We had a 2PM ferry from Igoumenitsa to Brindisi today, so we were afforded another leisurely start. And of course what better way to start than a long chat with Helen and Jeremy. That’s when we found out their van had been flooded in the port they had left the boat in.
Hopefully I shall long retain the image of Helen walking back from the loos carrying Jaffa in her cage. Brilliant, but also bonkers – love it!
Then we had a pack up and headed off to Masoutis, Monday trading rules not being the same as Sunday trading rules, thankfully!
A few more shots of Elena’s Camping. The facilities were basic, no loo roll in many loos, but it did have loo seats and it was spotless. Unfortunately we didn’t get to try the restaurant, but there are good reports and it was packed each evening.
Sat Nav says we have 2335 km to home. Though we’re definitely going to be taking some detours!
Our plan was to check in at the ferry first, then get supplies and then get into the ferry.
Once we’d stocked up at Masoutis (just stuff for the ferry)…
We headed back to the port and made a salad and some butties for the 7+ hours on the ferry in the car park.
We then had to board separately!! Both of us a bit nervous about not having the other as support. Sue had to go through a customs check as a foot passenger, and I had to drive Ollie through customs and meet Sue on the other side.
We both think this was mainly as a migrant check. The customs guy got me to open the side and rear doors of the van for a cursory check. It felt like he was just looking to see if we’d got someone stowed away.
Once through customs we queued up alongside a few cars and bikes, and the regulation 30 or more lorries.
We seemed to be pretty early to board the boat and got good seats in the bar/cafe area.
This was the same ferry that we’d done the overnight trip on in reverse.
Sue was set for the 7 and a half hour trip with some knitting!
I was told off (nicely) for lounging in the lounge. You can’t lie down on the boat until it sails!
So we whiled away the journey, knitting, reading and watching the Half Blood Prince… enjoyed it (again) but not a patch on the book. And what’s the scene about where The Burrow gets set alight? Doesn’t seem to take the story forwards and doesn’t collapse bits of the book that a shorter film has to do… they’d have been better off putting some of the book back in like the Prime Minister chapter.
It was a bit spooky getting off the ferry and heading back through the port we’d got so confused about on the reverse leg 12 days previously!
And the we headed off to the outskirts of Brindisi for an apartment we’d pre-booked.
We were landing in Brindisi at 8:30, so didn’t want to travel a long way. But also didn’t want to end up with an apartment in the middle of the town with no parking. So we plumped for a Winery on one of the main roads out of the town.
We’d spent the previous two days talking to the apartment person and had got self check in instructions and sent ID via WhatsApp.
But the Italian roads… they’re shocking! We’d sort of accepted the Corfu roads being poor, and the Igoumenitsa roads being bad, but better than Corfu. Where’s the excuse for the Italian roads being so diabolical. The main dual carriageways are worse than British b-roads, and by a very long way! And of course there’s trash everywhere!
All was fine when we arrived, though it wasn’t obvious where we parked and so we left Ollie in the light and not next to a lorry weigh bridge that I thought might get us woke up with a “can you move your van mate” first thing in the morning.
The dogs that greeted us by the fence were probably the same ones that woke us up in the morning.
The property was called Dimora Risveglio. There were about half a dozen en-suite rooms, with a TV, on the first floor of what was probably part of the winery. There seemed to be a communal kitchen, but there was coffee and some plastic packaged toast and croissant in the room. We slept ok, but were woken up by the dogs and people coming to work at the winery at probably about 6:30!
But I’m getting ahead of myself, that’s tomorrow’s story!
Tomorrow we head in the wrong direction, on purpose… twice… and start our proper Italian leg of the journey.
Though we now have 2449 km to get home rather than the 2335 we had this morning!
Harry, Ron and Hermione are just about to storm the Ministry to wrestle the locket from Umbridge.
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