“This looks like a good spot to camp”, Barry said at the top of the brown sandy beach. The nearest houses were a couple of hundred metres away, which on Sicily’s mountainous but built up coast was distinctly ‘wild’. We pitched the tent on a flat grassy patch and watched the pink sun setting over a turquoise sea. What we didn’t bank on were the trains thudding and rattling past every hour, shaking us from our sleep. When that clunk clunk finally stopped, around 11pm, I was just starting to drift off when the silence was pierced by the unmistakable screech of terrible singing amplified over bad speakers. It was Friday night and one of those distant buildings must have been a karaoke bar.
We soon learnt that there are more secluded beaches every so often along the Sicilian coast – underneath contorted cliffs, in between villages or even on the private beach of an empty hotel that hadn’t yet unboarded it’s doors for the holiday season. The lack of holidaymakers was a distinct advantage for 2 kayakers and the temperatures in March were perfectly warm enough. The sea was a pleasant 13 degrees Centigrade and when the sun was out it was deliciously warm. After the first day sweating in my gore-tex bibs, I changed to my surf skin shorts.
Barry Shaw and I were attempting to kayak about 500 miles around Sicily. It was the most populated place we’d paddled in and I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as other places. Houses perched impossibly on cliff edges, roads on giant stilts, tunnels through mountains and hundreds of colourful fishing boats made for an interesting and always changing view. A temperature 10 degrees above our home of Wales at this time of year helped, as did the easy access to pizza restaurants – although most of the beachfront diners weren’t yet open.
Flat Earth Kayak sails on our borrowed Overline Kayaks brought a smile to my face every time there was enough wind to pull them up. One thing I love about kayaking is that there’s always something new to learn. Playing around with the sail angle relative to the wind, it was great to see how much ‘free’ distance a sail could give you, while adding excitement and intrigue. Thanks to Kari-tek for providing the sails.
In the end, we cut our trip short as our house in Wales was broken into. While that bad news hung over us on the last few days of the trip, we also eased the paddling pace and spent more time relaxing on the beach, cooking nice treats over the camp stove and enjoying the place and the sun. It was a good reminder to make sure you have time to stop and smell the roses. It could have been the perfect end to the trip, if only those two dogs hadn’t found out tent on ‘their patch of beach’ and barked outside for half an hour – twice.
We are extremely grateful to our friends Giueseppe Di Mauro, Francesco Petralia & Gianfranco Liotta who made time in their very busy schedules to pick us up, drop us off, feed us, make us laugh, lend us some great kayaks, drill holes in the boats so we could use sails and generally being supportive and kind. Instead of greeting us back in Catania after about a month, as expected, they drove for almost 3 hours to pick us up after a week of paddling. We look forward to looking after you all when you come to Wales!
Overall Sicily is a lovely place to paddle – warm, relaxing and never far from amenities while feeling wild and isolated at times. This time, we cruised by the snow-covered flanks of Mount Etna, which erupts every year or so. If you like volcanoes, there is also the consistent island of Stromboli where you can see a show of lava about every 30 minutes, and an entirely different sort of volcano in the west — that one I haven’t been to yet, so I’m sure there will be another visit to Sicily at some time.
Sunny Sicily… short and sweet
“This looks like a good spot to camp”, Barry said at the top of the brown sandy beach. The nearest houses were a couple of hundred metres away, which on Sicily’s mountainous but built up coast was distinctly ‘wild’. We pitched the tent on a flat grassy patch and watched the pink sun setting over a turquoise sea. What we didn’t bank on were the trains thudding and rattling past every hour, shaking us from our sleep. When that clunk clunk finally stopped, around 11pm, I was just starting to drift off when the silence was pierced by the unmistakable screech of terrible singing amplified over bad speakers. It was Friday night and one of those distant buildings must have been a karaoke bar.
We soon learnt that there are more secluded beaches every so often along the Sicilian coast – underneath contorted cliffs, in between villages or even on the private beach of an empty hotel that hadn’t yet unboarded it’s doors for the holiday season. The lack of holidaymakers was a distinct advantage for 2 kayakers and the temperatures in March were perfectly warm enough. The sea was a pleasant 13 degrees Centigrade and when the sun was out it was deliciously warm. After the first day sweating in my gore-tex bibs, I changed to my surf skin shorts.
Barry Shaw and I were attempting to kayak about 500 miles around Sicily. It was the most populated place we’d paddled in and I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as other places. Houses perched impossibly on cliff edges, roads on giant stilts, tunnels through mountains and hundreds of colourful fishing boats made for an interesting and always changing view. A temperature 10 degrees above our home of Wales at this time of year helped, as did the easy access to pizza restaurants – although most of the beachfront diners weren’t yet open.
Flat Earth Kayak sails on our borrowed Overline Kayaks brought a smile to my face every time there was enough wind to pull them up. One thing I love about kayaking is that there’s always something new to learn. Playing around with the sail angle relative to the wind, it was great to see how much ‘free’ distance a sail could give you, while adding excitement and intrigue. Thanks to Kari-tek for providing the sails.
In the end, we cut our trip short as our house in Wales was broken into. While that bad news hung over us on the last few days of the trip, we also eased the paddling pace and spent more time relaxing on the beach, cooking nice treats over the camp stove and enjoying the place and the sun. It was a good reminder to make sure you have time to stop and smell the roses. It could have been the perfect end to the trip, if only those two dogs hadn’t found out tent on ‘their patch of beach’ and barked outside for half an hour – twice.
We are extremely grateful to our friends Giueseppe Di Mauro, Francesco Petralia & Gianfranco Liotta who made time in their very busy schedules to pick us up, drop us off, feed us, make us laugh, lend us some great kayaks, drill holes in the boats so we could use sails and generally being supportive and kind. Instead of greeting us back in Catania after about a month, as expected, they drove for almost 3 hours to pick us up after a week of paddling. We look forward to looking after you all when you come to Wales!
Overall Sicily is a lovely place to paddle – warm, relaxing and never far from amenities while feeling wild and isolated at times. This time, we cruised by the snow-covered flanks of Mount Etna, which erupts every year or so. If you like volcanoes, there is also the consistent island of Stromboli where you can see a show of lava about every 30 minutes, and an entirely different sort of volcano in the west — that one I haven’t been to yet, so I’m sure there will be another visit to Sicily at some time.
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