Day 79

Day 79. Thursday 17thJune.
It aint half hot.

Away by 7.30am. Hoping to get as much travelling done in the cool part of the day. Destination Paestum and it’s a fair old haul of 300k. The car starts OK but we have the same problems with overheating. Ring our UK mechanic Peter Boxall for advice. (Not for the fist time this trip).
His advice, lots of antifreeze in the radiator, and if the car is really hot, turn on the heating. The heat exchanger will divert the heat from the engine.
With our new strategy the journey is going swimmingly till we hit another diversion.
Only in Italy would this be called a diversion. Anywhere else it would be an outing, something to take the kids out of school early for, have a few days off work even, make a holiday out of it.
Journeying north, this diversion takes us from the west coast to within 30k of the east coast and then back north again. A four-hour trip turns into an 8-hour trip conducted in blazing heat.
The temperature gage climbs off the scale. Plan B, close down all the air vents except for the two either end of the dashboard. Turn the heating and fan up full and open the windows. The engine starts to cool immediately and the red hot air is spilled out the window. Bloody marvellous, thank you Peter. Even 3000k away he’s still keeping our car on the road.
Able to relax a little and enjoy travelling through the extraordinary landscape. The air is scented with the marvellous perfume of clear yellow flowering broom. Passing enormous inland lakes and valleys reminiscent of the Wild West.
Ok, we are exhausted by the time we arrive at Camping Ulisse but what a dump. Lots of permanently sited vans parked up for the winter. The shade comes from bamboo canes on top of concrete pillars, bleak, and each space, though large enough, is littered with rubbish. This is camping ina council tip. Ah well its only for two nights.
Walk to the site of the temples to try a restaurant from our guide. This is the tenth restaurant we have tried from the Rough guide and the tenth to be closed when we get there. More details please Rough Guide.We strike it lucky with a restaurant close by. Too exhausted to choose we plump for the tourist menu (heavily featuring Buffalo Mozzarella produced locally) and the food is great. Overlooking the Temples which are illuminated while were eating . Walking home via the temple entrance the evening turns into a magical experience.