Italy to Greece – Ferry Problems
Having managed to get hold of the woman from Anek ferries, who we were supposed to be crossing to Greece with, I was assured we would face no problems or additional charges for choosing to go on the Superfast ferry crossing at an earlier time. We were to simply turn up a couple of hours before departure time and present our original tickets at the Anek desk and we would be given a voucher for Superfast.
So we set off Tuesday across Umbria and into Le Marche and towards Ancona. We had hoped to stay at one of the ASCI sites listed in the Camping Card book but after driving round and round and not being able to find it, we happened on a site at nearby Sirolo. It was basically empty as we were still out of season and was mainly full of sited bungalows. The caravan and mobile pitches were in a separate field, securely fenced and with numerous olive trees. We were the only ones there and while the access was a little dubious for larger vans, it was a lovely spot. That evening we walked into the town for a proper Italian Pizza – although when the bill came at over 50 Euros for two of us we rather wished we had not bothered!
The next day we headed for the port at Ancona and as directed I went to the Anek desk with my tickets and was told to go to the Superfast counter. And that’s where the problems started. We were booked to be on the camping deck so we could be with all 3 dogs, however as our camping van is a conversion and used as our mini-bus for airport transfers, the vehicle document does not state it is an actual camper. So bottom line was whilst Anek ferries, who we had booked with, checked we were ok with our converted camper and dogs and paid, were happy for us to go on the camping deck, Superfast ferries were just rude and unhelpful and gave us a point blank no! But we were not the only ones as an irate German couple, who had used Anek without problems in their camping car for 10 years, were also told no.
So it was back to Anek to complain. Having explained that we booked the camping deck especially so as to be able to be with our dogs and so we could get a decent night’s sleep and that NO, we would not be able to just leave them in the van for 15 hours unless I was allowed access every hour or so to check on them and NO I would not be using the pet cages on the top deck as had seen the state of these before……And that we had specifically booked with Anek so to be allowed on the camping deck and it was not our fault that they were cancelling the ferry crossing so to sort it..……Eventually after waiting for several phone calls to be made and returned we were offered a pet cabin at no extra cost.
We were then rather late to the loading bay and several requests to be allowed to drive on sooner rather than later so we could get the dogs out of the hot car were ignored. We ended up being pretty much the last vehicle on and then had the problem of finding our cabin and getting 3 nervous dogs up several decks. But once settled in the cabin we decided we had done rather well as it contained 4 bunks so we could have one each and the dogs could share the other 2! We also leave the dogs in the cabin and have a wander and get a good nights sleep.
At around 6am the next morning we docked at Igoumenitsa in Greece and disembarked. We had decided to spend a couple of days on the island of Lefakda, which was only around an hour’s drive south. We had booked a campsite, the only one we could find online, but once we were on the island and came across the campsite we had reserved a place on, we decided that as it was only 10am in the morning we would see what other campsites there were. We were rewarded with a sign to campsite only a few kilometres on and went to check it out. We were met by the owner Dimitri and shown a massive pitch we could have and dogs were no problem. The site was situated on its own little cove with wonderful views and was a small family run place where most of the campers were long term. In the end we stayed for 3 days and hope to return as a ‘long-termer’ next year!
