“A hard rain’s gonna fall” noble laureate Bob Dylan once sang and so did our weather forecast. Well to be honest our weather forecast didn’t actually sing it, but come to think of it neither did Bob Dylan – he more sort of croaked it. Anyway I digress. We have been waiting around all day expecting rain and it’s 5pm. We’ve had a total of about 10 drops. That may be what an Italian weather forecaster counts as “hard rain” but I’m an Englishman and I beg to differ.
The result is that we’ve spent the day near the motorhome expecting to have to dash inside for cover and it’s never happened.
Our night, last night, was interrupted by a monotonous noise. No it wasn’t my snoring. It was a single piercing note repeated every 3 seconds or so, ad nauseum. This noise has been following us round southern Italy. If we are in the countryside we hear it nearly every night and occasionally in daylight hours. We both guessed it was a bird, but what bird. Nearly everything is now discoverable on Google and it wasn’t long before I found it was a Scops Owl. Apparently Southern Italy is one of it’s few year round European strongholds as is Greece, so we maybe hearing this sound this little chap for a few more weeks. If you want to hear what it sounds like click here. It may sound exotic and interesting after one listen but let me assure you the charm soon wanes when you’ve heard the ten thousandth “twoooot”.
Sarah started the day badly. I had left a glass of red wine untouched before going to bed. Very unusual for me – must have been feeling under the weather! So in an attempt to clean up she moved the glass, knocked the bottom on our sink cover, which stick up in such a way that we are always banging things on it, and spilt red wine all over one of the sofas. Unfortunately, because Basil was a cut price bargain, we didn’t get to choose the upholstery colour, which is a very stain unfriendly pale beige. Sarah has covered all of the sofas with a dog protective covers, but unfortunately the wine went straight though and onto the pale upholstery. After much dabbing with damp clothes and dilution with white wine we think the stain is out. There is a clear lesson from this incident – I must drink my red wine like a good boy every night!
That was really the height of our excitement today. We’ve taken the dogs walking on the beach several times and Mabel was bold enough to go up to her chest in the sea chasing something she thought was edible! We’ve met and English couple, a rarity in these parts, and had a long chat. They live in France and are hoping not to be adversely affected by Brexit. I’ve also done some administrative work on our mobile data and bank accounts. Yes there is still a bit of boring administration to do even when you’ve retired, I’m afraid.
We are still well within the budget we have set for ourselves and so I think we are going to eat out in the campsite restaurant again tonight.
Once we have been travelling for about two months I will do a post about the expenses of living life in a motorhome. So if anyone reading this fancies doing something similar it will give you an idea of costs.
Tomorrow we are moving over to the Adriatic coast near Bari in readiness for a ferry to Greece. A couple of weeks ago we talked to a British couple who live 6 months of the year on a boat in Greece. They advised us to camp near Bari and check the sea state for the Southern Adriatic and only when it is relatively calm to book a ferry at the last minute. At the minute the sea between Italy and Greece is said to be perfect for a crossing but we will check the forecast again tomorrow and hopefully travel to Greece later this week.