Mountains and the Coast

Following the first of my planned routes for Sicily took me back down the coast to turn inland at Sant Allessio. The first unpaved section dropped into some heavily washed out river beds, which had to be crossed multiple times. At a bridge that was too narrow for my Landy, and with no way across the main river as it was still pretty high and fast, I made a U turn to bypass the next bit. 

Once back on tarmac, I climbed high up to a lovely little village clinging to the steep hillsides, before launching off up a narrow and steep track into some woodland.

This turned into a drive following a ridge line, weaving either side of it on a pretty narrow trail.

As I climbed into the clouds, the rain started. After a bit of route finding issue, it crossed the head of the valley and dropped to a small village. Here the GPX line showed as a straight line up the othe other side to a ridge, but the reality was not that on the ground. To climb out meant finding a viable route on the ground. Not so easy after this storm. Eventually, I had to give up and back track to the coast as any tarmac roads stopped at the village. 

A pattern was continuing it seemed. 

I decided to head to the north part of the island and see if I had more luck. The traverse around the east to north showed some huge differences in the prettiness of the coastal villages. 

The headland sticking out into the sea above Milazzo was well worth a visit. The scenery here is dominated by the five islands sticking out the sea about 20 miles ish offshore. Really pretty and a surprise after passing the fuel storage and tankers en route.

Cefalu was a beautiful piece of coast line, with its huge rock face and fortress, then some abandoned high ridgetop farms.

I spent the night in a small fishing port, tucked up against the marina wall with the sound of the sea lapping against the rocks.

At 6am, I was driving again. There is some really relaxing about driving a winding coast road in the dark. Nobody else around, just you and a road. As the sun came up, the rock outcrops and blue sea changed into something to capture your attention, only to have other drivers appear to refocus that attention. 

I arrived in Palermo mid morning, hunted for the ferry port, which doesn't allow vehicles in unless it's loading time. So I dumped the Landy in a mud pit nearby, walked around until I found the Grimaldi ferry office and booked a return ticket to Tunis for 02.30am. The lovely lady at the counter took my details, gave me my ticket and checked me in all day the same time. Come back for 9pm!

So next up was some fettle for the Landy. 3500 miles covered so far, a bulb has gone and there is a clunk on right hand turns from the back end. I greased up the steering, rear A frame and prop shafts which seemed to solve the clunk. A new bulb and check all the fluids. Job done. But I need to find a grease cartridge as I haven't packed a spare stupidly.

The rest of the day was laundry,food and reading waiting for the ferry.

Palermo has miles of climbing crags right above the town. Monte Gallo Semoforo is the main headland,a mini Gibralter, but there is miles of single pitch crag, then a the solo faces sticking out of the hillsides. Well worth a visit just for dragging!