Saturday June 8, Cefalu

All lined up for the beach.

After a good nights sleep, am not feeling too bad today, hoping that I am not going to get a full on cold. We are certainly getting some hot weather and overnight temperatures were close to 30 degrees. Thankful to have a good fan and electricity.

Got organised early and caught the 8.30 bus into Cefalu with a few other campers. The town was just coming to life as we walked along the beach front. Rows and rows of umbrellas and deck chairs in front of the private beaches, lads out manicuring the sand around them and other early birds were claiming a spot on the public areas with their umbrellas and chairs. It is a beautiful sandy beach and today the water was dead flat with several rather large yachts anchored off shore. Evidently this town is one of the most popular beach holiday destinations in Sicily and with Italian school holidays just starting it was getting busy.

The old town is built on the shores beneath a huge rock towering almost 300 metres above…but we didn’t bother trying to walk to the top! Really enjoyed walking through the maze of very narrow streets where it was much cooler. Lots of tourist type shops lining the streets near the water, but further up some really nice quality little shops. The huge Doumo, (Catherdral) stands in a very prominent position. It was nice and cool inside and Ian was happy to sit in a pew(!) while I wandered around admiring the fabulous Byzantine mosaics.

Great entertainment with a guy driving around the streets in his little three-wheel truck loaded with vegetables. He stopped outside houses and in a very loud voice announced his arrival. People hung out windows and ordered their vegies then came down and collected them. He was hilarious and you could hear him all over the place.

Found a really nice little trattoria for lunch on a wee side street, and were treated to a very good traditional Sicilian lunch. Interesting they arrived with a hardboiled egg in its shell, a small piece of bread with a marinated sardine and a shot glass with a marsala type of drink. The waiter explained that this is traditional for this restaurant and he also placed a bib around our necks, and this too is their tradition. We had to laugh but it certainly did a good job of catching the drips. I had a really nice dish of spaghetti with a zucchini sauce and red prawns. So tasty. Ian had sword fish and thoroughly enjoyed. And we shared an almond parfait…yummy.

By now the beach was getting really busy, and understandable as it was certainly a lot warmer. Caught a bus back to camp mid afternoon and it was so good to be in the cool under the trees. I was a bit lazy today and only took my small camera to town, although it is pretty good, do notice the quality.

A pohutakawa flowering at the camp entrance.

Fish shop...such different types of fish.

Interesting aubergines

The local hairdresser.

The local vegie delivery.

An interesting organ for you Dr D

HAHA!!!!

There's a guy under these blow up beach toys...
off to make some sales!