Tirrilstrip12
 Days 101 - 103 Day 101 Took the coast road and had some lovely views of the turquoise blue sea and craggy coastline until the land flattened out a bit. Then it was wall-to-wall campsites, car parks, beach bars and some very ordinary little towns. Tried another ‘agriturismo’ site, but got there and the gate was closed and no reply to the bell. Moved on to one of the sea-side sites near Cetraro that did take dogs (a lot don’t). Again, we were the only ones here, although as with several other places we have been, there seemed to be some feverish activity going on, seemingly in preparation for hoards yet to materialise. Can’t understand why there are so few campers around at this time of year – we certainly seem to have shaken off the Dutch & Germans who have been the dominant presence in northern Italy. The site isn’t the best we’ve stayed at, sandwiched between a main railway line and main road. There is a path through to the beach, but very gravelly sand. And the site swimming pool is empty of water. Oh well. Will move swiftly on tomorrow. Have made contact with a Yamaha dealer in a town near where we are heading for and have arranged to drop the scooter off with them tomorrow, to be collected on Friday – hoping they’ve found & fixed the problem! Day 102 Got off bright and early (9.30) and headed down the coast again before turning inland and up a really long hill climb, but with wonderful views of the coast. Got to the scooter garage just before they closed for lunch and dropped it off. Then headed back to the hills. There’s a site in our book, but haven’t been able to contact them by e-mail or phone, so hope they are open! Had a really windy, steep climb up (good thing we hadn’t got the weight of the scooter in the back!) up to a lovely wooded area – at last some shade. Found the campsite – in the grounds of a hotel at the eastern end of Lago di Cecita. The place was deserted! There was a large dining room where all the tables were set, but no-one around. Quite spooky really! However, we ventured onto the camping area – no other campers of course, but at least we found a man busy doing repairs to the toilet block. He confirmed the site was open so we parked up under the shade of some tall pine trees. We’re near to a large lake here, so took Tirril down for a walk and a dip. No TV here, so will have to miss the Spanish victory over the Portugese. Day 103 What is it about dogs in southern Italy? – another round of assorted dog barking at 4am. After breakfast, where we had an overhead flypast by a hoopoe, we moved on to explore the area. It’s really scenic with a mix of lakes, tree-covered mountains and rolling agricultural land. Found another campsite next to Lago Arvo, near Lorica – lovely spot, and one or two other people here! (Italians). After an e-mail exchange with the scooter garage, arranged to collect the scooter on Saturday so we can spend a bit more time here. Had another drive around this afternoon to have a further look at the area. Found somewhere to walk Tirril and then realised we were virtually out of dog food, so had to drive to the nearest town to get some. Grotty place, but found what we wanted. Southern Italy is much poorer than the north, and it certainly is reflected in the state of a lot of the towns we have passed. The countryside is, however, lovely. Although my attention was distracted from the scenery on the run back to the site by the return of the darned engine warning light. Groan. So, back to the site for tea, and then it’s up to the bar to watch the big match where Italy will inevitably get knocked out by a dodgy goal, or even penalties, by the resilient, but perennially lucky Germans.
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Diary Photos
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Lorica campsite |
 View from campsite |
 And another |
 Lorica |
 Lots of yellow |
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