Sleeping in Volcanos

Thursday, 06 Aug (continued)

With a disregard to the consequences, we continued onto the port and our booked crossing to Italy. Luckily, there was very little need to use the brakes on the way as it was mainly highway.

We found the port and, after a bit of mucking around, we were booked in. We grabbed a quick dinner and loaded Springy onto the ferry.

The extra cost of having an actual bed instead of just ‘deck’ accommodation was worth it. We had air con, our own toilet and shower and single beds. Gene was quick to point out that her bed is actually smaller than the bed she normally sleeps in in Springy. Life is hard for her. The poor buggers who booked a deck trip basically had that. If you could find a chair, that was lucky. There were some people who came prepared and brought deck chairs.

As I get nauseous on a fast moving elevator, we bought some sea sick tablets from a chemist who couldn’t wait to get rid of me. I think I was interrupting some groundwork with a lady who was there. Luckily, the 13+ hour trip was perfect. I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been so far. Only one more crossing to go!

Our GPS found us the nearest mechanic in Bari but it took us a bit longer to actually get to one who; existed, had a business accessible by car and not mentioned 3 times on the GPS. We finally did the smart thing and looked for a fiat mechanic. It took us about 2 hours but we had new brake pads and new wipers (bonus) for quite a reasonable price. We even used their air con and wifi!

Assessing our options, we decided to get the hell out of Bari and start heading for Napoli, although not intending to get there that night.

If anyone remembers the movie ‘Demolition Man’, there’s the ongoing joke about Stallone not knowing about the 3 shells. That’s how we felt about the Italian highway tolls. We couldn’t figure out if it was cash, card, mandatory electronic billing or sacrificing small animals to a the respective Roman God(s). I think we’ve figured it out though. You need to get a ticket when you enter the highway and when you leave you present the ticket with money to the toll worker when you leave it. I guess it isn’t a bad system but you have no idea how much you’re paying for any trip.

We found the night’s camp site with the extra bonus that it’s in the middle of an extinct volcano. It was wonderfully cool and gave us a respite to do some much needed laundry.

Saturday, 08 August

With the sale of Springy only over a month away, we took photos of her from various angled and states of undress, err, set up for driving and sleeping. Hopefully, we’ll get the for sale sign up soon on gumtree and ebay in the next few days.

The drive to Napoli wasn’t so bad but the Italian Summer is definitely upon us. When we finally camped at the end of the day, it was 38 degrees inside. To escape the heat, we're staying in a volcano....

We had read up a little bit on Napoli and decided to see one museum and hide out of the sun. After finding the museum and realizing we had just broken the first cardinal rule of campervans (don’t take them into old European cities) and we couldn’t find a park. After losing a little bit of skin we decided that Napoli sucks and we just want to rest. We’ve found the camping spot (in another volcano but not as dormant) and trying to relax.

We can feel the build-up for another rain storm.

It’s taken me ages to find wifi access within this volcano…….