Freya & Us

It was a beautiful bus journey to Portoferraio. Elba is very green compared to other islands and very mountainous with lovely bays. Portoferraio is in one of those beautiful bays and very sheltered with a lovely old town around the port and winding up the hill to the huge citadel. We visited Napoleon's home, Villa dei Mulini during his exile on Elba - a mansion rather than a palace but very nice in a fantastic location - he definitely wasn't slumming it!

Our sheltered bay in Marina di Campo and the weather forecast let us down with the swell giving us 2 very uncomfortable nights and so we had to move on. The only place offering all round shelter is Portoferraio and so here we are. It's a lovely place to anchor with old town views one way and mountains the other and we have the added entertainment of the yachts pouring in each night to anchor and the ferries trying to avoid them!

We took the bus to Porto Azzurro which was another very pretty bay and village. We had a lovely day wandering around the shops, having lunch and then walking along the coast to a beautiful, tiny inlet for a swim. When we got back to the dinghy we discovered we'd left the air screw on the fuel cap undone and most of the petrol had evaporated. We got half way back to Freya and then had a long paddle - luckily it was a calm evening!

Oops, another adventure! We took the bus to a small town high in the mountains - beautiful bus ride. From there we took a cable car - well, more of a cage/laundry basket really (Silvana, Mum just like the ones in Gubbio!) to the top of the mountain where there were absolutely amazing views of the whole of Elba and to the mainland, stunning. From there, there were walking trails back down which was our plan. After taking in the view we looked for the trail but all we could see were rocks, but after a while we spotted the red and white trail marker some way below us on the rocks. It definitely wasn't a path but we assumed a scramble down the rocks on our bottoms would take us to it! Once there we were still in the same situation with another marker some way off and more rock climbing and so off we went again - and soon there was no going back without ropes! We were climbing/scrambling for over an hour, sometimes along ridges with shear drops each side. At one point we realised we hadn't seen a trail marker for some time and that it was impossible to go on in the same direction but when we turned round and it appeared equally impossible to go back up - but we had no choice. We were on a smooth, steep rock with very few handholds and not much grip - very scared! Back on the 'trail' and the next marker was above us on top of some rocks - more climbing with a huge drop below us. Once at the top we thought 'there's no way down without ropes!' But then realised they'd very kindly installed wire cables to help us down - phew! We were exhausted with a 10 mile walk to do and in looking for the next part of the trail we found a sign saying 'very difficult, expert only' - pity they hadn't put that at the beginning! The next part was down through a pine forest which was straightforward (apart from the occasional scramble over rock slides), shaded and with lovely views through the trees. An hour or so later we came to a car park with picnic tables and so stopped for lunch and thought we're back in civilisation now and so it should all be easy now. We set off again but soon found ourselves in dense forest that clearly wasn't a regularly used path and machetes would've been useful. The paths were very steep and had been washed away and had gullies through them and slippery lose stones. It was horrible and took us a couple of hours to scramble and slide down being scratched and bitten on the way. We eventually reached the road and miraculously were opposite the bus stop! Fantastic views and it's good to challenge yourself occasionally! (Note to self - look up definition of footpath in Italian!)

The next day we spent on the boat nursing our bruises, bites, scratches and aches!

Last night we were forecast 25 knot winds which are a bit worrying when you're at anchor. We let more chain out and took the Bimini (sun shade) down and waited. We didn't get much sleep and saw 35 knot winds. We heard several anchors pulled up and reset and a few horns as, we assume, other boats tried to get someone's attention who was slipping but our new anchor held firm. More wind and rain forecast for today and so I think it might be another lazy boat day.......

Click here for the interactive map of our travels