The final push

We have been settled into our new winter home for a few days now after
arriving late on Wednesday.
After leaving Pompeii the Autostrada made for very slow progress south as
they are in the middle of rebuilding most of the stretch from Naples down to
Reggio di Calabria. It looks like they have been at it for several years
already and that they will have a few more years until completion with all
the bridges and tunnels they are planning. However, we still managed to make
good progress and as we had made an early start we were down towards our
planned stop for the night at Palmi early in the afternoon. After some
discussion we decided to push on and try and get a ferry across to Sicily
and if possible reach our final destination that evening.
All was going well. We bought our ticket, €31, and queued for the next
ferry. It seemed that there was a choice of two that had arrived to pick up.
When we got to the front of the queue the guy took our ticket and mumbled
something to us with the word Palermo mixed in. We thought he was asking if
we were going to Palermo, which we weren't as we were heading for a small
town called Finale 50 or so miles short of Palermo. We looked confused and
said 'No', so he pointed to the open top ferry in front of us and we ambled
on board. The ferry eventually loaded and set sail. All seemed good for a
while until we realised that we were chugging steadily further south than
what we made out to be the port of Messina, were we would be landing. The
other ferry was aiming straight for the anticipated port way back behind us.
We checked with one of the crew who didn't really understand and gestured
that we could drive to Messina from wherever the boat was heading for, not
much help. So naturally we thought the worst and that we might be heading
down the coast to Catania the next main port, a good 11/2 hour drive from
Messina. Perplexed we returned to Noddy and made some hasty alternative
plans for a campsite for the night on the east coast, as we did not fancy a
hasty drive back up the coast to Messina and then the two-hour drive west to
Finale. The boat eventually docked, and we knew we had not gone too far down
the coast, definitely not Catania, but we did not have a clue where we were,
so we headed straight for the Autostrada. It turned out that we had come in
not far south of Messina and were only a little behind schedule. So we sped
on, the roads were quiet, and we eventually reached Finale at about 19h00. A
bit tired after 10 hours on the road we took a pitch for the night and
waited for the new day to dawn to see our new home in the daylight.
Ciao
M&S