the breeze we could only go 3/4 of the way this meant we got to the high point but not close to the very yellow section as the sulphurous gases were very strong here so we turned back. Also on the island are mud baths, but I know from a previous experience that it is nearly impossible to get the smell out your bathers, it’s pretty tough getting it off your skin! Wind direction due to change tomorrow so we will be heading to another of the islands Panarea before possibly a late night cruise to Stromboli in the hope of seeing an eruption. Apparently it is almost constantly having little eruptions and we might see molten lava which would be kind of exciting!Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 81

    Panarea

    June 13, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Hello again sorry it’s been a while. We are making slow progress north towards Rome.
    From a somewhat rolly anchorage off the cement works on Lipari we headed north to Panarea where we anchored south of the main town and had a walk around, but boy was it hot.Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 81

    Stromboli

    June 13, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    In the late afternoon we went up to Stromboli passing by the west coast to see the lava and mini eruptions before anchoring to the north to wait for nightfall. We headed back to the west coast about 10 and saw some more eruptions and lava flows. We tried photos but they didn’t work sorryRead more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 83

    Vibo, Tropea and Cetraro

    June 15, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We thenturned north again for an overnight cruise to Vibo Marina arriving at 6am we had a quick snooze before going into Marina, which is near Tropea but a lot cheaper! Would definitely recommend this family run pontoon with lovely club house and helpful staff. This is the first time a Marinero has asked to come onboard and help with lazy lines! We took a train ride south 11 miles ish to Tropea a quite cute place, it’s up on a promontory with little narrow street and lots of churches. We are now in Cetraro not particularly noteworthy just a convenient stop off as we head northRead more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey home
    Day 85

    Isole di Dino, Sapri

    June 17, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    From Cetraro we continue NW along the coast stopping for a dip and lunch off Isola Di Dino. Island was cute with impressive caves but the mainland coast was lined with brolly and lounger concessions. Back from the thin low stretch of coast were impressive hills, On the hill above the island was a town with pastel painted houses that made me think of ‘Ballimory’ from the kids TV programme. Scario where we anchored to spend the night wasn’t really note worthy for anything other than the wide the shallow bay it was in but we had a delicious pizza, they made John’s GF base fresh, and generous GnT.Read more

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