At 07:00 I was sitting on
the steps outside the locked wi-fi room having logged in using the details I
noted last night. I wanted to resolve the problems with our satnav. I didn’t,
my laptop started downloading the Europe Camper map all over again, and
painfully slowly! I logged on to the Kindle website’s trouble-shooting guide
and had no problem resetting Jane’s Kindle. All her books were back again.
I walked back to Mabel to
collect my mobile and returned to the steps outside the wi-fi room. I called TomTom in Melbourne, I tried three times and each time I got a recorded massage
saying they were unable to answer my call. I logged on to the TomTom website
again and this time I managed to get to the Install/Uninstall page which told
me there was insufficient space on the satnav to install the Europe Camper map.
That was ridiculous because it showed the only maps installed were New Zealand
and Morocco which only took a few megabytes between them. Scanning the TomTom website I
found I should not have been charged for the Europe Camper map (that I still
didn’t have) as customers are allowed to download maps free within six months of the
original purchase. I added that to my growing mental list of things to take up
with TomTom.
Back at Mabel I put my
Plan B for the satnav to Jane that I had been cogitating for a number of days.
Trying to get the satnav sorted was beginning to dominate our days and had the
potential to spoil our trip. We had already spent a lot of time and money in
attempting to resolve things and were now nearer to a solution now than when we
started. Added to that Jane had lost all confidence in Mabel's satnav after it lost contact with satellites near the end of our journey on Saturday. I suggested to Jane that we should ask Adam if he could purchase a
replacement satnav pre-loaded with the Europe Camper map and courier it to us
in Sicily. I had checked on line, Halfords had them in stock and DHL had a number of delivery points in
Sicily, one of which I was sure would fit our itinerary. Jane agreed and we
returned to the now open wi-fi room and penned an email to Adam.
We decided we should have
another day at the beach, this time at one of the coves in the nearby Zingaro
Nature Reserve. The Riserva Naturale dello Zingaro is the first nature reserve
established in Sicily and comprises an unspoiled 7km stretch of coastline
backed by steep mountains. Its genesis was a proposal to drive a road along the
coast that horrified environmentalists who persuaded 6,000 to protest against
the road in 1980. The result was the road was scrapped and the reserve
established.
A short drive in Smarty
on a road following the coast took us to the southern entrance to the reserve
where we parked as vehicles are not allowed in the reserve. There would have
been 20 to 30 cars and a couple of camper vans there by the time we arrived. We
walked along a track about 100m above the sea that followed the steep cliffs.
Most of the beach of the first cove was hidden from our vantage point on the track, but what we could see looked very appealing – clear blue sea and a white
shingle beach. However, we continued along the track figuring a lot of the
early arrivals would be down there. The views from the track of the rugged coastline
with its backdrop of mountains made the walk very worthwhile. We passed a man
leading a mule laden with what looked like rubbish sacks.
 |
View From The Track Shortly After Setting Off
|
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| First Cove We Came To |
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| Rubbish Collector? |
Approximately 40 minutes
after parking Smarty and feeling the effects of the heat we turned off the
track onto a narrow path signed ‘Cala dell Uzzo’ which took us down to a cove
smaller than the one we had passed, but similar with a white shingle
beach. A few boats bobbed at anchor off shore. We got a good position right on
the water’s edge and lay in the shade of our beach umbrella. It turned out we
were too close to the water’s edge and had to move back as the tide came in.
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| Nearly There - Boats Moored Off The Cove We Were Heading For |
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| Prickly Character |
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| The Beach - Cala dell Uzzo |
The day was spent
reading, and watching the boats that arrived from time to time, stopping for
a while to let those on board have a swim before moving on. Jane had a couple
of swims taking her waterproof camera with her which she is getting a lot of
enjoyment from. I had a dunk.
 |
| Dropped By For A Swim |
Here's Three Shots Jane Took While Swimming:
Late in the afternoon the
sun started to drop behind the mountains casting a shadow over the beach. We
walked back along the track and drove
Smarty into San Vito Lo Campo for a bit of supermarket shopping.
 |
Hairpin Bends On The Way Home
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| Nearing The Camping Ground |
|
For dinner Jane made a
caponata, a Sicilian aubergine stew, from the Jamie Oliver Italian recipe book.
After dinner we walked down to the wi-fi room. There was good news, Adam had
replied saying he was happy to get a replacement satnav for us. I replied with
the details of what we needed saying we should sort out where to courier it once we knew the timing. Jane was very happy knowing the end to our satnav woes
was near.
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