Tag Archives: People

After a day of downtime, we drove up from the caravan park on the coast to Linguaglossa, north-east of Mount Etna, where we were to meet up with Nuccio and Carmelo. We parked Nettle by a park in the town, and were shortly joined by Nuccio, with warm greetings all round. Nuccio drove us around the corner to pick up … Continue reading

We awoke on the mountain, breakfasted, and drove down the road a little to the start of a walking track we had planned. We were met with quite open, grassy terrain, dotted with autumnal birch trees, and the bald grey hills of ex-craters poking out. And the faint smell of sulphur (not, as it turned out, Nettle’s grey water tank). … Continue reading

We had just left Scopello after a very enjoyable week spent developing software and painting: We wanted more! But it was also time for a change of scene, so we drove on towards San Vito Lo Capo, another town that sounded quite promising. A short and picturesque drive inland through pretty, rocky mountains, through a rather sad-looking town amusingly called … Continue reading

Our exodus from Rome was marked by some fearful Roman traffic; we crawled out of the city and finally reached the motorway. A quick detour while I attempted to find the Apple store that so eluded us in the city centre: Further research (that is, Apple’s website instead of Google Maps) had indicated that it was actually located outside the … Continue reading

Having taken a windy little road down through the mountains, switchbacking through ramshackle villages, we stopped for lunch with a view down through pine trees and vineyard-strewn mountains to the azure-coloured sea. With the plan to find a wild-camp in the village of Monterosso al Mare, the first of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre (“Five lands”), we … Continue reading

From the ex-battlefields of the Somme, we drove in the direction of Paris, taking the back roads at a relatively leisurely pace. We encountered some trouble when, after seeing a number of route bloqué signs, we eventually realised they were talking about our route, and had to retrace our steps for a considerable distance, in traffic that went at a … Continue reading

Our first stop towards Dingle was Inch, a place recommended to us in Galway. A little narrow road took us in, and we were met by the sight of a long sweeping sandy beach with mountains wreathed in cloud behind. We were excited to see a host of motorhomes parked on the beach and, thinking we’d found a pretty cool … Continue reading

Arriving in Galway, from the Connemara area, we made a beeline to the harbour, which often represents a promising spot to park for the night. This time, it didn’t look so good — somewhat on the industrial side, not surprisingly — so we pulled over for a quick stint of online research, and found out that the nearby promenade had … Continue reading

For our final day in Belfast, we were doing a Taxi tour, which gives an insight into the Troubles, among other things (see the route here). We filled up our LPG tank in a little petrol station on Shankill Road, every surface covered with the Union Jack. We parked in a car park just off Shankill Road (which, for reasons … Continue reading

After our long walk, and quite possibly over-staying our welcome at Bath Chew Valley Caravan Park we moved on, to one of the certificated locations in Keynsham, a half-hour-or-so drive from Bath, and a relatively pleasant and uneventful drive from Bath Chew Valley. Much more sensibly-priced — something like £5/night. This was a grassy field next door to two very … Continue reading

While setting ourselves up with a motorhome, we stayed in Solihull, a borough just outside of Birmingham where my grandparents grew up. We were picked up from the train station by Trevor, my something-cousin-something-removed and Keith, his father in law, my grandfather’s brother, and therefore my great uncle (I’m getting good at this) and driven to Keith and Olga’s (my … Continue reading