Day 81: Saturday 7 June - Isolla delle Femmine to San Vito Lo Capo, by Ken

I woke at 07:00, much later than usual, the walk around Palermo in the sun had made for a very good night’s sleep. First task for the day was to phone TomTom in Australia to try and get the satnav sorted. I checked the balance on our phone with the SIM that came with our travel insurance that gives us cheap calls and free texts worldwide. The balance was less that $AU15. I thought I should top that up first. That can be done over the phone but three attempts failed as an Aussie voice announced my phone number wasn’t recognised. I tried topping up on line, that had the same result. I gave up with that phone and used my NZ mobile to call TomTom – a recording announced their office hours are 9:00 to 5:30 Monday to Friday!

I returned to topping up the other phone. The web site had a ‘talk to us’ feature and I was soon 'corresponding' with Alistair who advised my number was legit and there must be a fault in their system which he would get his IT people onto. He asked whether he could phone me so I could top up over the phone and I was soon talking to Alistair in Australia.

Knowing that using wi-fi with a new log in and password had got me to the map upload site, I purchased 5 hours more wi-fi and tried again. It worked and this time there was plenty of space on the satnav to upload the Europe Camper map. I started the process, but almost immediately it reverted to downloading the Europe Camper map again. I wasted another hour, or so, trying to find a way to stop the download without any success. I gave up, it would have to wait until I could contact TomTom on Monday.

After successfully getting showers with Jane going solo this time we packed up Mabel and checked out of the camping ground. It was a few minutes after 12:00,  The receptionist was busy posting more rules on a notice board. One of the rules on a fact sheet we were given when checking in was  ‘Checking out after 12:00 will incur an additional night’s charge – no ifs, no buts’  After checking the shower token I was given a refund in cash from the €5 deposit, the after 12:00 rule wasn’t invoked and we weren’t charged for Smarty.

After dumping our grey waste and topping up with fresh water we programmed Mabel’s satnav to take us to San Vito Lo Capo about 90 km to the west where our guide book told us some of the best beaches in Italy are to be found. Jane drove and the route took us along the coast where we caught some stunning views of sandy beaches on the Gulf di Castelliammaire. All went well until nearing our destination the satnav announced it had lost GPS contact and froze. Jane opted not to drive any further and I drove while Jane looked out for road signs. A trouble free 5 km later we pulled into Camping La Pinata on the outskirts of San Vito Lo Capo. The camp site is large and was very busy. However, we managed to find a secluded pitch by a boundary fence under the shade of pine trees with Mabel providing a screen between us and other camper vans.

Soon After Leaving Isola Delle Femmine

Roads Were Quiet Once We Left The Motorway At Alcamo

Wedding Car

Slow Traffic

Camping Ground Backdrop

It was gone 15:00 and we made a quick trip to the camp shop to buy bread for a late lunch of bread, cheese and salami. After that we walked about three quarters of a kilometre to the town to take a look at the beach. The beach looked great, a wide strip of golden sand packed with hundreds of loungers and umbrellas. We decided that was the place for us tomorrow. After a brief stroll round part of the town we headed back to the camping ground. Jane had a swim returning to say she had seen quite an amusing dance lesson taking place at the poolside. I spent what was left of the afternoon catching up on the blog.

Beach - San Vito Lo Capo

Jane Can Never Manage to Pass a Stall Without Stopping

Beach Seller On His Way Home

Camping Ground Pool

At 19:00 we walked down to the camping ground's restaurant only to find it didnt open until 20:00. That was a bit on the late side for us but we managed to hold on and really enjoyed our Pizza Napoletana (Jane's favourite pizza) and my seafood risotto.

Today's Trip (90km)