Jane and Ken's 2014 Adventure: Day 96: Sunday 22 June

It was already very warm when the sun rose over Santa Cesarea Terre bringing another bright and clear morning for our last day in Italy. The plan for the morning was to pack up Mabel and be on the road for 09:00 so as to arrive in Brindisi at 11:00, two hours before our ferry was due to leave for Greece.

Having had difficulty finding bancomats in Italy I had put €200 as an emergency fund in Mabel’s safe. However, I felt we needed to have plenty of cash with us just in case ATMs were scarce in Greece. At 08:00 I drove Smarty into town and withdrew some more cash. It was already thick with cyclists preparing to set out on their Sunday run. There are a lot of serious cyclists in Italy and I wonder how well their bikes cope with the awful roads. A market was setting up in a square, Jane would be very disappointed there wasn’t time to have a poddle.

Our fresh water tank was down to 25% and the grey water gauge showed full, but it does that directly after emptying when we’ve used water sparingly to clean our teeth. It’s on the list to get fixed under Mabel’s warranty. There was no camper service point at the camping ground but we found that the water from various hoses dotted around was potable. After stowing everything in Mabel Jane marshaled her between the olive trees dotted around the camping ground within reach of a hose.

There was quite a steep slope up onto the road and we decided it would be sensible to hitch up outside the camping ground.

Jane wanted to drive to Brindisi as she was a bit behind me in terms of kilometres at the wheel. We opted to take the quickest route using motorways wherever possible. The roads were quiet with the exception of a short length of the road we took yesterday from Galipoli to Otranto. That was busy, presumably with locals heading for the coast. Every now and again we came across the occasional peloton of cyclists that took more than a fair share of the road making it difficult to get past at times.

A length of road was being widened and we took the opportunity to pull over onto an area of earthworks where I surreptitiously opened the grey waste valve. We considered the puddle (small lake actually) we left behind to be small beer compared to the rubbish Italians dump at will. Mattresses seem to be a favourite often just left lying in the road.

On the motorway heading for Brindisi Jane let out a gasp, the map display on our new satnav was frozen, just like the old one. I offered to reset it which actually brought a smile onto Jane’s face. Turning it off and on again seemed to cure the problem but was another thing I would be taking up with TomTom just as soon as we can get wi-fi. (Tomorrow it will be a week since we were last able to access the internet).

Two years ago when we were in Italy sunflowers dominated the landscape. There were tens of thousands of fields planted, bright yellow faces were everywhere. This year we haven’t seen a single field of sunflowers, in fact apart from a half dozen plants in a garden we haven’t seen any at all. Has the bottom fallen out of the market?

While Mabel still had a third of a tank of diesel we stopped at a motorway service area to fill up – one less thing to deal with in a new country. As Jane pulled into the massive parking area at the ferry terminal the time on the satnav read 10:59, just a minute earlier than planned! We stopped on the fringe of the mass of trucks and I walked to see if there was room for us closer to the terminal. There was and I shifted Mabel.

This Way For Greece, Turkey and Albania

I walked to the terminal passing a number of vans selling clothes and shoes. Inside the terminal there were two queues in front of the Grimaldi Lines window. Two men were dealing with the queues, one sitting behind a multi lingual sign that read ‘Trucks Only’, the other behind ‘Cars and Passengers’. Italians don’t do queuing, two men arrived and joined the queue half way down. The man dealing with cars and passemgers had the attention span of a goldfish, every time a new truckie was processed he would stop what he was doing and listen to what was going on at the adjacent window. He took the best part of ten minutes to process a man wanting to buy a ticket. A third man joined the two behind the glass to help deal with the growing queue of non-truckies. The two men that jumped the queue jumped it again and were dealt with first by the new arrival. Once I got to the window it was relatively painless having seen those in front being processed quickly if they had prepaid like us. I got the goldfish who stopped what he was doing a couple of times to earwig what was happening either side of him, but was soon on my way armed with four passes – one each for the vehicles and the humans.

I drove Mabel to the security check point where we were directed to Lane 2. Shortly after we stopped with the MV Catania in view there was the unmistakeable wine of jet engines and a B737 passed very low overhead. We were on the final approach to Brindisi airport and could see the aircraft all the way until it touched down. Loading can best be described as chaotic. The ship was stopping at Igoumenitsa in northern Greece on its way to Patras, we were asked to turn on our hazard warning lights so the crew would know we were going to Patras – I assumed that was because they didn’t want us blocking the ramp for those disembarking in Igoumenitsa. That bit seemed to work as we directed up the starboard side of the loading ramp whereas everyone else was using the port side. Once on the vast vehicle deck things started to unravel with two deck hands giving conflicting directions on where they wanted us. They started arguing among themselves while we sat doing nothing. One of the men asked us something in Italian that we didn’t understand, he gave up and walked to the rear of Mabel. Thinking he was asking if we could detach Smarty I got out and walked back only to find the man was at the front again. Still arguing amongst themselves we were directed forwards zig-zagging left and right according to which of them was giving directions. Finally one of the men took charge and we were marshaled into an alcove at the bow end of the deck with Mabel hard up against a bulkhead. The only way out of there was backwards and we unhitched Smarty in readiness for disembarking separately in the morning.

Our Ferry - MV Catania

About To Board (Hazard Lights Already Flashing)

The ship was not well designed, the only exit from the vehicle deck was at the stern and we had to run the gauntlet of trucks reversing onto the ship. One deck up and a long walk forwards we found reception and showed our boarding cards. The man there confirmed our cabin was 6123 as shown on the card and that was it, no offer of a key as on our trip from Naples to Palermo. We found our cabin very close to the bows, the door was locked. Then we noticed there was a bar code on our pass. Inserting the card unlocked the door, very ingenious. The cabin was large and this time the upper bunks were folded away.

Our Cabin - Jane About To Take Her Seasickness Pills

We dropped off our backpacks and set off to explore the ship following signs to the sun deck. After crossing a heli-deck and climbing two sets of external stairs we found ourselves on the sun deck where people were lying on loungers. There were no spare loungers – obviously local knowledge helps and you need to get up there quickly. Then a man beckoned us over, moving his lounger aside to reveal a mesh door to a store packed with loungers. He helped us remove two with cushions still wrapped in plastic. We set ourselves up on the port side and ate the bread and cheese Jane had prepared in Mabel while we waited on the dockside. As we ate Chris Cairns briefly appeared at the ship's rail. We wondered whether he had been to Palermo to have it out with Brendon McCullum?

On The SunDeck

Chris Cairns

It was stinking hot, we didn’t have any sun screen and I didn’t think to take my hat. We waited for the ship to depart and waited, and waited. Well after the scheduled 13:00 departure time there was still a long queue of trucks to be boarded. I wasn’t too disappointed as every now and again a plane passed low overhead to land. We could see the whole length of the runway and also watch aircraft taking off. Ryan Air, Easy Jet and Alitalia were all represented.

RyanAir B737 On Short Finals For Brindisi

Lots Of Trucks To Load

We set off at 13:20 with the harbour pilot boat following – strange I thought, shouldn’t the pilot be leading, but perhaps the pilot was on board and the boat was there to take him back? I never found out as the boat disappeared from view behind the stern. After watching the coast of Italy recede I had a look around the ship. There wasn’t a lot to see. I found the cafeteria style restaurant with a small bar, both a lot smaller than on MV Vincenzo Florio that took us from Naples to Palermo and not as well furnished. The restaurant was very busy with people eating lunch, like us a lot of them were eating food they had brought on board with them.

Pilot Boat

I bought a carton of wine for Jane and a beer for me and rejoined Jane on the sun deck. It felt a lot cooler in the strong sea breeze but we were worried we would get burnt without noticing it. We decided to go back to our cabin where Jane read and snoozed and I caught up on the blog.

At 18:00 we headed down to the restaurant for an early dinner. It was too early with no sign of food. We bought drinks and settled down near a window. On the port side the coast of Albania was drifting past and ahead on the starboard side we could see the islands north of Corfu. After a while the tannoy announced dinner was available. Again local knowledge had come into play, there was a long queue. A man in front was regaling his mates with jokes that I couldn’t understand a word off but his mates thought were very funny. For dinner Jane and I shared a bean salad and we each had a plate of pasta. Nearby was a group of young American women playing cards and chatting loudly.

Waiting For Dinner To Be Served (Americans in background)

Cruise Ship With Albania In The Background (Is it one of the big Cunard liners?)

It was growing dark by the time we had finished eating and we took a walk out on deck. To starboard we could see the lights of Corfu Town and Albania was still there on the port side. We went back to our cabin. Round about 22:00 we arrived in Igoumenitsa. I went out onto the heli-deck to watch. The ship did a nifty 180° turn inside the harbour and berthed at the quay without the hint of a bump. On the open car deck blow me cars were scrambling for position to disembark. That was enough for one day, we were in Greece and it was time for bed.