Trapani - 29 October 2021

As we have said before, the sun is waking us up quite conveniently on time at the moment. It streams in from the back of the boat straight through to our cabin in the bow. So we were up and doing promptly. 



There were a couple of things that we need from the chandlery, so we left Chris to sleep and set off to where Google said there was one. When we arrived there was no sign of anything resembling a chandlers, but we got redirected to a plumbers merchant, as it was a hose for one of the showers that was needed. The plumbers merchant didn’t have what we wanted either, but sent us on to another chandlers, who fortunately did have the required hose, but with the wrong thread size. They equipped us with a piece of paper stating the adjusting piece we needed and sent us back to the plumbers merchant. For the princely sum of 1 euro, he supplied the converter and all was well. We had just walked a bit further than we expected.

We wanted to go to Erice again, and this time planned to take the bus to the cable car station. We had been given instructions about which bus to take and where the stop was, however, we were standing at a stop on the wrong side of the road when the bus came, so we missed it. Time was of the essence, so we elected to take a taxi, which was very reasonably priced when compare to the bus fares, and in no time at all we were boarding the cable car, for the 704 meter ascent. The weather was much better for this visit than our previous outing, and the views back over Trapani were spectacular as we went up. We walked the narrow lanes, feeling as if we could easily get lost, but eventually came to one of the lookout spots, just as the cloud came in and a few drops of rain fell. The cloud came and went and we did manage to see the view out over the sea to the Egadi islands. We lunched and bought some Sicilian pastries at the most famous of the pasticciera. The cloud had cleared a bit as we descended, and the views were ever improving.

Erice is one of Italy's most famous and best preserved medieval towns







We located the right bus stop for the return journey, and had only a short wait. We were the only people on the bus for the entire journey. The route took us around parts of the town that we had not seen before, and passed a beach with folks kite surfing. It looked like a great way to spend a Friday afternoon, and the conditions were perfect. As we neared the centre of town the bus went down a one way street with cars parked on both sides, leaving a narrow lane in the middle. The problem was that a lorry was there, parked in a very tight spot, but sticking out into the road so that the bus could not pass. The lorry had hoses of some description leading into a building and was not going to be quickly moved. A queue of traffic built up behind us, with some drivers helpfully hooting their horns. Finally a couple of the owners of the cars parked opposite the lorry were located, and they moved their cars to give just enough space for the bus to pass.

On our return, we were visited by more of the workmen from the yard, who will be looking at a different set of issues. As before, they seem very able, and are keen to get on with the work. 




Steve (Tricia and Chris)

Distance today              0 miles

Total distance 2021:   563 miles

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