28 – 31 May

These may have been the laziest 4 days in all our travelling with Basil.

The longest walk possible, without going onto a dangerous main road was one mile (1.6km), which we did daily, but barely constituted exercise!

Sarah made use of the swimming pool on a few occasions and we both took it in turns to play frisbee or ball with Skye on a bit of unused rough ground. At least Skye got plenty of exercise!

I did some work on Basil’s bumper and reattached it properly after it’s various collisions over the years, so it now looks (almost) as good as new.

We were lucky to have two friendly and English speaking, German families adjacent to us, with whom we were able to converse. The first couple had a six month old baby who seemed to run them off their feet, but they also had a young Chocolate Labrador who Skye loved. 

The second couple, coincidentally, were booked on the same Palermo-Livorno ferry as us and as I lie writing this in our cabin on board, they have been allocated the adjacent cabin!!

Our one adventure during our second stay at Camping Costa Ponente was a walk into Cefalu. I had visited previously on the campsite bus, but with Skye not allowed on the bus, the only way for us all to visit was to walk. 

Sarah saw the main sights, the Cathedral being the most notable, and then we had lunch followed by a hot walk back. It was 7.5 (12km) miles in total but with the increasingly hot Southern European sun it felt further.

Thursday 1st June

Our Ferry was not until 6.30 pm but we had to be there by 3.30. So we tidied Basil up and set off for Palermo, throwing in the obligatory LIDL stop on the way. 

Palermo was as chaotic as I remembered from my traumatic trip a few weeks ago. Undertaking, overtaking, cutting in. You name it the drivers of Palermo did it. 

We decided to ignore SatNav and follow the signs for the port, but no sooner had we done this than the signs disappeared! With a combination of SatNav and intuition we finally made it to the port.

Whereas in Northern Europe ports routes to ferries are clearly marked, in Palermo, even when we reached the port there were no signs. We stopped twice to ask directions and even when we discovered the correct entrance we found the signs for our ferry were inside the port gates and thus invisible from the road.

Loading was the same anarchic operation as we had witnessed crossing to Sicily. Pretty much a free for all as several lines of traffic jostled for position.

Once boarded however, the ferry was a pleasant surprise. Clean, modern with a nice dog friendly cabin. The paperwork had said Skye would only be allowed on the outside decks. The reality was that dogs of all descriptions were everywhere. Inside and outside.

Sarah had brought her own food on board. I was hoping for an onboard Italian treat. I was to be sorely disappointed. The food was the only disappointment on the ship.

The sea was like a millpond and so all three of us had a good night’s sleep.