Matera - 13 October 2022

It tried raining just after midnight - but nothing very heavy until this morning. I was up about 7am to make a cuppa (not usual - it’s usually husband’s job!), and Dave’s alarm went off - no idea why - didn’t see anyone around…

Tintin paid our guy €15 for our stay, then proceeded to get very wet servicing Dave.

Our laundry wasn’t totally dry - so that’s now strung up from the shower to the back overhead lockers in the ‘bedroom’.

Tintin drove in the thunderstorm to a mini market - we both went to have a look - decided it wasn’t worth buying anything - as it didn’t have all we wanted!

Plan B - found a place called Sole365 about 10 minutes away. Was a good supermarket, even had a bakery, fishmonger - plus everything we needed - all reasonably priced too - except coke!

We then stopped off at a huge outlet mall - mainly as it has a huge carpark, so we had lunch whilst deciding what to do.

When the rain stopped, I popped into the Outlet, as I’d spied a Lindt shop! The place was deserted - not sure how it survives. Plus, for the record - I didn’t purchase any chocolate! I was given a lovely Lindt ball of delight to ‘try’ - who am I kidding - of course I know what they taste like! Anyway, we’d just bought some Lindt chocolate from the supermarket - and it was cheaper than the outlet store. How does that work? Plus, it had all the advent calendars - and I don’t want to be thinking about Christmas yet!

We made the decision to go for it, as it wasn’t raining.

On the way towards the Agricamper, we’d both seen diesel for €1.82 - today it was €1.87 - maybe because the men did it for you? Or fuel has gone up again? €73 to fill up. Had problems getting the fuel cap in and locked, first man called the second one, who couldn’t do it either! We pulled out the way, WD40 has helped - but it was a bit dicky last time we fueled up too - hope it won’t cause any future problems…

Once we’d started, there really wasn’t anywhere to stop. We weren’t charged for the bit of Autostrada we went on.

Tintin drove for about 2-1/2 hours going from West to East towards Matera. The roads have all been surprisingly good in general.

We lost count of the number of road works, and switches to the other side of the dual carriage way. On most bridges, it was one lane traffic, all coned off - we wondered if it’s an attempt to preserve the surface for longer? Didn’t actually see any men at work, despite them being promised for about 100km!

The scenery changed very quickly from the flat to high up in the hills.

Not sure there are many places you can drive in four lanes of traffic, with no road markings, and no central barrier!

We’re now parked up at Parco Scultura La Palomba, which is an art park in an abandoned quarry. It’s on Park4Night - and it’s free.

Had a very quick walk around to take some photos - it’s only about 19°! - and then it started to rain again - but at least it held off whilst driving. We were swimming only yesterday - what a change in weather.

Tomorrow we’re off to see the troglodyte town of dwellings cut into the limestone ‘sassi’ (rock faces) of a deep ravine. That’s the plan - but rain is forecast too…