e_header.jpg)
After much planning and waiting, Hayden & Andrea arrived in Dubrovnik yesterday.
It is wonderful to see Hayden again after 16 months, and so exciting to meet the lovely Andrea.
So far we have explored the city of Dubrovnik, now an absolute tourist destination with a fabulous walk around the city wall. We will go to Bol on Brac Island for a few days to relax in the sun.
Thea, Hayden, Andrea & Bruce in Dubovnik Old City
My friend Pat and I were walking in the rain in Split (was Yugoslavia, now Croatia) one day a “couple of years ago”, when a local man looked at us and quoted Noël Coward’s “mad dogs and Englishman”. He laughed as it usually refers to the hot midday sun but he had twisted it to refer to the current rain and the holiday expectations of an Englishman.
On this current excursion we have had a long, hot heat wave. More than a month of days 35C+. We have learnt not to follow the mad dogs and Englishmen but instead follow the Italian lifestyle and find a cafe to sit in or a tree to rest under whilst the heat of the day passes.
Not a bad life, really.
Bruce never wanted to go to Naples. It was there in his Kombi-travelling days that they were robbed. Bruce lost his camera (bad, but replaceable) and all his film through England (meeting me), northern Europe and down through Turkey & Greece.
So the plan was a ferry ride from Sardinia to Naples and a quick drive to the Amalfi coast.
First set of traffic lights, I yelled at the driver beside me that he had left his hazard lights on. “Grazia” and a big smile he replied.
It was the second set of traffic lights, 5 minutes off the ferry, that Bruce noticed a man on a Vespa behind our car. “There goes the badge”, he thought. He checked and it was still there.
Then the car’s computer system told us to STOP. Then it told us we had a puncture! That man on a Vespa had spiked our rear right tyre!
It took a little longer to get out of Naples while we found a Renault dealer and a tyre shop. We won’t be going back!!
Spiked tyre, Naples
For the first few months of our travels we have been spoilt by the colourful flowers of Spring. Amongst ruins, along roads and up and down mountains – there are flowers of white, pink, blue, red, yellow.
But Spring is finished and her flowers have withered – only to be replaced by the Summer variety. In Sardinia miles and miles of roads are lined with Oleanders, displaying a riot of colour from white to rich pinks.
Beautiful!
Oleander brightens the roads in Sardinia, near Alghero
I have not posted any stories for a while. I have not annotated my photos and uploaded them for a while. Those things have had to wait.
BUT I have finished my end of year bookkeeping. Bruce’s BAS is ready to submit and the bank accounts are reconciled, and it is only 5th of July! Never have I finished my bookkeeping so early.
And, my laundry bag is empty!
Our plan was to remain fluid. Not to create a fixed agenda that was regimented. And that is how we ended up in Corsica.
Macedonia was (still is) high on my list of must visits. I have been told the lakes and mountains are beautiful. But when we started looking at it and how to get there, it went into the too hard basket. A land locked country bordering Greece, Albania and Kosovo, and others. Our car is not insured in Albania and the Australian government’s current recommendation is to avoid Kosovo. It was going to be a very long drive to get from Macedonia to Montenegro and ferries didn’t seem to run the route we needed.
So now can you see why we decided to go to Corsica?
Coastline looking north from Canari, Corsica
We have just spent a glorious two weeks on a farm in southern Tuscany, sharing with 12 horses, 2 foals, 1 pony, 5 (sometimes 6) dogs, 2 cats, 100 swallows, 1,000 lizards and two butterflies doing what butterflies do on a summer day.
We visited Chuisdino & St Galgano, Sienna, San Gamigiano and walked a bit. But the best part of Tenuta di Papena was relaxing.
There is more about our time in Tuscany under Italy in the Nomads in 2012 menu.
Butterflies frolicking in early summer
As we travelled through Dubai, Egypt, Jordan & Greece, the local people constantly befriended Bruce for his moustache. Cries of “Mr Moustache” followed us everywhere. There were even times when I got the “Mrs Moustache” call!!
So, when we found this T-shirt in Italy it was an item we couldn’t resist.
Bruce & his moustache T-shirt
Today we visited Sienna, a beautiful medieval town set on a rock. As well as sightseeing, we had some more pressing needs – Bruce needed a haircut (gosh his hair neary reached his ears) and I needed to buy stamps.
So off we went with our separate tasks. Do you know it takes longer to buy a stamp in Sienna than to have a hair cut!
Bruce has a haircut in Siena
Buying a stamp in Siena
Thanks to Renault Eurodrive we have taken possession of a beautiful, black, sleek Renault Sport, which will be ours for the next 5 and a bit months.
I’ve even been allowed to drive it twice, but honestly, I leave the steep, windy mountain roads, the narrow, windy village streets and the blisteringly fast autostradas to Bruce. In Italy there aren’t many other roads!
Bruce with Elisabetta, taking over the black, sleek Renault Sport with tell tale red number plates
