We awake to a calmer sea, brighter skies and a (mostly
watertight Onzo). All is good.
We nail a quick coffee and decide to make the most of
this spectacular place. Straight to the beach for a morning dip. The waves are
crashing in, huge rollers bearing down on you at 9am in the morning (this is
the way to start the day!) cobwebs well and truly gone (not that there were any
of course!).
Half an hour later and much refreshed we are en route.
Only a few minutes into the journey however and the weather takes a distinct
turn for the worst. This sets the tone for the day. Yesterday was bad, this is
much much worse. The original plan was to stop before Naples and camp for the
night in a suitably nice place. As we soldier on two things become immediately
apparent; firstly there is no point stopping as the weather is unreal.
Visibility is literally down to zero. The traffic is crawling along in a long tail
at barely 20 kmh and secondly there are no nice places. So plan B is to drive
past Naples, keep heading south and hope for better things.
This part of the Italian coast is one endless line of
empty, tacky resorts, which in the main look rundown and neglected (think Great
Yarmouth on a grey dull drizzly day and you’d be close). The book of occasional
truth did warn of this, so at least that’s something it got right. The towns
are all linear and drab. Full of motels, gambling joints and pharmacies.
(Nowhere in the world can have more Pharmacies than Italy, they are literally
every third of fourth shop!). Progress is slow due to the rain and the strange Italian
driving affliction that seems to be widespread and most surprising bearing in
mind their reputation. Slow driving. Not just slow though, sometimes barely
moving (and massively inconsiderate, total lack of special awareness and
generally terrible. Italians can’t drive. Fact). This affliction can take place
even on the motorways and is frustratingly common. Grrr.
Naples arrives on the horizon as the weather clears (a
positive sign we hope). Compared to the Rome experience, this is a walk in the
park. Motorway all the way, with the added bonus of spectacular views of Vesuvius
and the Bay of Naples, the Island of Capri and general loveliness.
Unfortunately we miss the glories of the Amalfi coast, Sorrento and Positano
and the like, it simply isn’t the day what with the weather and the lack of
visibility. Onzo and cliff roads doesn’t seem like the best plan and the
weather is too diabolical to stop for Pompeii and Herculaneum and the like.
Nonetheless the scenery is lovely (Naples is enorme!!) and we head on South,
trying to out race the weather.
Finally we arrive at Agripoli, almost instantly we
find free parking (unheard of!) by a mini harbour type place. We’re pretty much
in the sea, we’ve got a view over the harbour to the old town which is perched
up on a hilltop, the weather has eased, things are looking up.
A couple of things have come to light in this last
stretch of driving in the monsoon. We have two leaks. Both only minor, but both
need attention if Onzo is to be truly snug and watertight. The first is that
our rear vent likes to pretend that it’s open while driving and it showers rain
very prettily all over everything it can reach. The second is that Walter’s
window fix has got a very slight leak which has resulted in a very slightly
damp bed. Not ideal. The weather has turned scorching so we bail everything damp
outside the van: mattress, sheets, clothes that have got soaked in unexpected
downpours, the lot. Everything is drying nicely. And then the heavens open.
Again. Bloody bloody weather. Enough is enough now. Bring back furnace, we miss
you! Everything is piled back into the van at speed. Naturally blue skies
return not five minutes later. After a few more attempts at this eventually we
get everything drying and turn our attention to the leaks. Noush gets busy with
window leak and chucks a load of sealant at it. To be fair to Walter he’d
already done this, but there’s no sealant on this earth that could have
withstood that amount of rain. Meanwhile Jon gets busy with vent thingy. Turns
out it just had a screw loose. No comment.
Van is fixed! All is well. We toddle off for a
celebratory swim, get side tracked by a fishing shop and buy some goodies
(including new flops for Jon in order to minimise all future flip flop fails),
back to the van for al fresco cooking and a meal overlooking our little
harbour. Ain’t life tough.
View from the back of Onzo
