As much as we were impressed with Sicily’s offerings in our first week, we knew there was even more ahead as our travels moved onto the western side of the island.
The Valley of the Temples is a spectacular Greek-era ruin located just east of the city of Agrigento. It’s somewhat ironic that some of the best Roman ruins are in Greece and some of the top Greek ruins are located in Italy, but that’s a pretty good testament to how various civilizations evolved centuries ago, with one side seizing (and then losing) control of another’s territory, followed ( quite often ! ) by a complete reversal of those fortunes. This particular location sits high up on a ridge and its imposing structures are visible from miles away as you approach, its beauty enhanced by the well-manicured Italian garden in which it stands. Impressive ! The wonderful little beachside campsite at nearby Scala Dei Turchi ( a sight in itself ) just made for an excellent stay in Agrigento.
Valley of the Temples, Agrigento.Ditto.More Valley of the Temples.Scala Dei Turchi ( Turkish Stairs ).Scala Dei Turchi (from the west ).Selfie.San Vito Lo Capo. Turquoise water and sheer verdant mountain backdrop reminded us of Tahiti.
Continuing west took us through some of Sicily’s major agricultural regions – flatter and generally less mountainous than the east, it also made for more relaxed driving. Our route followed the coast ( mostly ) passing Marsala and Trapani with the exceptionally pretty little coastal town of San Vito Lo Capo being our next port of call. Like so much of the Sicily we have seen so far, the coastal waters are a shimmering turquoise and exceptionally clear. This place is a hotspot in summer and was already quite busy when we arrived in early April. It’s got some of the whitest sand beaches on the island and is set against a sheer mountain backdrop – postcard stuff ! While the water was still a little cool at first ( despite the sunny weather ), here the water was just too tempting to stay away from. Always a bonus when the camping is good and the wild camping just south of the town was probably our favourite so far in Sicily – we spent a couple of very enjoyable days there just relaxing. I’ll let the pictures below tell the story.
San Vito Lo Capo.Snorkeling area where we camped, san Vito Lo Capo.Ditto.Sunsets were beautiful.Wild camped with about 8 others along the beach.The beauty of a large sliding door – inside/outside camping .On our way to Palermo we enjoyed a one night stopover in pretty Castellammare del Golfo, as idyllic a little port town as you will find.Palermo’s impressive cathedral.Villa Bonnano, garden – Palermo.Historic church of Santa Maria dell Ammiraglio, with its ornate gold mosaics. Its history dates to the 1100’s and bears influence from Greeks, Albanians, the Normans and even the muslims who ruled here for a period.Ditto.Incredible as it seems, parts of Palermo still have unrepaired bomb damage from WW2. Saw several on Victor Emmanuel avenue.Our last sight in Palermo was the somewhat macabre “catacombs”. Dating back hundreds of years, one walks among the corpses of many hundreds of the deceased. Here, Lois is about to walk past the point beyond which you cannot take photographs. Quite eerie ! Click on the word “catacombs” if you must see what it looks like in there!Lines up for the ferry. A full 12 hour sail to Sardinia 😴😴😴The Europe Palace, a very nice ship, but a long journey.
Any hopes that our recent run of rather inclement weather might be over by the time we reached Sicily were quickly dashed – no sooner had we boarded the ferry for the short crossing from Calabria to Messina in Sicily’s northeast, than the rains started again. The morning had briefly looked somewhat promising but as we drove off the ferry into the crowded streets of Messina, it was raining heavily enough to dash any hopes we had of some sightseeing around the city. Beyond Messina, the plan for Sicily was pretty straightforward – start in the northeast of the island and head clockwise around it, taking in as many of the sights and attractions as we could, ending up in Palermo on Sicily’s northwest before taking another ferry on to Sardinia, the timing of which gave us almost 2 weeks here and just over two weeks there. With Messina somewhat of a write-off we headed directly south for one of Sicily‘s big drawcards, the historic coastal city of Taormina.
Our route around eastern Sicily, which ended at the famous Roman-era mosaic site of Villa Romana Del Casale.
The drive south was a real nailbiter with the “highway” ( and I use the word very loosely ! ) at many times, running right through the middle of some very small towns where there was just enough room to pass vehicles coming the other way ( should you ever come to Italy, rent the SMALLEST car you can find ! ). Henceforth we will be taking the autostrada a little more often ! An old stomping ground of famed Irish poet Oscar Wilde, Taormina has attracted visitors for centuries – on the day we were there two large cruise ships were docked so the streets were absolutely packed. Good for the ambience, but made getting around somewhat challenging. Fortunately, by the time we arrived, the rains had eased.
Taormina’s main street. A mix of historic buildings, boutique hotels and restaurants, and high end designer stores.Very crowded – and this is in April !Italian canoli- delicious !
Taormina sits high up on a cliff with breathtaking views up and down the coast. Camping is next to impossible in the town so we parked south of the city in nearby Giardini Naxos, and it was here we met a couple of quite remarkable Canadians travelling around in a van like ourselves. I say remarkable because Wendy and Graham are 80 and 81 respectively and have been roaming the globe in different overland vehicles for much of the last 20 years. They head home to Canada for part of the year , storing their van in various locations around Europe and other parts of the world as needed. Fascinating couple, and they shared some interesting tales from the road with us in our short time together. They were headed off to Greece, ironically to store their vehicle at the very same place we had used just a month earlier.
Graham and Wendy, from Nova Scotia in Canada ( though the vehicle is from Ontario ). Still travelling the world by van at 80 and 81 with no plans to slow down any time soon.
With the exception of one last day of poor weather ( which ruined our visit to Mt. Etna), the rest of our first week in Sicily saw the weather ( finally ) improve – bright sunshine greeted us in each of gritty Catania, stylish Syracuse, historically baroque Noto, and also while admiring the amazing Roman-era mosaics at Villa Romana del Casale. When you have missed the sun for a while, it’s amazing what sunny weather does to replenish your travel energy !
Unfortunately Mt. Etna was fogged in when we visited ( and the snow was deep ). We had the same problem viewing Stromboli just before coming to Sicily ( seems we have no luck with volcanoes ). We would at least see many nice views of Mt. Etna’s smoking volcano from various points further along in south eastern Sicily.The bad weather seems to have cleared for a while – looking awesome in the coming week.Downtown Catania. The historic centre is impressive but it’s rough around the edges. I saw it described as “gritty”. Apt !Why small is best in Italy. The ability to park sideways is useful – we saw this everywhere. Double parking is a national pastime here.Catania’s “Centro Historico”.Piazza Del Duomo, Catania.View of Mt Etna from our campground, Catania, seen from the southeast. It’s always smoking.Fountain in Piazza Archimedes, Syracuse.Stylish Syracuse, definitely a place for the well-heeled. Here, a shot standing on the bridge to Isola DI Ortigia, Syracuse’s historic, and now more fashionable and very touristy neighbourhood.Ancient city gate to Ortigia island, Syracuse.As soon as the weather turns, Italians flock to the beach, no matter how small ! Here, by Ortigia island in Syracuse. The water everywhere along the Italian coast has been amazingly clear.Backstreet, Syracuse.The baroque town of Noto. Here, the Porta Reale, marking the historic entrance to the city.Cathedral di San Nicolo, Noto.While we have ( so far ) had no problems buying diesel, it has become way more expensive than gasoline/petrol and some stations are occasionally out of diesel ( never out of petrol ). The sign says “Petrol Only”.A very nice “agricamp” stay near Ragusa/Modica. Farmers make their land available and provide many of the same facilities as campgrounds. Very quiet, flat and safe with a beautiful view over Ragusa.Just one of the many amazing Roman-era mosaics displayed at Villa Romana del Casale.More of same. And we thought the bikini was a modern thing !At this time of the year the fields were a patchwork of colour all across the island.Nice…but a bit too cold for Lois just yet ! The beach at our campsite in Licata.A beautiful beachside camping spot near Licata, run as a support business for a kite surfing school.
In addition to its natural beauty, one of the added benefits of travel in Sicily is that the cities are small and everything is so close – nice to be spending more time “doing” and “seeing” and much less time driving !
Just to the northwest of Matera lay a trio of top tier Italian attractions – Pompeii, Naples, and the legendary Amalfi Coast. Our previous forays into Italy had not reached any further south than Rome, and all three of these places were a few hours south of Rome, making them the northern extremity of our current travels.
Main square, Pompei
Basing ourselves in a wonderful little campground in Pompei ( a mere stone’s throw from the famous ruins ), our explorations began there. Pompeii likely needs no introduction since most people will recognize it as the old Roman city that was completely covered by the ash from a massive eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in ‘79AD. Everyone perished in the disaster and the city was effectively lost for almost 2 centuries until excavations revealed what the magnificent city once looked like. It’s a truly impressive archeological site and reveals much about life in those times.
Amphitheatre.View across vineyard to Mt. Vesuvius.A warning to visitors.The castes are pretty graphic.A home with courtyard.Original mural in the home. Amazingly well preserved.Floor mosaic in the house.Major street in the ruins.Typical of the smaller streets.Forum.Grand theatre.
Given Naples’ proximity to Pompeii ( just 40 mins by train ) it made sense to leave our vehicle at the campground and head into this gritty port city by rail. In our advanced reading on Naples, one theme came across consistently-it’s often described as a city that people either love or hate. It certainly was not a “love” for us, but nor would either of us say we hated it; but it’s dirty, busy, covered in graffiti, and definitely fell into the category of cities that we have no desire to return to. The windy and cold weather that day probably didn’t help our impression. It offers up some impressive public squares, the usual litany of historic churches ( common in most Italian cities ) and a good museum. Nothing here, though, that was more impressive than anything else we’ve seen anywhere else in Italy, so I suppose it just didn’t register as a “wow” for either of us. Some compensation came from the excellent pizza lunch we had in a nice little downtown restaurant and the artwork on the Toledo Metro station, which was exceptionally impressive.
Downtown Naples.Spanish Quarter – a storied history but now full of tourist trinkets and Diego Maradona paraphernalia !Maradona was/is worshipped here as a former player for local club, Napoli.You can’t escape it !Santa Chiara church.Naples is definitely “gritty”. Not very clean and graffiti everywhere.But the “Toledo” metro station is very upscale, with amazing works of art ( world renowned ).Naples metro station, “Toledo”.
Of all three attractions in the area it’s probably fair to say that we were most enamoured by the Amalfi Coast drive. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, the Costiera Amalfitana ( Amalfi Coast ) attracts tourists in their thousands every year, and has done for centuries. The weather was unexpectedly sunny and warm, compensating for the somewhat miserable weather the day before in Naples and just brought out the absolute best in this stunning piece of Mediterranean coastline. We’d heard much about it; the limestone cliffs, the crystal clear water, and the postcard-like villages hanging off the aforementioned cliffs. It actually blew away our expectations and we have seen some pretty exceptional coastal regions in our travels. Being late March, not all attractions in the area were yet open, but in no way did that take away from the views that we enjoyed. I was a tad nervous about navigating this famously tortuous piece of the Mediterranean coast in our 7m long van and in fact had been advised by our Pompei camp host that it was actually not possible to drive a private vehicle on that part of the coast anymore. That actually contradicted everything we had read so we soldiered on and figured we would just drive until someone told us we had to turn around. As expected, no one did, and there were others in small vans like ours taking in the breathtaking scenery. It wasn’t easy – VERY tight in places but with due care and 100% attention at all times we made it from Sorrento in the north to just south of Amalfi at the other end before climbing inland to another great little campsite high up in the hills. As wonderful as the drive was, it was also a huge relief to finish it- there is literally nowhere to stop once you start so it was a few continuous hours of white knuckling without respite!
The colour of the water near the cliffs in spectacular!Ditto.More of same.Positano.Amalfi, a place “to see and be seen” !Amalfi, pretty congested.Amalfi town.Camped up, in the hills, just behind the Amalfi coast. Nice to escape the hustle, bustle and continuous traffic from down below.
The Amalfi coast was always going to be hard to top but there were a few other little treasures as we continued down the west coast of the Italian mainland towards Sicily, with stops and visits made at the Greek ruins in Paestum, the historic mountain village of Maratea and on through to the beachside community of Scalea where we enjoyed a couple of days beachside. The latter part of this drive was mostly coastal, taking us away from the constant curves and tight switchbacks of the mountains just two days earlier – a nice change.
Paestum, Greek ruins.Paestum, at night.Paestum, view of the ancient town layout.Caught in traffic behind a crowd of Easter marchers.No, we will NOT be going down THAT hill !View from the lighthouse over the coastal town of Palinuro.Maratea Main Street.Maratea, back street.Historic Maratea.The beautiful village of Maratea by night.Wild camped by this beach, north of ScaleaView over the Tyrenhean sea from our camp site.Parked up, Lido Zio camping, Scalea.
At this point we are close to the bottom of the “boot” of Italy and in the coming days we will continue on to Tropea and Reggio Di Calabria before crossing the Straits of Messina to Sicily.
Crete had been enjoyable – a few degrees warmer weather would have been ideal, but such is life, you just can’t have it your way all the time 😟. But, what you don’t want to hear ( and we did hear it ) is that “it’s usually hotter than this by late March” ( of course it is – when we are not here ! ).
Back in Athens all was well, apart from the van being blanketed in dust ( courtesy of a storm the day before ) – this time we did not have any battery issues, it fired up right away. Only a trip to the car wash, laundromat and grocery store stood between us and departure for Italy, a 10 hour, two day trip north to the port city of Igoumenitsa, from which we would ferry across the Adriatic Sea, to Brindisi in Italy.
Grimaldi ferry from Igoumenitsa, Greece, to Brindisi, Italy. Cutting across the bottom of the Adriatic Sea by ferry to southern Italy saved a LOT of driving, most of which would have been a duplication of previous travels.
While ferries are an essential and typically expensive nuisance in Europe, the route from Igoumenitsa to Brindisi is a godsend. Threading a narrow gap between Corfu and Albania, the route takes just 8 hours to cross the ( almost always calm ) Adriatic Sea. Assuming you are next headed to Sicily ( having initially travelled down to Greece via Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania, as we had ) and don’t wish to repeat that lengthy, and mountainous route ( not to mention at least 5 border crossings ), the Adriatic ferry crossing turns an almost week long journey into a very comfortable 8 hour, €175 “cruise” (of sorts). It’s an awfully circuitous route from Igoumenitsa in Greece to Brindisi in Italy without that ferry ( take a look at the map in the image above ) !
Via Roma, Brindisi ( downtown ).
One of the benefits of travelling in March is being able to simply roll up to the ticket window, pay, and literally drive on to the ship (impossible in summer), with the ferry port also doubling as a quiet, secure wild camp for the night before. As always, one enjoys the company of other van travellers at such places and we spent time there and on the crossing with a delightful French/Czech couple and their lovely daughter. The ferry was barely a quarter full, the Adriatic was like glass and before we knew it the lights of Brindisi were coming into view. Arriving late, most with vans camped by the port itself, as we did.
Old town fortifications, Brindisi.
Here we bumped into another couple Martin ( a Brit ) and Anna ( Hungarian) with whom we travelled on to our first stop in Italy, the historic city of Lecce. Lesser known than other Italian cities, it is however no less beautiful. Situated in the heart of Puglia, and known as the “Florence of the south”, Lecce is known for its substantial Roman -era archaeological ruins as well as impressive 17th century baroque style buildings.
“Sprinter time” – enjoyed comparing notes with Martin and Anna who have the short wheel base version of our van. We like the extra space but envy their easier time parking and driving on the tight roads in Europe.Is there anything cooler than an Italian police car ? A beautiful black Alfa Romeo.A section of the Roman ruins in Lecce.Right in the heart of the city, the excavations are ongoing.Lecce’s streets are beautiful.Landmark building in the Piazza Del Duomo.Basilica di Santa Croce, Lecce
From Lecce, a little zig-zagging followed, through Puglia passing coastal Monopoli, Polignano then on to a fascinating place neither of us knew anything about – Alberobello, home of the trulli/trullo structures. Packed with tourists and very interesting to explore, it’s a definite stop for anyone passing this way.
Trulli village on Alberobello.Famed for the whitewashed houses with conical roofs, the stones of which use no mortar.Alberobello.Alberobello back street.
Our final destination this week was beautiful Matera, recognized as one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities and renowned for its “Sassi” – ancient cave dwellings carved into limestone rock. If any of the pictures below look familiar, it was a significant filming location for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion Of The Christ” ( the James Bond film, “No Time To Die” was also set here). At a distance the whole village looks like a medieval-era community with nothing immediately visible to suggest you are in 2026 ( so a perfect film backdrop, especially for Mel Gibson’s epic).
Matera. A most authentic Italian town, often used in movies as a backdrop.Famed for it’s “Sassi” cave structures.Also beautiful to wander and explore. More Matera.Matera’s original cistern, cut out of rock. It used to supply the town with water.Known also for its great food !
So there was lots going on this week, but as with Greece the distances here are mostly not great, making it pretty easy getting from town to town. From here we’ll head northwest towards Naples and Pompei before turning south towards Sicily.
There were a few things that excited us about being back in Europe ( in Greece specifically). Back in our van, with everything at our fingertips and the ability to roam and stay wherever we pleased was probably the biggest thing, but there were others; not fussing with Ramadan food restrictions, back to familiar rules and etiquettes, and just the sense that you were back to a place much more like home. We’d miss the people from the Middle East, especially their incredible hospitality, the wide open spaces, the exotic feel, and of course, the weather ( always perfect there this time of year, but still a bit cool in Europe ). Nice also to be a little further away from a war zone !
Temple of Poseidon, just south of Athens. Kind of stumbled on this while taking the van out for a run – needed to dust off the cobwebs after 7 weeks in storage.
Prematurely departing from the Gulf did complicate our plans in more ways than one – another 2 to 3 weeks there ( the original plan ) would have been ideal and have given us time to complete the sights in ideal conditions. The first issue was that we would now miss those 3 weeks of perfect weather there and, consequently face cooler weather than we had planned for back in Europe ( we’d not expected to be back so soon ). Already sailing pretty close to the wind with expectations ( hopes ? ) of reliable good weather in April, being back in Europe in March would be pushing it. Not unbearable, by any stretch, but certainly not beach weather just yet, even in Europe’s far south. Alas, one must be adaptable, there was little choice in the matter this time !
The other matter to contend with was arranging flights home and securing safe, affordable storage for the van while we returned home for the Canadian summer. Our goal was to be home in May in time for the arrival of grand baby # 2. Normally we’d do this rather spontaneously ( as is our way ) but the with flight prices skyrocketing due to the Iran situation ( and seat availability shrinking ), it made sense to book flights now ( done, for a May departure ) from a city we thought we could reach based on an itinerary we hoped was reasonable over the coming 2 months. Venturing back to the Caucuses and on to the Stan’s was not going to fit into our remaining time now ( an adventure for another day, perhaps ), so we plotted a loose plan for travels around the northern rim of the Mediterranean, heading west from Greece, still keeping us well south and thus as warm as possible given the time of year. This would involve some ferries ( inevitable ) but would provide us new territory to explore ( a key consideration ) – the south of Italy, including Sicily, possibly Tunisia, and on to Sardinia and Corsica. We would then exit home from Barcelona. Fingers crossed, anyway – if the last month has taught us anything it is to keep one’s plans very flexible !
Our plans in the coming two months would be restricted to this area, ending in Barcelona from which we planned to fly home after storing the van.
Crete, the furthest south of Greece’s islands, would be our first destination. It is also Greece’s biggest island, though still quite small, similar in size to Cyprus. We’d not been before, it was highly regarded, and being so far south it should be warmer than almost anywhere else in Europe. The fact that it was a major crossroads of several great civilizations, home to beautiful beaches and other stunning landscapes just added to the appeal. A quick look at ferry options and costs ( for the week we planned on the island ) made clear that it was far more cost effective just to fly over ( only 45 mins ), rent a car and stay in Crete pensions and AirBnB’s. Our van was safe in Athens, so we left it stored for the longer trip ahead. Crete being famous for its tight, curvy mountain roads, a sporty little European manual/standard sedan would be more fun than a campervan anyway.
The friendly Europcar agent gave us a very sporty six speed standard Skoda Fabia ( a real rocket as we would later discover ! ).An absolute joy to be driving a 6 speed standard/manual around Crete’s mountainous terrain ! I was like a kid with a new toy 🙂
Heraklion, the capital and biggest city is where most start and so did we. Famed for its Venetian architecture, ruins, old port and especially its strategic fort ( tussled over for centuries by Romans, Ventians and Ottomans ) Heraklion was an enjoyable start to our explorations.
Old Venetian Fort, Heraklion. Controlled by many powers over the the last thousand years, still in remarkable shape!It was designed to last for long sieges and did that before i before ultimately falling to the Ottomans before Greece took control again when the Ottoman Empire fell.View from the Fort.
West of Heraklion one travels along the scenic northern coast road, passing Rethymno and historic Chania (the latter definitely the prettier of the two and where we overnighted ). The Chania waterfront and historic Venetian architecture in this port side city are the big draws and we could see why, very easy to explore and soak it up.
North coast of Crete.Old town, Rythemno.Rimoni fountain , Rythemno.Venetian era lighthouse, Rythemno.Old fort, Rythemno..Harbour, Rythemno.Chania harbour.Venetian era ruins, Chania.
One of the great natural features of Crete are its beaches, Balos beach at its western extremity among its more famous. Sadly, a rare cloudy and somewhat overcast day diminished its appeal so we moved on. Continuing south, Elafonisis, famed for its shallow waters and unique pink sand was next on our itinerary. It’s definitely pretty and the pink sand is certainly unique, though the water was still a bit cold for swimming.
Pink sand of Elafonissi beach.Pink, yes, but not quite as stunning as we had expected.
Our generally anticlockwise direction took us on to the popular seaside town of Palaiochora, probably the prettiest setting for a little town we’d seen so far. Pretty enough that we spent a couple of very relaxing days there. Great restaurants, nice walks, endless seaside views and a very relaxed vibe.
Pretty Palaiochora, where we spent a couple of days.Palaiochora town. No one gets up early here !Our little boutique beachfront hotel in Palaiochora.A Cretan dinner, loved the beer.Sunset view, Palaiochora.
Leaving Palaiochora the relatively “good” weather ended. The sunny days became overcast, the temperature dropped and out last few days there were restricted to some historic sights, mountain vistas and exploring the old towns. Forget any notion of hikes, even ( we really timed this part badly ) – a visit to the famed Samaria Gorge for the full day hike to the coast ( one of Europe’s most famous ) highlighted just how out of season we were. I asked the staffer when the gorge would open ( noticing the “closed” sign across our path ) – “May 1”, he replied, much to our dismay. It was cooler, yes, but absolutely hike-able weather; both ourselves and a very disappointed Polish couple (who were looking for ways to get past the “closed” sign) couldn’t figure out why the season opening was so late ? I suspect we were not the only ones.
Samaria GorgeUnfortunately the gorge was closed till May 1, disappointing because it’s one of Europe’s best known hikes ( and all down hill, to the sea ).
Our final days took us across the central part of the island, east across the south coast to pretty Ierapetra, en route passing through Hora Sfakion, and Preveli beach ( with its spectacular backdrop ). Sadly the weather did not warm up enough to do anything other than admire each of these places and we even got rained on as we wound our way back towards the north coast and the capital, Heraklion.
Hora SfakionIerapetra, south coast.The stunning oasis-like setting of Preveli beach. View across the north coast toward Heraklion.Traditional Cretan windmill.
Our week there seemed to fly by and with more ideal weather we’d have extended our stay. We found Crete easy to travel, much greener than expected ( I think we had imagined it to be much dryer, like Crete was ) and steeped in history. The particularly enjoyable driving experience ( I’d forgotten how much I liked a standard/manual car ! ) went some way to offsetting the lack of beach weather – it’s a place we’d consider returning to but best visited a month or so later than when we did.
A short blog this week to welcome in the New Year and let folks know that we have just left Kelowna and have headed back to Europe to be reunited with our rig. We’ll have more to share re “what’s next” in the subsequent blog but here are some brief tidbits about our time spent back in Canada.
Wonderful to be home with family and friends over the Christmas holidays, the weather even cooperating ( eventually ! ) giving us fresh snow late on Christmas Day and thus a “white” Christmas of sorts. They don’t come every year of course so this was a nice treat. It’s the time of the year that can be extremely cold, but I don’t think in all the five weeks we were there that there was even one day that we could call really cold, certainly by Canadian standards..!
Not sure if this technically qualifies as a true “White” Christmas but we did get a light dusting of the fluffy white stuff by the end of Christmas Day !Nothing like having a toddler around at Christmas to add a few more gifts under the Christmas tree. Quite a few more it seemed !When in doubt this is always a safe gift for an Aussie abroad !Building a gingerbread house, a Christmas tradition, which the girls took care of (boys were busy watching the hockey 😉) There is a street in Kelowna known as “Candycane Lane”. Almost all the houses go seriously overboard with candycane-themed Christmas decorations, attracting visitors from all over. Quite the spectacle !
Five weeks back in Canada not only gave us lots of time with our own family but also the opportunity to meet up with many old friends and former colleagues – always good but especially enjoyable over the festive season. We were reminded by some that it is coming up to 7 years ( in May ) since we retired & began our overlanding travels – where did all that time go ? In addition to much time spent with friends and family, very unexpectedly – and quite delightfully – we managed to catch up with several fellow overlanders ( and some “upcoming” overlanders ) while we were home – pretty crazy how those connections were made and even crazier that they all happened to be in ( or near ) Kelowna while we were back. Lots of tales from the road were shared and tips reciprocated – nice to know there is a small “local” overlanding world out there. We’ve often marvelled at how few Canadian-based overland travellers there seem to be out there ( or Americans and Aussies for that matter – it just seems to be ALL Europeans wherever we go ) so it was really nice to connect with a number of like-minded souls on this return visit. See pics below for some background on the “catchups”.
Greg and Margot, ( Ikes Epic Adventures ) visiting in Kelowna. A couple of overlanding Aussies ( our second “Aussie” group through in the last 12 months, these guys with a Sprinter 4×4 like ours ). They took the same route up through Asia as us, but when we turned east, they turned west and drove across Russia and the ‘Stan’s’ to Europe. Had a wonderful time sharing tips and travel stories during our visit with them.Lois and I caught up with Ashley ( and later Richard ) Giordano ( Desk to Glory ) for a Christmas coffee. Richard and Ashley are from Nelson, British Columbia and are inveterate overlanders. Currently with family on a break back in Kelowna from a Central Asia expedition, they had bumped into our old friends Andy and Serena in Kazakhstan who connected us up once they realized we were both Kelowna-based ( small world ! ).While parking our van in Athens, the owner, Thasos, pointed out another Canadian vehicle that was stored there, and…..… it turns out that the folks at “Whereistheworld” are neighbours ( of sorts ) based in Grande Prairie, Alberta. We connected over the holidays and had a great catch up. Many similar experiences ( both joys and heartaches !) were shared. They are part way through what will be a substantially global expedition with their two teenage girls. Can’t think of a better education for them !In addition to catching up with several others already on the overland trail during the holidays we had the pleasure of a follow up meeting with Alex and Nadja, fellow Kelowna-ites ( Kelownians ? ), planning to set off in 2026 and currently working on van plans of their own. Always happy to share a few “what we love” and “what we might change” tips about our own rig, since they are planning something very similar for their own overland travels.
Our trip back to Athens had us once again transiting London. As before, we decided to break the journey there, and being the night of our 41st wedding anniversary felt something a little special was called for. Splashed out on a nice hotel and dinner, while a restful night made the long haul from Kelowna to Athens just that much easier. It was only while sitting there for dinner that we realized we’d also spent our very 1st anniversary ( way back in 1986 ! ) also right here in London. A coincidental touch of serendipity, as it were 😊.
Always curious to see the route a plane actually takes on these long flights. Hard not to notice Greenland’s rather strategic location in light of recent headlines about it !
Once back in Athens, it was an easy transfer to the camper storage facility where our rig was safely stored. Arriving back we were amazed to see then place literally overflowing with overland rigs; we thought it was kind of full when we left, we really had no idea !!! In the coming days we plan to get resettled and examine some options for our next moves, but more on that in the following blog.
The PanAm completed in April, 2022 and with the truck camper sold, we shipped our new Sprinter van to Australia in late 2022. We travelled there through all of 2023 and into 2024 before shipping it up to North East Asia where we travelled for 4 months between Korea and Japan, before shipping it back to North America. It’s our plan to continue exploring the world in 2025.
