From our planned route map, you’ll know that we were planning to drive to the foot of Italy and then ferry-across to Sicily, then Sardinia, before landing on the French mainland in Marseilles to begin our long drive to south-east Spain. We’ve got to get to Spain by mid-November as we’ve already paid for flights to take us to London, then Cork, for a close-friend’s Stag-Do and Wedding — I’m his best man, so I can hardly gracefully bow-out of the events!

After spending some time researching the ferry timetables and costs, we’ve decided to postpone our trip to Sicily and Sardinia. The ferry costs are “not economically viable”, the timetables are sparton (the Sardinian ferry is only once a week) and the weather is becoming less predictable around here. Plus, after two months of camping, this van is not getting any bigger and I’m rather looking forward to getting up from a sofa without concussing myself on a low ceiling. Rather than rush through these no-doubt excellent places and “soldier on, because it’s what we said we would do”, we’ve decided to change our route which will allow us to get to Spain ahead of time and slow-down for a few weeks (and make time for me to craft the Big Speech).

So here is the new plan: From the Amalfi coast, drive like a nutter to known-good campsite in Rome to do clothes-washing, food-shopping and self-cleansing. The next day, drive a hour north to Civitavecchia, “the port of Rome”–as in “London Luton airport”–and sleep through a nineteen-hour ferry ride to Barcelona! Whilst there, spend a couple of days seeing the big sites and then drive like a nutter to Los Alcazares on the Mar Menor where a luxury apartment is waiting for our bottoms to grace its most comfortable sofas.