West of Palermo – Hikes, Kayaks and Bikes

After an enjoyable few days in Palermo, it was time to hit the road. First, we had to get back to the airport to collect our rental car. Getting the bus back to the airport was so easy, a good choice rather than getting a taxi. There was a bit of a que to collect our car, and in Italy things take time. Anyway, 45 minutes later we had our car and were on our way heading west.

Our destination for the night was Scopello. On the way we detoured via Segeste to see some of the old Greek ruins. It was a very fleeting visit knowing we would see a lot more later in the trip. After leaving Segeste we found a great little Panineria (Panini café) being run in someone’s backyard. Great Panini, low price and friendly service in a garden setting – a winner!

Hiking

We based ourselves in a beautiful little village called Scopello. We had a room with a great view and really enjoyed a café downstairs – by the second morning they knew us and our order. Close by we also found a restaurant with exceptional service and nice food.

Scopello was really close to a coastal walk through a Nature Reserve called Zingaro Nature Reserve. It was Sicily’s first nature reserve and was established in 1981. There are a few tracks in the reserve and we elected to walk a 14km loop from the southern end of the reserve to the northern end and back again.

The walk was incredibly scenic with a number of beaches to stop at along the way. “Beaches” in Italy usually comprise stretches with pebbles and are often pay for a chair and umbrella. The drawcard for these beaches is that they are free to use and free of all the infrastructure around most beaches. For the most part they were either small coves or even just a rocky outcrop. With the effort required to reach the beaches, whilst not empty, they were not overcrowded (by Italian standards).

We would highly recommend this walk – the scenery is breath taking.

Kayaking

It is good to take any opportunity to get onto the water. We discovered a kayak tour that was close to Scopello and booked a sunset kayak tour. It ended up really enjoyable with the guide and 2 other guys. The kayaks were made of Perspex and therefore see-thru. It was amazing kayaking over some of the shallow reefs and looking through the bottom of the kayak. We ended up going further than most. The guide said it was only the second time for the whole season that he had a group going as far as we did. That said, it was getting very dark on our way back and we decided to put a bit of effort in and head back at a fair pace. We had a dinner to get too and the guide had gone out on a paddle board and was struggling to keep up.

Cycling

Leaving Scopello we headed for Trapani, a port city. We had some very nice accommodation in a great part of the city. We were able to enjoy a number of walks and also got a run in along the beach. We can’t mention Trapani without referencing the salt plains. Trapani is famous for it vast salt plains and we enjoyed visiting the salt museum and walking around the salt plains.

Erice is a hilltop town close to Trapani. We took a cable car up from Trapani to Erice. The cable car ride (3km) was very scenic. The Pepoli Castle and Venus Castle are probably the most visited sites. The former was built by the Arabs while the latter was a Norman construction with imposing towers that derived its name from the fact that it was built on the site of the ancient Temple of Venus, allegedly founded by Aeneas. We enjoyed some other attractions like their Botanic Garden and some of the the sixty (yes 60!) churches. Otherwise the maze of cobbled Mediaeval streets was a pleasure to wander around and the views were stunning.

Our highlight in Trapani was taking a ferry across to Favignana, one of the islands close by. It is a relatively small island and so perfect for cycling. We rented some bikes and set off on a nice 40km cycle. Some of the cycle was on bitumen and some on dirt roads (strada bianchi). The route we followed was largely along the coastal fringe of the island. There were a number of beautiful beaches along the way. For the most part it was relatively flat and easy cycling. We again found ourselves a nice panini café being run out of a caravan, right at a beach.