Car driving

I’ve had a driving lesson here.

 

There was only one bad driver on the road and it was me. 

Manual car..changing gear with right hand

Driving on the other side of the road.

Wind screen wipers and indicator on the other side.

Narrow++ roads

Fast speeds

Parking..do it when ever/where ever  you want to

etc etc

Handlebar dramas

after all my packing, padding and care there’s nothing you can do if your carbon bars get a direct blow.  Luckily the mechanic had a spare.

half way on day 1 and the weather was totally crap..wind, hail, rain.

Days 2 and 3 have been windy but a bit warmer.  All days have been over 100km (and a bit extra when you get lost).  My Garmin tells me I’ve used over 3000 calories each day..the climbing is never ending or so it seems but the downhill hoons are to die for.

I had hoped to get back into Agrigento to take some pix of the narrow+++++++ streets I drove down but …too tired..too far away.

Tomorrow is Gerace to Nicolosi (near Mt Etna) and we’ve been told its the toughest day of the whole trip.

Wine flows every day..here is Sicily’s solution to the no cork situation…

calabria

Day 8- Palmi to Pizzo...85km, 1314m climbing
Day 9- Pizzo to Lorica 120km, 2552m climbing
Day 10- Rest day
Day 11- Lorica to Castrovillari ...127km, 1728m climbing
Day 12- Castrovillari to  Sapri ...113km, 2163m climbing

this is next..posting now in case I can't find a cafe or wifi

Siracusa

and finally I've just about managed to stop turning on the windscreen wipers everytime I want to turn left or right.  However gear changes are still a bit iffy...the car doesn't seem to thrive on changing from 5th to 2nd (when I mean to go down one to 4th).

Finding  a place to park in a busy city remains a major problem for this little Aussie driver. Eventaully we found a spot..like about an hour later.......

Anyhow we tramped around the old city and looked at a Roman Ampitheatre and then sat down for a meal.

It was at this point that I went into eye-bulge mode as I realised just how small this world is  as a guy rode by in full St Kilda CC kit .  Other options are available for tourists or residents who want to ride:

next stop Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples

Nicolosi/Etna

My first hours in the car involved alot of mutterings....."on the right" and "£$%&", "£$%&/ gears" and similar. But finally without too many wrong turns we make it to "La Giara" our next B'nB..great place, great host, great brekky.

For our Etna trip we decided to not to do the day long adventure trip but rather go up via funicular and jeep and have a hour long guided tour

there's still plenty of snow around, but its melting rapidly and looks alot better from afar!

plenty of Aussies everywhere!

Palermo

I'm glad we had a taxi to the B'nB...we'd never have found it!

When you live 2 or 3 floors up..on bin day you just dangle your rubbish bags on a rope ....

We hired a car and this was the first street I had to drive down!
                                             
                                                 


lefthand drive, manual, narrow roads, poor road signage, no GPS, kerazy Italian drivers(!), jet lagged, weighed down with travel fatigue.......cruised it, no probs!

A bloody long trip from Melbourne to Palermo

Far too long and boring.

The only excitement was when a passenger had a long,  loud and very passionate argument with a steward about his carry on luggage..was worth the airfare.