Click here for a summary of this year's travels: 2001 Map
Feeling like Alice (in Wonderland) after we had entered this brand new, fully functioning, almost empty marina where we were allowed to berth totally free of charge (potable water and electricity included) for as long as we wanted, and shaking our heads at those Brussels-based eurocrats who had let their EC tax cattle pay for the construction of this purpose-built modern marina, yet had been unable to finalise the paperwork for the official opening.
LeavingItaly with our South-African registered ship at dusk for Malta without clearing-out of the European fortress, always keeping a sharp lookout for the distinctive green-white-red cutters of the Italian coast-guard and for the nondescript-grey and evil-looking speedboats of the infamous Guardia di Finanza.
Click here for a summary of this year's travels: 2001 Map
Visiting the beautifully restored medieval Aragonese castle in La Castella whose history goes back to the last years of the Second Punic War, between 208 and 202 BCE, which was when Hannibal, who had been pressed by the Roman armies and forced to a sudden return home, had built a fortified lookout tower there on the rocky shore of the Ionian Sea.
Click here for a summary of this year's travels: 2001 Map
Exploring the city of Crotone with her 16th-century CE castle of Charles V and discovering the Madonna di Capo Colonna, the icon of the Black Madonna, which was brought to Crotone from the East in the first years of Christianity in the 9th-century CE Cathedral.
Following the tracks of the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras who emigrated from Aegean Samos in 532 BCE to Magna Graecia (where at the time the city of Crotone was one of the most flourishing cities) to escape the tyranny of Polycrates.
Click here for a summary of this year's travels: 2001 Map
Meeting and being carefully interviewed immediately upon our arrival by Guiseppe, an Enduro-riding, polite young man of honour (clad in a black leather jacket with a crash helmet and a pair of Gucci sun-glasses) and being driven around by him in his Lancia car two days later through a maze of orchards and fields in the beautiful countryside and being introduced to papa and mama and all the many others of his famiglia in their castle (from the outside nondescript, with the most stylish and expensive interior), which was deeply hidden in the hills of Calabria.
Learning about the Thessalian hero Philoctetes who founded the small city Krimisa (where Cirò Marina is located today) on his way home from the Trojan War and who consecrated the arrows and quiver of Hercules in the temple of Apollo in Krimisa.
Visiting the 600-acre Librandi Vineyard +39096231518, located between the Ionian Sea and the Sila Mountains, and buying five boxes of incredibly rich and easy-going CiròRosso Classico DOC, made from 100% Gaglioppo, the most important native varietal from the Cirò Marina area, for L 1,900.- (DM 2.-) per bottle.
Click here for a summary of this year's travels: 2001 Map
Exploring the picturesque and rather untouristy Calabrese town of Cariati, a fine example of the fortified hilltop communities from the Middle Ages, about 4 km away from Cariati Marina and in ‘Ndrangheta country.
SY "Kamu II" stern to the pontoon, between two steel pilings. L 225,000.- or DM 225.- per month for low season (Oct - April) and L 490,000.- or DM 490.- per month for high season (May - Sept).
Click below for an interactive aerial view of our marina berth:
Arriving by plane from Johannesburg (where we had been travelling as livaboards 24/7 in our Series III Land Rover I6 LWB, with Salisbury rear axle and a roof-top tent, through South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia for the previous six months) via Zurich and Rome, and preparing our reliable 43-foot Trireme steel ketch SY "Kamu II" for the next years of cruising and “perpetual travelling” through Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Socialising, sharing food, drinks, know-how and cars with a group of wintering yotties from many different countries, especially with Greta & Odd (with their little sons Endre and Lars-Erik) from Norway; with the Germans Jessika from SY "Scheherazade", Klaus from SY "Kailua" and Vera & Werner from SY "Laplayus"; with the Brits Tina & Steve from SY "Esante", Jan & Peter from SY "Harlequin" and with Ria from Holland, and meeting many other great people, such as the marine electrician Vincenzo from Corigliano, the very helpful ship chandlers Loana and Vanni from Sibari, the Italians Mariella and Duilio (the new marina manager from Trieste) and his excellent and helpful crew of technicians: Gaetano, Gino, Mario, Fortunato, Fidele, Pascale and Vincenzo - molto grazie!
Hiking on mule tracks with our Norwegian friends Greta & Odd and their sons through the Pollino National Park in the Sila Mountains, exploring the 910 m deep Raganello gorge which cuts through the park in a north-south direction, crossing the Raganello torrent at the Roman “Devil’s Bridge” (aka Ponte del Diavolo), discovering the old "Albanian" village of Civita and learning about Albanian traditions and customs in these isolated mountain communities in Calabria.
Visiting the Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Sibaritide +390981794869 (entrance fee: L 8,000.- or DM 8.- per person) in Sibari and learning about Magna Graecia, the Greek colonization of Southern Italy and the history of the ancient, 8th-century BCE city of Sybaris, both the most powerful colony of Magna Graecia and the city which created the legendary sybaritic lifestyle.
Exploring the beautifully restored houses and streets of Altomonte (a small gem of a town in the heart of Calabria's "Entroterra"), visiting the famous 14th-century CE church of S. Maria della Consolazione, having a great dinner together with Mariella and Duilio (only a bit overshadowed by an urgent telephone call for Duilio about a fire in the marina where a long-standing difference of opinion between two local families had been sorted out with a few Molotov cocktails thus burning down a nice sailing yacht which belonged to one of the families and had been waiting in the travel lift to be relaunched the next morning) and watching the opera-like performances of the carabinieri, the polizia and the histrionic Calabrese public prosecutor with his inflammatory speech against the local men of honour after our arrival in the marina - to us it was all excellent entertainment.
Konni: Borrowing an asthmatic Volkswagen LT 28 campervan from our Dutch friend Ria and driving all the 1,500 km to Freiburg i.Br./Germany thus traversing almost the full stretch of the long Italian boot from S to N, bypassing Lake Constance, climbing over the Austrian Alps and the Black Forest Mountains in Germany in order to pick up some heavy-weight cruising equipment (e.g. one dive bottle and 101 bottles of South African shiraz) that had proven as far too heavy for airfreight and had been shipped and trucked from Cape Town via Southampton/UK and Bremen/Germany to our daughter Ulrike’s digs in Freiburg i.Br.
Matt: Travelling to Germany by means of a (very social) Italian long-distance bus (one-way ticket from Sibari to Munich for L 150,000.- or DM 150.-), visiting his family in Saxony and our son Armin at the university in Munich, picking up a new 4-seater BFA/DSB life raft in a plastic container and taking the (very agricultural) Italian railway (one-way ticket from Munich to Sibari for L 125,000.- or DM 125.-) back to Sibari.
Cycling together with fellow yotties Debbie & Gary from Sibari to Corigliano, the city of clementines, strolling through the historic city centre and pushing our bikes uphill to the old ducal castle, which was built by Robert Guiscard around 1073 CE as a military post.
Listening to Paulo Coelho (“… the boat is safer anchored at the port; but that’s not the aim ofboats ...”), throwing a farewell party for our Italian friends with German pasta and South-African red wine and motoring the first nautical mile of our upcoming long sea journey behind Duilio and Gaetano who piloted us with the marina launch through the dredged, but still shallow (about 2 m of depth) and narrow (about 5 m wide) canale from the marina into the open water of the cheeky Gulf of Taranto.
Recommended books - click below for our order from Germany
