Day 23 - La Spezia to Alba

I woke up in a bad mood. The bald chimp had set the aircon so low, my bed was like some cryogenic chamber. He forgets he's got a covering of fur to keep him warm. It's often a problem.  He gets to a room, whacks the aircon on low temp/high output, then puts the tv on. A little changing ritual. I usually increase the temperature when he's not around but either I forgot or he turned it down again. 

Today has been a tough day, especially for the old fella. More twisties than a slinky! God's judgement for nearly freezing me to death... again!

Mountains = twisty roads. It also means spectacular views, both coastal and inland. It's almost impossible to stop on a twisty hill climb to take a photo of a magnificent coastline but I did manage one later in the day of the hills and valleys.

We had another road closure, or was it? We stopped at what appeared to be a blocked road and when a car behind did a u-turn, we followed suit. Tomtom hates these and it took a while to pick a route around. Grizzly later thought it may only have been partially closed. Doesn't matter now.

We stopped for some water, as the temperature was 27 or so by then. Grizzly was moaning, no more twisties. How he thought we were getting out of the mountains I don't know. Not so many straight roads in the mountains. He doesn't like twisty, he doesn't like bumpy. I don't know what he expects, if we are avoiding motorways. Typical cruiser boy. He'll be happy if we go to the US, nice straight roads! I'll be honest,  I'm not that keen on the really tight uphill hairpins myself, and we did have a lot early on.

Another town and another road closure. Tomtom or maybe it was me, lost the plot and we ended up in a bloody car park! Eventually we got on the right road, then bugger if it didn't happen again.  Down some little paved street into a dead end. Very, very frustrating.

Back in the groove, we made it to our fuel stop. There was a cafe, so Grizzly had some sandwiches and his americano coffee. A fed and watered Grizzly is a happy one, at lesst till the next set of hairpin bends!

Back on the road we were halted by a red light at a level crossing. We waited and waited. I didn't time it exactly but it was over 5 minutes we sat there in the blazing sun. Bloody trains!

We were on the move again and now on some fairly decent, wide and sweeping roads, the earlier tight twisties, obviously used for the Giro d'italia, judging by all the writing on the road surface, behind us.

The temperature had risen to 33 degrees and desite being in some slow traffic, Ginny behaved herself. Grizzly's mechanical guru friend, Pat Fox, thinks there could be air in Ginny's cooling system, hence why she's not constantly overheating, just intermittently.

You may remember that yesterday Grizzly Fish predicted we would hit rain about 3pm. As with most of his weather predictions, he was wrong, all we hit was 33.5 degrees! He's usually got an excuse though. His mates would probably call him a gobshite! 🤣

We're staying in a town called Alba, slap bang in the middle of millions of vines. I don't know what wine region this is but the town of Asti is just up the road. Made no difference to us, we stuck with birra at dinner, Austrian no less.

Before dinner we took a quick walk down to the main piazza, took a few snaps of the cathedral and civic building, then Grizzly wanted his dinner.  Add to the list, he doesn't like sightseeing when he's hungry!

We decided as this is our last night in Italy, we would have pizza and it just so happens there is a pizzeria next door to the b&b. Handy or what?

Seems they do quite a trade in takeaway but we were the only ones eating in. 

The pizza was about 13/14 inches.

Tomorrow we are heading for La Roque- Esclapon,  somewhere in the hills of France. More twisties I fear.

Till then.

Ciao

Day 22 - Siena to La Spezia

Today was a good day. It started off as a cool 23 degrees. Absolute bliss, compared with the blistering temperatures we've had of late.

Our first POI of the day was just a 15-minute ride up the road, Monteriggioni, a walled village dating back to the 13th century, and perched on a hill overlooking the Chianti region of Tuscany. Apparently, there are only 50 permanent residents, the place is so tiny. You could walk around the place in about 20 minutes, we took a little bit longer taking photos.

Our second POI, was a castle, purely a stop to get a photo, La Rocca di Staggio castle. I don't have any interesting facts about it, you can Google it if you're interested, so here's the photo, with some clown on his motorbike spoiling it! 🤣

Following the road from the castle   we came to a barrier,  the road was closed. For the next 10 minutes we rode up and down, trying to get some sense and an alternative route out of Tomtom. Eventually I took things into my own hands and managed, via a short motorway section, to get us around the closed section of road.

Our third stop was our fuel stop, just outside Lucca. It was also a POI but not Point of Interest, Person of Interest. We'd been in communication with our Italian chum, whom we met on the William Walker (Dudley) Memorial Tour back in 2014, and he was keen to meet up, as we were passing, about 115 miles from his home near lake Garda! I'd  given him the location of the fuel stop and he agreed to meet us. True to his word, he was there and just filling his bike when we arrived.

We found a place down the road to have a snack and drink whilst we chatted, then we set off in convoy. Lorenzo had said he'd ride some of the way to La Spezia with us but in the end, he came all the way to our hotel. Once checked in, we had a chat and a drink,  before he set off for home, 2h30m away.

It was good to meet up again, 8 years on, and we really appreciated the effort he made to come and see us. 

The hotel is up in the hills overlooking La Spezia. We don't have the view, from our booking.com room but a little walk up the road and you get this.

This was our third double bed error and second in a row. There was no problem changing but this twin room is up on the second floor, there's no lift, and it's right at the end of a long corridor!

There's no evening meal at the hotel but there was a pizzeria/bar 5 minutes away.

We went round the corner, drank some beer and ate some food. I had a salad tonight. 

That pretty much takes care of another day. Tomorrow we are heading for a place called Alba. Grizzly Fish is predicting rain for the afternoon. I think you know his thoughts on  donning waterproofs. 🤣

Ciao.

Day 21 - Rome to Siena

We were back on the road again today, after a day of rest, well sightseeing actually and today our travels brought us to Siena, some 200 miles from Rome.

It's hard even after a couple of weeks of these temperatures to get your head round it being 37 degrees at 9:30 in the morning but that's what it was as we left Rome.  We made surprisingly short shrift of the Rome traffic, the only issue being a wrong turn caused by a slow responding Tomtom. Otherwise we handled everything fairly easily.

We were soon out of the city and heading towards the coast and that's where my gremlins struck again. With the temperature in the high 30s, crawling through a seaside resort, with pedestrian crossings every few yards, Ginny overheated again. We had to pull over and let her cool down, whilst we had some water to cool ourselves.

Back on the road and away from heavy traffic,  she was fine again. After, another slight Tomtom issue we were bowling along nicely, if not coolly. 

At our fuel/snack stop, something happened that hasn't happened for over a week, it rained. When I say rained, it was over in about 2 minutes and was dry in about another 2, due to it still being 29 degrees. There is so much dust in the air, that the droplets must be easily 50% dust, so when dry, everything was covered in dusty spots. We both agreed, to quote Grizzly, " there's no f*****g way I'm putting on waterproofs ".  We'd have to be mad to, in such high temperatures. 

Back on the road, we hit another patch of rain, a bit more persistent this time. Enough to wet the roads but not enough to really trouble us,  it produced the same thick dust covering on us and the bikes though. 

We had one POI today. Another disappointment.  The Colonna di Montarenti, one of the 18 still intact trail signs dating back to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. I think I was expecting something much more grand but it's just a big stone signpost really

20km up the road was our hotel in Siena. We arrived about 4pm.

Checked in, we had our second bed incident, a double bed instead of 2 singles. The receptionist gave me another room key but that too had a double. I don't think she believed me, as she went to see for herself. Third time lucky, we got 2 singles. 

We had dinner in the hotel again, as once again we are located a bit outside the city, and I managed to drink the hotel dry of Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer! Not many can say that. 😉

I have now covered over 3000 miles since leaving home. Tomorrow Ginny will pass 25k miles.

Our plan for tomorrow has changed slightly   as our Italian chum Lorenzo, last seen in 2014, is going to ride down from his home near Verona, to meet up, have a coffee and ride a few miles with us. The plan, if it comes together will see us meet at our scheduled fuel stop. Fingers crossed 🤞.

We'll end the day in La Spezia, or at least, just outside again.

Ciao

Day 20 - Rome Sightseeing

Don't panic, I have taken on board feedback of the Palermo post, so this will be considerably shorter. 

First we had to walk down to Circus maximus to get into the metro and buy our 24-hour travel tickets. Having done that we jumped on the train One Stop to the Colosseum.

 We took a few photos then jumped back on the train and headed for St Peter's Square in the Vatican City. We caught site of some casually dressed Swiss Guards.

Grizzly had specifically asked to visit here and spent a fair while taking photos. There weren't many people there, those that were ,were hiding in the shade. It was about 38 degrees. 

Photos and some shopping done, we were back on the metro for a visit to the Spanish steps, metro stop Spagna.

By now it was time for a break and a  bite to eat. Yes, good old Mcds to the rescue, air-conditioned heaven!

Back on the sightseeing trail, next the Trevi Fountain. 1 stop on the metro again. Bit more of a walk this time. Shade is your friend but there was precious little of it. The water in the fountain was cool though. 

Rome has some, no, a lot of blooming marvellous sights. We were just doing a few of the main ones.

The next two were walkable and both to places I'd not been to before, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.

The Pantheon is all columns out front but inside, mostly one huge dome. The painter Raphael is buried there.

Piazza Novona is a long rectangular space with 3 fountains, the centre one with an Egyptian obelisk in the middle. 

By now, the temp had hit 40 degrees, so another break was needed. To the rescue once more, McDs. An ice cream and a drink went down a treat. 

Grizzly had found out yesterday that his niece and her husband were honeymooning in Italy  and in Rome today. There had been talk of meeting throughout the day. Whilst we were in McDs, they called to say were heading for the piazza, so we walked back round and met them. A lovely couple. They head to Sorento tomorrow, whilst we are going in the opposite direction, to Siena.

We were far from the metro  now, so took a bus back to Circus Maximus, where we saw a Fiat 500 city tour, about 12 in all. I love those  little cars.

Grizzly was done in by now, so we got a taxi back up Aventine Hill to the hotel. The best €6 Grizzly's let me spend! 🤣

Dinner was taken at the hotel.  The Aventino doesn't have its own restaurant. Their sister hotel down the road does but unfortunately, for whatever reason, that was closed today, so the chap on reception offered to provide something for us, a light offering. It consisted of a plate of caprese, with some tuna, a large bowl of mixed salad and some bread. We accompanied that with some beers and water. Not only was it quite filling, it was also one of the healthiest meals we've had all tour. There was certainly masses of tomato. They are so sweet though, not like the pale pinky things we get in our supermarkets!

Our  first task tomorrow will be to get the bikes out of the car park. We were in head first, Grizzly has since turned round but we are on a slight slope, so I shall have to engage Ginny's reverse gear to get her facing the right way. The early morning Rome traffic should be interesting too!

Ciao for now.

Day 19 - Cassino to Rome

All roads lead to Rome, even the twisty ones! 🤣

We had a few POIs on the agenda today.

First up a memorial to Wladyslaw Anders, Polish General commanding the Polish troops in the successful capture of hill 563, Monte Cassino in May  There's also a museum. I have never seen it shown as open, so made no plan to visit. It was open. Maybe another time. 

Next, the Archaeological museum  and the main attraction  the Amphitheatre. We shan't be doing the Colesseum in Rome, so this was a decent substitute. Mind you it was so hot  Grizzly decided not to walk down into the arena. 

Next, was a trip up Monte Cassino to the monastery and the Polish war memorial. The monastery wanted us to pay to park the bikes. That's a no-no in our eyes, so we turned around and went to the Polish memorial a few hundred metres down the road. 

The Monastery from the B&B.

The Polish war memorial is a fitting memorial to those men who made the ultimate sacrifice. General Anders is buried with them, though he didn't die in battle, but in 1970.

Thw best shot of the memorial would undoubtedly be from a drone.

The day had started out around 30 degrees. It would hit 39 before the day was out. I was looking for a drinks stop but being Sunday, most of the garages with shops/cafes attached were closed up. After a while I spotted a sign for McDonalds and went off route in search of the golden arches. What a wild McDs goose chase that was. We never found it. Eventually, we found a garage with an open cafe, so Grizzly was able to boost his coffee reserves,  an Americano being his preferred cup.

Our next 2 stops,  still on the WW2 theme  were the Anzio beach and the Beachead cemetery. 2312 lay in the cemetery,  just one of those in the area.

I wonder if the people on this beach ever have a thought to what happened here all those years ago. 

Lest We Forget.

With a fuel stop to come, some miles later than planned, due to a couple of detours, Grizzly was confident of making it. His faith in the Shadslow was repaid. We'd clocked about 15 miles above the usual 150 target. 

Fuelled up we had a fairly clean run into Rome. The highlight for me was riding the Via Appia Antica or the Appian Way, the oldest road in Rome. Grizzly  hates cobbles, so I made sure to explain the significance of those on which we had just ridden.

 The hotel wasn't too difficult to find up on Aventine Hill. We have secure parking, which is always a weight off of the mind, especially in cities.

We popped out for a walk and a bite to eat.  Just up the road was an old Alfa Romeo, surprisingly right hand drive. In the back, a bride and her father. We walked up to the church to see her arrive. 

Not the first wedding we've been at on tour!

Just along the road was a queue of people, waiting at a gate. At that point I remembered the Aventine keyhole. The view through the keyhole is a row of shrubs with a domed roof perfectly framed in the middle.  I queued to see it. Grizzly, wasn't interested. He can be a miserable fecker sometimes. I tried a picture but it didn't come out well.

You get the idea. Google Aventine keyhole Rome, if you are interested. 

We walked down the hill, to some more sights close by. The Pyramid of Gaius Cestius, built in 12BC and the Porta San Paolo.

From there we headed back to find a bar/pizzeria I had found on Google maps, where we had dinner.

I learned my lesson from Scilla!

Back at the hotel we had another couple of beers and now it is bed time. Tomorrow we have a  sightseeing day. Hopefully, using public transport Grizzly will not want to bail out at lunchtime like he did in Palermo. I know he wants to go to St Peter's Square, so we may head there first, then work our way back towards the hotel.

Ciao 

Day 18 - San Severo to Cassino

A very important day, Grizzly's 70th birthday. Of course I got him a card, what sort of tour guide would I be if I didn't. He might even appreciate it,  he's not that demonstrative though. I know he appreciates the effort I put into these tours, even if he moans a bit.

Today we have cut across the country again  east to west, across what might be called the spine of Italy, which means big hills. And as you all know by now, with big hills comes twisty roads to get up them. That being so, Tomtom's birthday gift to Grizzly,  was SP198. Most definitely the worse road we have been on so far, even beating the one in Sicily. With the road twisting and turning and a deteriorating surface, with sections inches lower than the rest and apparently about to slide down the hillside, the surface disappeared completely, to gravel! Not completely but for large sections. I think Grizzly wanted to turn back but we had really passed the point of no return, so we persevered, eventually coming to a hilltop village, where miraculously the road improved. Happy Birthday Grizzly 🤣

This part of the country is covered in little hilltop villages. Wherever there was a sticky up bit in the landscape, then they built a village. They are brilliant to look at, not so brilliant to ride to!

Our first POI of the day wasn't really I at all.  The remains of a Roman Amphitheatre in Larino. Sure there are remains but they are fenced in, with no way to get up close. I took a photo and we pressed on. 

Our next stop was far more interesting, and getting there wasn't quite so bad. Area Sacra dei Templi Italici di Schiavi d'Abruzzo, is a pair of 2nd/1st century BC temples. Covered by a canopy but nonetheless open to the elements, you could easily ride by and never know they were there. Good job I'm a top rate tour guide then, not that my client made the walk down to view them!

Moving on, our next scheduled stop was for fuel but it was gone lunchtime and we hadn't taken on any fluids for a while, so we stopped at a garage with a cafe. Grizzly was able to have his coffee and customary snack, so he was happy.

It had been fairly cool thus far, mid 20s but the clouds that had been with us since the off, had now gone and we were back in the 30s again.

From the fuel stop we just had the run in to Cassino, and a spectacular one it was too.

At one point we had the perfect view of Cassino in the valley, with the Monte Cassino monastery atop the hill.

 

Before making for our digs, we made a stop by the Fiume Rapido (Rapid River), also known as the Red River on account of the amount of blood in it during World War 2, when an attempt by American soldiers to cross it, was met with heavy resistance. It's tranquil today and fish swim lazily in it, so hard to imagine what it would have been like back in 1944.

From the river it was a couple of minutes to our farmhouse b&b. Nice and peaceful, with extensive landscaped grounds, and a view of the monastery. 

It's out in the sticks,  so dinner was on site again.

Another 2 courses and beer. May be time for another fast food dinner! Evening ended with flying ants dropping in left, right and centre, and kids with a yappy dog, banging the door to the room next door at gone eleven!

Tomorrow we are heading for Rome, where we will have our final rest/sightseeing day. We have a few stops to make on the way though,  hopefully better than the Larino amphitheatre.

Ciao

Day 17 - Andria to San Severo

Last night ended with a power cut in the hotel, just as I took out my contact lenses. By the time I'd got to the phone for the torch, the lens was stuck to itself. One lost lens. Grizzly was moaning because the aircon went off and I'd just closed the windows and the electric shutters! A few words were exchanged. 

This morning we noticed again, that there were probably only a couple of people besides us in the hotel. Odd, this part of the country seems to be devoid of tourists/holidaymakers. 

We seem to be leaving earlier each day,  about 8:45 today. We negotiated our way out of Andria ok and were going quite nicely until one town where Tomtom took me up a steep bloody hill. In first gear, I'd only gone about 200 metres when the dreaded overheating light came on. I stopped as soon as I could to let Ginny cool down and wait for Grizzly,  though I suspected he would give it a miss. After 5 minutes, I carried on to find a place to turn on this narrow bloody road. I coasted down hill to let Ginny cool some more. I wasn't prepared to risk that road, so chose an alternative on TomTom. That road was a whole lot better but there was a coach and a long queue behind it, so very slow going. I sat in line for a long time  then decided to adopt the Italian biker approach. Sit right on the rear of the vehicle in front, on the white line, then soon as a suitable open stretch appears, gas it by, picking them off one by one. Even in that traffic, Ginny's temperature was ok. 🤔

I'm not sure when the Italians take their holidays but this part of the country is very quiet. We passed an Aqua Park on the coast. Deserted. We've seen a few people on the beaches as we've come through on the coast road but they've not been heaving. Maybe it's just too early in the season.

Grizzly was already at the fuel stop, as I imagined he would be and already on his 2nd coffee. I never saw the cake! 

We were only about 60km and 90 minutes away from our hotel at San Severo. The ride was pleasant enough through the countryside, overlooking a lake, one of the few pieces of water we've seen. Most of the river beds we have crossed are bone dry. No wonder we are seeing so many blackened verges and fields from fires. There was even an olive grove burnt today.

We arrived at the hotel about 3pm. Guess what? 2 huge car parks, both empty! Out front, 4 Carabinieri cars. We parked the bikes with them. Should be safe, eh? There was no sign of any plod inside or anyone else, other than the receptionist. The Baldy Bikers don't draw a crowd quite like the Hairy pair!

On checking in, we made our way to the booking.com room. Right at the end of the corridor. This is billed as a high tech 4* gaff. We have only 2 hangars!

There's a patio, no furniture. Least there wasn't, till we nabbed chairs from the patio next door 🤣

We have to have somewhere to dry our wet jeans, etc.

If I understood the receptionist correctly, the bar opens in 20 minutes, so I'd best freshen up, as someone will be chomping at the bit in 15.

Sure enough, a trip to the bar ensued, where Grizzly taught the young barman how to pull a pint. Not the first place we've encountered a clueless bar person.  We had a couple, whilst watching the plod play cards. I think one was supposed to be going for a run but blew his mate off when he came to get him. More interested in the  cards and fags! By the size of him, he'd never have made it out of the car park anyway. 

Dinner was al fresco. It was still 30 degrees,  if a little bit windy. I had scallop cream filled pasta, topped with prawns. Very nice. Then I had my first gelato of the trip, a rich creamy pistachio. Mmm!

The difference in cultures is never more apparent than when dining. We are finishing up and thinking of bed, just as the locals arrive. From a dead place this afternoon, it was buzzing as we retired to our room.

Tomorrow we start a trek north west, back towards the Mediterranean, ending the day in Cassino.

Ciao 

Dsy 16 - Schiavonea to Andria

Well, we survived the night. No axe wielding crazies or bites from mozzies. AND, turns out we weren't the only guests. 2 other guys in the 2 rooms adjacent to ours, Italians. 

Breakfast didn't quite live up to the pictures on Booking.com. No lavish spread for 4 blokes. It was just about adequate. 

Oil check last night was ok and I checked my tyre pressures this morning and they were ok too. Good to go, it was time to head out into the heat once more. 

It was a cool 33 or so when we left. As before though, once we turned inland, the temperature rose, even when climbing. We made a quick refreshments stop halfway to our fuel stop, then another at a supermarket, as we both needed some more shower gel. Grizzly is still unable to track down a febreze equivalent. If anyone knows IF they do one in Italy and what it may be called, let me know.

We'd hit 39 degrees again by the time we got to the fuel stop. It's bloody uncomfortable I can tell you. I'm not one of these "it's too hot" merchants,  as soon as the sun comes out but I would happily take a 10-15 degree drop right now. The forecast down this neck of the woods, is for more of the same.

We only had an hour or so from the fuel stop to our overnight in Andria and we arrived around 13:30. Not sure how it was so quick, after all we'd covered 150 miles, I suppose we had some better, faster roads today. 

Checked in and freshened up, we decided to walk into town. Blimey! Everything was closed. The place was like a ghost town. We were trying to suss out where to eat but we barely saw a soul. Maybe here?

We found the cathedral and popped in there but there was little else to do, so we made our way back to the hotel, by way of the bar next door. 1 cheeky Paulaner wouldn't hurt, eh? It did, at €7 a bottle.  Fleece the tourists!

Across from the hotel is a memorial park, Grizzly was taking photos of some statues,  so I nipped over to take a look at the war memorial. 

Back at the hotel Grizzly had a nap whilst I caught up with some paperwork. 

Soon it was time to go out for dinner. OMG! what a transformation. The same street we had walked down earlier, was now thronging with people, shops open, bars, restaurants   etc. We couldn't believe the difference. 

We decided on a place selling pasty type foods, all stuff with various fillings.  It was cheap, tasty and filling, plus the beer was cheap too.

It was hard to understand how the place had changed in 3 hours and it seemed unusual that everyone seemed to be out in their posh clothes on a Thursday, especially the hundreds of teenagers. We wonder if it may have been end of term or something 🤔 

It's now 10pm and still 28 degrees. It will only dip to 24 overnight, thank heavens for aircon. By the time we leave tomorrow it will be 30 again! Tomorrow our destination is San Severo. Still up on the east side and still expected to be hot.

That's all for now.

Ciao

Day 15 - Scilla to Schiavonea

The half way point. Forgot to mention in yesterday's post, Ginny clocked up 24,000 miles and we passed the 2,000 for the tour this far. Probably time to check the oil. 

We generally have brekkie at 8am and are legs astride the beasts at 9am. This morning was no exception. The SS18 winds along the coast and what a coastline it is, the odd chance you get to look at it. Spectacular. 

Along the coast we stopped at a bike 'shop'. Grizzly had prepared something in English for the receptionist to translate (she spent time in Dublin) but she wasn't around this morning,  so no translation. After a couple of minutes gesturing with some guy/mechanic, he decided to abort the mission. The bike started ok but now we're thinking it could be a wiring problem. 

2 hours in, we were still retracing our tracks. Before long we hung a right inland. There was some big old hills to cross and with hills, comes lots of tight and twisty roads. Challenging to say the least. Grizzly hates them. Ssh! Don't tell him, there's more to come over the next 2 weeks. 

Once down the other side, the temperature hit 37.5! Our first scheduled stop, a McDs, for a drink/comfort break, and to get out of the heat. Our second stop a few hundred metres, our fuel stop. Another non event.  This time the machine wouldn't accept our cards. No matter there was another a few kms further on. 

It was after the fuel stop things got really warm. I now know what a rack of ribs must feel like in a Texan smoker, as Ginny's temp guage reached its highest I've ever seen it, 41.5 degrees. There was no hint of her overheating though, even when slow moving. 🤔 We even had the smoke to go with the heat, as the verge was smouldering as we waited at some road works. There's lots of black verges.

As we covered the last 20k or so to our overnight stop, the temperature gradually came down, to a more bearable 32. Our Italian chum Lorenzo says there has never been a June like it. That's global warming for ya.

We arrived at our hotel complex about 4pm. It was closed or at least looked closed. I expected loads of people drinking on the terrace, frolicking in the pool. Bugger all, only a gardener, who told us the hotel WAS open! Out of nowhere came a young woman and chap. They opened reception and checked us in. Her English isnt great but with GT to translate,  she wanted us to choose dinner options. We are in the middle of nowhere, so no option but to eat here. The whole place is very weird, like Hostel or the Bates Motel. It's as if they have just opened up for us. 3 or 4 staff and us. Creepy.  If there is no blog tomorrow, we may well have been murdered,  so someone report us missing!

I found myself singing the words to Hotel California!

The beach is only 300m away. There's Snoopy's Bar, like the hotel, shut down. We can only assume this is the effect covid has had on the area. There were a few people on the beach but not many. 

We crossed over a  creek and saw a terrapin and also what looked like an otter.  Hard to tell from a distance. Grizzly might have a close up shot, to confirm. 

Dinner, was  as we expected, just for two. A penne pasta course,  followed by chicken and salad. Very tasty.  Washed down with, yes you guessed  it, a few beers.

Back in the room, I was reminded of the tv series, An Idiot Abroad, Grizzly the Karl Pilkington to my Ricky Gervais. Several times this trip I have been assaulted by mozzies. My arms and legs are covered in red blotches from their bites but can I get this bald headed chimp to understand you don't have the doors/windows open with the lights on? Can I f*ck! 

If I'm not murdered by the creepy gang or eaten alive by the mosquito in the room now,  then tomorrow we shall be moving on to Andria. The weather shows no signs of breaking, so another scorcher.

Ciao