Greece you are so beautiful

Tuesday 15 May to Thursday 31 May

Firstly apologies for those of you that tried to access the website for the last blog, there appears to have been a licensing issue but all is now resolved thanks to Jodie. We haven’t been up to much just lazing about on the beach so I’ll keep this blog brief with just the places we’ve stayed.

We’ve been using a number of offline resources to find our free camping spots, Peejays Greece, Park4night, Camper Contact and we’ve got loads of ‘pins’ on Maps.me provided to us by other motorhome bloggers such as the ‘Motorroamers’ ‘Small cat, big travels’ and we are constantly searching the motorhome Facebook pages for tips and recommendations. How we would have managed so far without all these we dread to think. The internet really is a wonderful travelling tool.

We’re really struggling with the WiFi, we’ve got a sim card for Vodafone but it’s expensive, very temperamental and obtaining and holding a good signal is very frustrating. If we stop to have a coffee or ice cream we ask for free WiFi first so we can at least try and catch up with the kids and family back home.

Over the past 2 weeks or so we’ve parked up in some really beautiful locations, some have been really easy to find, others have been up and down very long windy and steep mountain roads or through some very tiny villages. Luckily we’ve managed to squeeze our way through.

We’ve seen some fantastic sunsets and moonrise’s but we’re far to lazy to open the blinds early enough in the morning to see the sunrise, our body clocks wake us up at 8.30 every morning far too late to greet the suns rise.

We spent one night at Monemvassia where we had to park with our backend overhanging the water to enable us to fit in the carparking space, I was awake most of the night thinking we might tip up lol.

There’s a short causeway to Monemvassia Island that you can walk across or you can catch a shuttle bus. When it’s hot it makes the walk a bit of a hike but the medieval walled town is beautiful, no cars or motorbikes inside the walls. The streets are narrow with lots of tavernas and small boutique shops, it’s lovely and has a peaceful feel to it.

The highlight was seeing the turtles swimming around in the harbour.

We spent one night at a beautiful beach 10km from Monemvassia but were eaten alive by mosquitoes whilst sitting on the beach after sunset Skyping Keith’s Mum. My ankles and wrists swelled up and I had to take antihistamines.

We had one of those days when we didn’t know where we wanted to go so we head off up and down the mountains to the other side of the ‘finger’ the roads are steep and windy. The smell of the wild herbs is intoxicating, rosemary, thyme and lavender, its immense.

We were heading to a small fishing port and we need to find some water along the way. We’re nearly at the fishing port when Eugene gave us a heart attack the warning brake fluid light came on and tells us not to proceed. WHAT, we’re at the top of a mountain miles from anywhere and we have to get down again, we haven’t passed a living soul or vehicle in over an hour and an half. We stop and Keith decides we’ll wait for the wheels to cool down and then set off again.

20 minutes later and it’s all good so we carry on to the fishing port only to find that we can’t actually get our fat arse down the teeny weeny roads. We have to drive all the way back up again.

We drove to Glateos Port which was lovely and quaint with tables and chairs set out along the harbour side. Whilst here we hiked up the side of the hill to see an ancient monument in 30 degree heat beating back the huge spiders webs to find a pile of stones that we could hardly see amongst the plants and nothing recognisable as a building.

Snooper is being a bit of a dick if we put the fastest route she takes us on the toll roads and half way round Greece to get where we want to go which we don’t want to do. If we put the shortest route she takes us down the windiest, smallest roads and villages that are beginning to make us wince as we drive through with Olive beaches scraping our sides. We are having to ignore a lot of the directions snoopers giving us. At one point she told us to turn left, there wasn’t even a road it was the edge of the mountain, maybe she’s fed up of Keith’s foul language directed at her. She told us to turn into the village, so we did, the road was narrow, actually very narrow with some of the houses having small verandas about our roof height overhanging the road and the gardens overflowing with olive branches. We turned into one road and inched our way down when we hear a voice “oh no, no, no”. We stop the man runs out his garden and tells us we are to big to go down the road it’s very steep with sharp bends and the trees will make it impossible to pass. He gives us further directions to the main road. Why can’t Snooper just do as she’s told.

We ended up down a road another long mountain road 15km away from anywhere to a free spot at Fokiano Beach and on the way down the brake light came on again. We’ve got no option but to carry on. I think we took out a few olive branches along the very narrow round down to the beach but it was worth it.

We spend 5 days in a campsite for 13 euros a night, Camping Semeli in Plata near Leonadrio. It’s a lovely site by the beach and near the port. The guys who run it are two Greek brothers. The site has a lovely relaxed atmosphere if it was free we would have stayed longer. We meet up with Jo from Touring Tails (check them out on Facebook) and Dean and Vikki a couple of Aussies who take time out very year to chill out.

Whilst here we had our brakes pads changed. We had fantastic service from a garage on the road between Leonidio and Plaka, the guys had Eugene up on the jacks, wheels off and part ordered within 20 minutes. Next morning at 10am new brake pads fitted all for the cost of 80 euros bargain.

We spent one night at Astros Beach which was lovely and quite with a beautiful beach.

2 nights at Kiven Port which was fantastic but the wind picked up so it’s time to move on.

2 nights at Viras Harbour we were the only campers in the municipal carpark. A beautiful fishing harbour. Whilst having a coffee at the taverna we decided we would have dinner there on the next night, I been waiting for a fish dinner since we got to Greece and they had octopus on the menu, fantastic.

Next day I collected a bowl full of cockles and cooked them for my lunch, they were delicious.

7pm we head over to the taverna so I could have octopus, one sip of water and I had to run to the bathroom I was physically sick and felt unwell for the rest of the night. Luckily I hadn’t ordered the octopus but instead opted for a Greek salad which I ended up taking in a doggy bag for my lunch the next day. Keith had burger (they don’t come with buns) which he said was delicious. All night all I could smell was garlic so much so I told Keith to go and sleep outside, which he obviously wouldn’t. We made friends with a beautiful dog of about 18 months old, he was so playful but when I picked up a stick to throw for him he cowered away.

We spent 2 nights at Salanti Beach, again a beautiful beach. We helped a young Greek. Outlet bush their car which had a flat battery, an hour after they left they came back with a small bottle of Ozou which we polished off for a night cap.

1 night in the port of Galatas where we took the ferry across to Poros Island for 2 euros return. I finally got to have a fish for lunch a huge plate of sardines which were absolutely delicious.

We went on a stunning coastal drive to Epidavros Beach were we stayed for 2 nights. Unfortunately the beach was littered with plastic rubbish which we’re told is unusual.

We took a drive to the ancient healing center of Epidavros and walked around the ruins in 34 degree heat which was a tad warm.  But on the plus side we managed to empty the toilet lol.

We’ve bought ourselves a drop line know absolutely nothing about fishing, thew it in the water, bugger it only has a hook.  What do we do Jason ‘Smash Fishing’ we need you.

 

We need to find a Dometic Fridge agent.  Having thought we’d solved the problem with the gas it appears that this isn’t the case.  Our trustee Carbon Monoxide Alarm has gone off twice in a matter of days.  We thought we’d got dirty gas, now we’re not so sure.  Hopefully we can get this sorted in Athens.  Until then windows wide open whilst we’re sleeping.

Our total spending since the 17th December when we entered Morocco is £6,344.52 based on £1.10 to 1 Euro, which works out about £38.22 a day.  We could get this down further if we didn’t drink so much beer or wine or eat so many cakes and icecreams.  Our budget is £50 per day so we’re pleased with these figures.

Don’t forget we’ve got more regular updates on our facebook page and you can track us on the map on Polarstep (We’ve only got 2 followers on there lol).

We’re heading away from the coast to Athens and then up to Bulgaria, its gonna be hot.

Bells Palsy update.  I continue to make improvements which I’m really please about.  The left side of my face is now pulling the right side to the left so I have to constantly massage the left side to stop if pulling.  I still can’t blink my left eye at the same time as the right but can close my eye ‘on command’ which is great.  I’ve managed to keep a pair of contact lenses in for a whole day.  My lips on the left side of my mouth still don’t work, so if I’m eating for instance an apple, half of it will fall out my mouth before I’ve had time to eat it.  Drinking without a straw still causing problems but I think that might be because I’ve drank too much wine.  There’s still a way to go but in the scheme of things its not the end of the world, I’ve nearly got my smile back which is so important for my confidence.

Hope your enjoying the blog as much as we are living it.

a la perchoine

Shirena & Keith

xxxxx