The Eighteenth Week

Monday 4-7-16, Tuesday 5-7-16 and Wednesday 6-7-16

This morning we packed up our stuff and paid the nice campsite lady 17 euro a night for our pitch. The night before we'd watched France beat the Icelanders and go through to the Euro semi finals. I'd also eaten a wonderful braised beef dish in the taverna, two meals out on the trot, we must be millionaires. To make up for all this excess we needed some free camping. After 40 km of tortuously twisty roads that's just what we found at Patistika Beach.

It was a beach side car park where we found a great spot under the pines for shade. There was a beach bar across the road and a taverna just up the hill. We were the only motorhome there all day until a Dutch van turned up in the evening. We had a chat with them, they'd been here three years ago and said it was a good spot for camping.

The beach was nice, according to Liz.

The beach bar was quite smart too and was run by an excitable Greek chap who lived in Munich in the winter and here in the summer. He spoke Greek, German, Italian, French and English. He also had a thing for Italian opera. So we sat with our coffees listening to Pavarotti and talking to him about the Greek economy and Brexit. Everyone we meet asks us about Brexit.

It doesn't take much to entertain us any more. So the sight of a praying mantis sat on a cicada on our wiper blade caused quite a stir in the Van Brian camp.

In the end we stayed three nights, only the fact we'd run out of essentials like beer and wine forced us to move. The Dutch couple, Harry and Erine offered me their moped to go to town to get shopping, which was nice of them, but it was a long way to the shops so I said no thanks. We went for a drink with them and an Austrian who'd turned up in a van. We bought the barman a drink and he also sat chatting with us. It was all a bit multinational. The Austrian said he'd been here twenty years ago and the field we were parked in was a proper campsite then, he'd paid to pitch his tent on it. It was a pleasant evening with a nice view.

Wild camping at Potistika Beach, Greece. N39.26392 E023.29099

Thursday 7-7-16

We left the beach in the morning after saying our goodbyes to the Dutch and the Austrians. We found a town where we could stock up the fridge and also a garage for diesel then headed north. There was a beach Liz had seen photos off that looked good. And it was. It was small, sandy and in a rocky cove.

There was a taverna on the steps down to it and we sat having a coffee watching the lady preparing the food for lunch. The stuffed courgette flowers looked great.

A Bulgarian was camping on the beach. I talked to him about where to go in Bulgaria, as that's our next country, and he gave me some tips. At six the beach emptied and there was just us there. We found ourselves a corner of the parking area and made ourselves at home.

An Italian van turned up and they walked down to the beach. I was impressed with it, only 5m long and not a make I'd seen before. They came back after a swim and left. No idea where as there wasn't anywhere else around here that we could see as a possible overnight stop.

Wild camping at Lambinou Beach, Greece. N39.36027 E023.21325

Friday 8-7-16

So today we needed to make our way north, there was one wild camping spot 80km away we knew of and then it was another 60km to a camp site. The drive north took us high up and inland for a while, we drove along a huge flat plain. It had a man made lake covering part of it and lots of farms with cows and cereal crops, something we'd not seen for a long while.

Eventually we saw the sea again and dropped 380m in 5km down yet another hairpin riddled road. Just along the coast we found the beach we'd been looking for. We pitched up with a few Greek caravans, tents and also a group of gypsies living in tents. It was a busy little spot.

I spoke to one of the Greeks in a caravan. He introduced himself as Stavros, like that bloke off Harry Enfield. This threw me a bit. He explained that he'd lived in Derby for three years and had been the manager of the deep pan pizza take away there. He'd met an English girl in Corfu and had come to England to live with her. When they split up he bought an old Bedford motorhome and drove it back to Greece where a friend of his stole it from him and he's never seen either again. He also said tomorrow the beach car park would be packed with cars as it was Saturday. We were moving on in the morning but it was a shame as there was a great breeze coming off the sea and the place was very laid back, we liked it.

Wild camping at Kato Polydenri Beach, Greece. N39.65585 E022.89340

Saturday 9-7-16

During the evening more caravans and tents had turned up and in the morning the parking was filling up with cars. We packed up and left before we got blocked in. I set the sat nav to take us to a campsite. The route took us along the coast and for a long while all we passed was beaches full of parasols and beach tavernas. Seems this is a popular tourist area for the Greeks. We didn't stop to look around but a family of storks on a power pole warranted a photo.

We rolled into Camping Poseidon at lunchtime. A chap called Yorgos showed us a shady pitch by the sea and we were sorted again. The washing machines took a beating and my smalls got strung up for everyone to see.

We walked down the road and nosed about in the mini markets and shops. We bought some foil backed beach mats to attach to the side windows to act as sun shades. We also bought a nice big fan. The forecast for Sunday was 37 degrees so a bit of forward planning was required.

On our walk around we also realised we were the only tourers on the site, the rest was full of Greek caravans that are pitched here permanently. The services on site were good but they gave you an electronic key that allowed you only one hot shower a day. This seemed a bit stingy to me but their wifi was fast and free so that made up for it. The beach was packed and still busy at 9pm and the place had a proper buzz to it in the evening, like a small town. Most unlike all the other sites we've stopped on in Greece. It made a pleasant change.

And that's our eighteenth week, next week we head for Halkidiki where we plan on spending a few weeks and then its north to Bulgaria.

Camping Poseidon, Platamonas, Greece. N40.01329 E022.59299

Cheers, the Van Brian Crew.