Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo 08/07/2010

Our first proper road trip today! Tom Tom 750 (now fondly known as Tommy by the kids) in hand and car packed we headed up into the high mountains on the southern side of the drained lake plateau that Celano overlooks, which was once lake Fucino. The mountains are all national park now and this one Parco Nazionale d"Abruzzo is considered one of the most important in Europe apparently. There are 100 Orso Bruno Marsicano (The Brown Marsican Bear) and 60 wolves living in the wild. The Marsican bear is endangered and mainly lives in this park. The views were stunning.

Seeing this alpine country and forests in the summer is a real treat. The forests are brighter then our dark rainforests. They have a light green glow to them. At Pescasserroli, a small town nestled between the mountains there is a little but well presented zoological display of several bears, native type of otter and birds of prey. Most of the animals are recuperating form injuries or illness. We saw some European Brown bears and one of the smaller Marsicon bears.

After an 2hr stop at Piescasseroli and lunch in the zoo we headed down from the mountains toward the coast south of Naples and Pompei, what was meant to be about a 5hr hour journey. Tommy was brilliant at helping us navigate the complex array of highways and autostrada's. The drive through this region was really lovely and we were glad we had decided to hire the car and get off the beaten track. You don't get to see the countryside like this from a crowded train.

Things were going great until we arrived at the destination I had programmed into Tommy. It wasn't actually where we were meant to be. I had booked a agriturismo hotel (farm stay hotel)advertised online in the region of Castel san Lorenzo and in all my planning had just thought it to be in San Lorenzo. However, after carefull reading of the booking sheet we discovered the actual address to be 20km away from the little town that we found ourselves in. The windy rural roads into these high mountain passes meant a tricky trip down to the new destination and Tommy had a few black out moments (I think too many tiny dirt roads for it to choose from.) We had officially become lost at one particular black-out spot. Then we found a kindly local farmer couple driving along the now dirt driveway of theirs that we found ourselves on. They kindly drove in front of us to show us the way through the next town and set us on the right track. Another 45mins later with some more confusion at one point and we finally arrived at Agriturismo Mammarella in the dark at 10pm. The owners were very hospitable and we had a lovely four course meal of good country style cooking to settle down too.