Arriving in Palermo felt like being somewhere outside of Europe. There where overloaded cars waiting for the ferry to Tunisia, the traffic was chaotic, the roads were in bad condition and there was garbage everywhere along the road. Tired from the night on the ferry we sat on our saddles and left the city. After the first night, Aline’s wrist was hurting so much she couldn’t shift gear anymore and so it was time to take a break. We had a lovely apartment in the city of Castellamare del Golfo and, finally, because we had a well equipped kitchen, Aline could prepare the plantains (cooking bananas) she had been carrying all the way from Corsica.
We heard about hot springs just outside of the city and decided to spend the last day of 2019 there. A muddy road lead us there and there were already many Sicilians enjoying the warmth of this natural bath. It wasn’t a good place for camping so we cycled up a nearby hill, collected firewood and spent New Years Eve with a fantastic view.
Spontaneously, we decided to cycle through the countryside and it was absolutely worth it. Everywhere farmers were trimming the vines under olive trees, herds of sheep were grazing and between the vineyards were lots of abandoned houses. The following night we camped at an archaeological site. Sleeping in a place where you know people had lived more than 3000 years before is something indescribable and makes you wonder what their daily life was like back then.
Back at the coast, we saw where the vegetables we were buying came from. More and more greenhouses were around us and the landscape changed from fantastic to dull and dirty. One day, while we wanted to refill our water bottles from the tap, the locals told us several times not to drink it. We were wondering if the groundwater was so polluted from the agriculture and started to use it only after it was boiled or filtered. Still, we felt uncomfortable using it until someone told us that it is actually treated seawater. This knowledge didn’t make the water taste better, but now at least we knew where it was coming from and decided to keep on drinking it.
Cycling in Sicily in the winter is wonderful and we again had the most beautiful spots to camp next to the ocean. Out of the three islands we visited it is definitely the busiest but still people didn’t mind us putting up the tent right at the beach. Most of the time we were somewhere hidden anyway.