Wobbling Winos: Sicily Day 1

Day 1: 11 km to Terrasini.

We jumped onto the red-eye flight to Palermo from Gatwick airport. This meant that we had to leave Orpington at 03:30 by taxi after only four hours of sleep. We thought we would have ample time as their would be no traffic on the M25. The taxi driver stopped to fill up with petrol and there was quite a lot of traffic on the M25, all the Brits leaving the UK for the summer bank holiday long weekend. Once we got to Gatwick the queues were long. Everything there runs on self service, booking in and loading luggage on the conveyer belt. Being from SA we had to have our passports checked which held things up a bit more and also had to load our bikes through the large luggage area, then grabbed a quick breakfast and made the flight with five minutes to spare. Always a good idea to have at least half an hours leeway when catching a flight.

We landed in Palermo after a quick smooth 2 hour flight. The bikes were fine. The stand on Ian's bike got a bit bent which was sorted out quickly. The bags have been fantastic, much easier to move around than when they are packed in boxes. We found a spot outside the airport building to assemble the bikes and pack our panniers. It took Ian an hour to do both of them; he is really becoming a pro at it now.

I felt both excited and apprehensive about getting on our fully loaded bikes again. We had not ridden them with all our gear on for a year and I was worried about the Italian drivers.

The Garmin was charged and did not let us down this time. We made our way on a small road which ran parallel to the big highway through various villages. Everything is quite dry and brown which is insane as it is meant to be spring - it reminded us of home. The drivers were extremely courteous which set my mind at rest. It was so good to be back on the bike again.

Tetrazzini is a small coastal town west of Palermo. I had forgotten how unbelievably blue the Med is. Our accommodation for the night was at Le Oasi in Via Santa Rossalia which was very comfortable and a very friendly host. After a beautiful walk along the coast we had supper at La Sirrinetta which was an authentic Sicilian eatery, quite rustic with a beautiful view of the sea. We started with an antipasto platter for two which was actually more than enough for us. We tasted chick pea cakes, potato rissoles, delicious olives, cheese and stuffed tomatoes. The pasta that followed was also delicious. Ian settled for a pasta Busiata with tomato and fresh tuna and I had a pasta Congolese with clams and shrimps, both absolutely delicious. We had a half carafe of the white house wine which was very ordinary.

The passion of Sicily is starting to course in our veins, a wonderful start to our holiday !