Jane and Ken's 2014 Adventure: Day 85: Wednesday 11 June - San Vito Lo Campo to San Leone, Agrigento, by Ken

It was time to move on after three very relaxing days mainly spent lying on beaches.

Before striking camp there was email to do – most importantly to Adam to ask if he could courier the replacement satnav to Catania instead of Syracuse as originally planned. Our itinerary is such that we should be staying in Taormina on Monday and Tuesday next week, which is when it should arrive in Sicily. While there is an DHL office in Giarre which is near to Taormina, that doesn’t have a collection facility, so it will have to be Catania. Jane is now worried how we will find the DHL office in Smarty without a satnav! There was also email to write to Harry commiserating on a recent disappointing assignment mark. His philosophical reply arrived almost immediately, it was a case of not providing what the lecturer was looking for in a subject he is not enjoying. Nevertheless, he has calculated his overall grade in the subject will be an A-

I also managed to get some more blog published. It’s a slow process and, frustratingly, the system stalled on Day 60 and I had to give up, even though there were more days ready to go.

After stocking up on supplies in the camping ground shop we quickly got Mabel and Smarty ready for the road. We have speeded up that process significantly and everything was stowed in less than half an hour. I left my shower until last thing so I could wash off the grime that I seem to pick up getting ready to leave. Having splashed my shirt and shorts with water by hanging them in the small shower area yesterday, I changed outside the shower and left my clothes outside the door. The initiative was a failure! Water had run under the shower door and everything was absolutely soaked!

We drove in convoy to the camper service point by the camping grounds’ main gate. We were second in line and by the time I had paid our bill the area was clear. I drove Mabel onto the large grilled area and we started draining the grey waste tank. Jane took the potable water hose to top up our fresh water while I fiddled with the lever on the tap. Nothing happened, there was no water! I went in search for someone that could help but without any luck. Back at the service point I noticed there were three electric switches mounted on a pillar, I tried each in turn. One opened the sliding exit gate, one flushed the grey water receiving area, but the third marked ‘Potabile’ didn’t seem to do anything. I got Jane to play with the switch while I fiddled with the tap. It worked and we had water gushing into Mabel’s tank.

We decided to hitch Smarty to Mabel on the road outside the camping ground. As I drove Mabel out a man emptied his toilet cassette into the grey waste receiver. That should be a no-no with the freshwater hose lying on the ground nearby. Our cassette was full and I had walked the camping ground early morning looking for the usual ‘WC Kimic’ disposal point without any luck. Oh well, when in Rome – I emptied our cassette the same way.

Jane was at the controls for the first leg as usual. Initially our route backtracked the roads we had taken to San Vito Lo Campo on Saturday. We passed numerous marble quarries with their linear faces prominent in the hillsides as well as works that cut and polish the stone.

Marble Quarry

Using Mabel’s satnav to navigate requires a crew of two. The satnav is set in the dash and it’s difficult to keep looking down to read the map and drive. (Our TomTom satnav was mounted where the rearview mirror would normally be where it’s much easier to read). Thus the co-pilot becomes the navigator and reads to the driver the countdown to turns, direction to take, etc. Just outside Castellammare I was doing just that and as we took a left turn I commented our position on the map seemed to be lagging our actual position. It wasn’t, I had told Jane to turn too early. Fortunately, just down the road we found a roundabout of sorts and were able to get back to where we should have been. Soon after that we were making fresh tracks on a motorway heading south towards the Mediterranean coast.

I think Mabel’s satnav is good although picky – it tells us we are speeding when we are just 1 km/hr over the speed limit. That’s really unnecessary, this is Italy and everyone ignores speed limits. Jane doesn’t trust the satnav after it seemingly lost satellite contact on Saturday.

We had a quick stop for our usual Italian lunch of bread, cheese and salami in a small lay-by shortly after we left the motorway to join the SS115 which runs parallel to the south (Mediterranean) coast. It was also about the halfway point in our trip and time to change driver and navigator. The drive eastwards was through fertile agricultural country and the two lane road crossed numerous valleys on sweeping curves on very impressive viaducts. The Italians certainly do a good viaduct which somehow doesn’t seem to impress Jane.

Lunch Stop

Roadside Scrub Fire

Italians Do A Good Viaduct

And Lots Of Them

It was hot outside, Mabel’s thermometer reached 33° at one point, we were nice and cool in her air conditioned cab.

I came to a fork in the road just outside Agrigento, the satnav said nothing so I took the road signed to Agrigento which seemed to be what the map was indicating. Satnav didn’t like it and recalculated a route that saw us heading straight towards the large town sitting on a hill ahead. Jane began to fret we were going to end up on narrow streets in the town. We didn’t, our route skirted its southern flanks and, as a bonus, we found ourselves in the Valle dei Templi. There on the hill above us stood the ruins of the Tempio della Concordia, a perfectly preserved Greek temple dating back to around 430 BC. The warm creamy brown stone of the temple made for a striking appearance. We also spotted other temples that were less well preserved.

We Very Nearly Ended Up In Agrigento

Tempio della Concordia

Ruined Greek Temple

We came to a roundabout and followed satnav’s voice instruction to take the fourth exit, followed by a left turn after a few kilometres along the road. It didn’t like that at all instructing us to turn around. Fortunately, I found an area wide enough to do so. We were then instructed to retrace our route back to the roundabout and take the fifth exit which would have taken us back to where we had just come from. We ignored that and took the fourth which satnav was happy enough with. We were now only a few kilometres from our chosen overnight stop in San Leone on the coast south east of Agrigento, but the satnav wasn’t done with us yet. Shortly after making a right turn as instructed we were told to turn around. This time there wasn’t sufficient width and we had to unhitch Smarty to make the turn. I began to share Jane’s view on the reliability of Mabel’s satnav.

Roadside Colour

We noticed that the verbal instructions from the satnav didn’t match the map and from then on we ignored the instructions and followed the map. We found the camping ground with ease. The man there had no English, but we managed to book a pitch with electricity for the night without too much difficulty. It was another good site with plenty of space but not much shade.

Camping Nettuno, San Leone

I cooked our dinner of mushroom risotto – a mix of ordinary and Porcini mushrooms bought in San Vito Lo Campo. It was stinking hot in Mabel, a combination of the outside temperature and heat from the cooking. Even with the roof fan set to full speed drawing air from outside, I kept having to duck out to cool off.

After dinner a text arrived. It was from Adam, he had picked up our satnav and would drop it off at the courier in London tomorrow morning. That was really good news. By now Jane had no faith in Mabel's satnav.

We debated whether we should visit the Greek temples tomorrow. Jane was concerned we wouldn’t be able to find them without a satnav and, in any case, there would be plenty of Greek temples to see in Greece! She was probably right, but it did seem a pity to miss out.

To stop me falling asleep soon after dinner (my usual habit) Jane suggested we went for a walk along the beach just in front of where we were parked. That was an inspired move, the sun was beginning to set silhouetting fishermen on a rock breakwater. Beyond the breakwater there was a wedding celebration with the bride and groom being photographed on the beach as the sun set.