SAUDIA ARABIA… Initially I was planning to ride from Napoli to to Bari in southern Italy and catch a ferry to Greece, then ride down to Türkiye. From there I was thinking of riding down to the border with Iraq and then ride south and into Saudi Arabia. Yes, a really big decision so for the past few weeks I’ve been closely looking online and seeing how things are, but unfortunately the Iraqi’s have now closed the Khalil border between Türkiye and Iraq to ALL foreigners because of militia groups on the rampage in northern Iraq. They can’t guarantee the safety of foreigners, and fair enough.
I still could have gone to Greece and Türkiye but its such a big ride that I would have wanted to continue onwards to Saudi and Jordan. Yes, Türkiye is still a big journey – but it’s not big enough, so I’m going to try again next year. For the moment, I’m going to cut my losses, head over to Sardinia, Corsica and then back into Europe.
DECISION MADE… So, I reluctantly booked a ferry ticket over to Sardinia first thing in the morning for the evening ferry over to Sardinia. Yes, I’m a bit disappointed, but sometimes you’ve just got to roll with it and carry on. what’s the point of being glum…? After a lazy start I finally left my campsite at Pompeii and decided to ride up to the top of Vesuvius. Getting up there wasn’t a problem on a big v-twin but when you get to the entrance at the top you need to have a ticket to go to the peak and look inside Mount Doom for any golden rings – which you can only buy online – and as there was no 4G or Wi-Fi there, I decided to head down again back to civilisation.
I spent the rest of the day just meandering around the outskirts of Napoli, ending up near Prochida, which is on the west side of Naples, overlooking the city. Armed with a cold drink and a huge panini I killed time sitting in the shade, reading my kindle and admiring the view as I didn’t have to be at the ferry terminal until 5pm.
With one last duck, dive and weave through the city centre I got to the ferry terminal at 4.30 but I could not find the check-in. After getting several sets of directions I was starting to get worried about the sailing time as although I was here early, I still couldn’t find where I was supposed to be…! I eventually found it, as it’s right next to the entrance to the port, on the right, and you need a magnifying glass to see the sign…
After check-in we finally started boarding just after 5.30 and being on two wheels, you tend to get flagged on quite early as bikes are usually trucked away in a corner or behind a stairwell. Next to me was a Portuguese guy on a Harley that he’d built himself. He was hoping to ride to India and then Vietnam and like me, he now couldn’t get past Türkiye so he was heading back to Portugal. As soon as we rolled onto the ferry I was directed where to park and as soon as I got off the bike there was a guy to tie the bike down. Excellent. Better than Irish Ferries who just leave you to it.
The ferry is very comfortable, very clean and very modern. It wasn’t expensive, either. 120 eu for me, the bike and a cabin. It’s even got a jacuzzi next to a bar up on the top deck near the funnel, and at the very back of the ship there is also another open bar with lots of comfortable chairs. And the food – well, we’re in Italy so the food was really good.
I’m missing Napoli already…
