The Fourteenth Week

Saturday 4-6-16

We left Camping Nicolas on Saturday morning along with the French couple we’d got to know.  They headed south and we headed north.  At the top of the hill out of the town we stopped and grabbed a photo. 

It was a nice place and we’d enjoyed the campsite there.  We didn’t plan on driving far today.  The first place we looked to stop at was in a very small town only 10 km down the road. But it was Saturday and all the locals were down on the beach so it wouldn’t do for an overnight stop.  But there was a small supermarket, so we got bread and tomatoes for lunch.  Another 20km on, at the end of a dead end road, was a harbour town called Korfos.  It had a quiet beach and a gravel road alongside it.  Perfect, we found some shade and parked up.

Over the course of the day three more vans turned up and blagged spots under the trees.  We walked along the beach into the harbour and had a failed attempt at getting a coffee in one of the harbour side cafes.  We sat for fifteen minutes but nobody was around to serve us.  So we gave up and saved ourselves €5. 

We had our lunch back at the van looking out to sea then we sunbathed, read and snoozed.

Wild camping at Korfos Beach, Greece.  N37.75807 E023.12073

Sunday 5-6-16

I got up very early and sat outside the van with a nice breeze and the sun coming up over the hill.

We decided to stay a second night here.  And at lunch another van turned up, a Spanish registered one.  The first one from Spain we’d seen.  So the row of vans parked went German, French, British, German, and Spanish.  At the far end were two French hippy busses and a Greek couple had plonked a tent on the beach in between us all.  A sudden influx considering it was just us here yesterday lunchtime.  Still time for a Dutch van to appear.

Wild camping at Korfos Beach, Greece.  N37.75807 E023.12073

Monday 6-6-16

No Dutch van but more Germans arrived this morning.  But it was time for us to leave.  As per usual we looked back at our camping spot from the hill as we drove out of town. The little group of trees on the bit sticking out to sea in the middle is where we'd been.

We headed north to Corinth.  The roads got busier and we counted 22 tourist coaches in a row heading south.  We found ourselves a Lidl just outside Corinth and also a shop selling camping stuff.  Here the kit on Van Brian got the addition of two small folding stools.  Handy to sit on, put your feet on when sat in the big chairs and use as little tables.  A bargain at €16 for the pair.  We also found The Blue Dolphin campsite and bagged ourselves a spot next to the sea.

The campsite lady said they’d got a group of 25 vans coming tomorrow.  I shuddered at the thought of trolling around with so many other vans.  We also decided we didn’t want to be there to witness this invasion so paid for the one night only.  What they did have on site was a small taverna, who after we asked, said they’d do us chips to take away if we brought them our bowl.  I fired up the BBQ, stuffed a chicken in it with some French beans and red peppers.  The result, an excellent evening meal.

After dinner we had sunset entertainment over the Ionian Sea.

Camping Blue Dolphin, Corinth, Greece. N37.93557 E022.86616

Tuesday 7-6-16, Wednesday 8-6-16 and Thursday 9-6-16

So before the massed hoards descended on us we packed up, dumped our waste and left.  They’re building a motorway from Corinth to Patras and so far they’ve managed to get two lanes done.  So we did 50 km over nice new tarmac with lots of road building action on both sides to keep us entertained.  Breakfast was a treat, a posh bakery had small warm quiche Lorraine, like they sell in French bakeries.  I’d offer you a photo of one if I had one but they got eaten far too quickly for a camera shutter to capture.  No spots for free camping made themselves known so we found the Camping Akrata and for the second day running bagged a spot looking out to sea. 

Manilos, the campsite man was very nice and said I could borrow a ladder to get on the van roof to sort out a stray solar panel wire that was flapping about. A casualty of one of the numerous olive trees we’d squeezed by.  He also said they did a Greek dish for €6 every day in the small taverna on site. We ordered ice coffee and decided to have two days here, blow the expense, it was time for a mini holiday.

A Dutchman and then later a German told us there might be thunderstorms tomorrow.  As we were heading into the mountains next it was probably wise to stay at the coast and see what happened.

Well we heard thunder and it got a bit blowy but there was no rain storm.  Last night’s temperature dropped to the low twenties and we both got a great night’s sleep.  I borrowed a ladder off Manilos and did the jobs on the roof.  The solar panel got all the sand and dust cleaned off it and the cables to it got secured back to the roof.  Zip ties and gaffer tape proving their worth yet again.   Then we did more or less the same as yesterday.  Coffee at the taverna and snoozes and sunbathing.  It’s a nice campsite as its small and all the vans park around a tree filled square in front of the taverna, nicer than the rows and rows of vans like most campsites here.  And we did like the taverna.

I had a very difficult conversation with a big old German chap, he spoke Greek but very little English.  He explained that he was 80 years old and when he was at school Hitler wouldn’t let them learn English.  I said that that was very unfair of Hitler but then realised that this possibly wasn’t the worse thing he ever did.  One of those posh overlanding 4x4 campers turned up and parked next to the Dutch people, next door to us.  They parked so their door was facing the poor Dutchman’s.  It’s one of those unwritten rules that you don’t do this, respecting other people’s privacy and all that.

Today’s special in the taverna was rice meatballs and beefsteak.  So after a few aperitifs we decided to dine out. For €30 we got Greek Salad, Tzatziki, two huge chargrilled steaks with chips, a litre of wine and a couple of cinnamon liqueurs, a speciality of Patras.

 And then two nights turned into three, we were having a good time here.  In the morning the sun would rise over the sea in front of the van and I’d boil up a strong coffee to wake me up.

And then we’d spend the rest of the day just pottering about.  On the last night we ate at the taverna again and the bill came to €25, we got served the best aubergine salad we’d ever had.   We even got the company of a praying mantis. 

That day I’d asked Toola, the campsite lady, if they sold Greek flag stickers.  I wanted one for the van but I’d not seen any in the shops.  She said nobody had asked for them so no, they didn’t.  After our meal she came over with a Greek flag sticker.  She’d been to town and got a man to print a sheet of them.  She wouldn’t take any money for it and said she’d give them to people if they ever asked again.

Camping Akrata Beach, Greece.  N38.17392 E022.33797

Friday 10-6-16

We packed up in the morning and paid Manolis, he said people had seen us getting ready to leave and kept asking him if they could move to our pitch.  We bought a couple of plastic bottles of the local wine from him and found some English books in reception.  Liz left some of the ones she’d read and took ones that took her fancy.  We headed south into the mountains.  There’s a place high up called Kalavrita that a small rack and pinion train goes to, it seemed popular with people who visit this area so we decided to go and have a look.. 

We got there and it was ok but nothing special.  I think the train ride is the only reason people come, and we didn't fancy that.  But what there also was in this area was a ski resort.  Out of season ski resorts tend to be nice quiet places for an overnight stop.  And after another 15km climbing up the mountain we found this to be true.  It was deserted apart from us, two dogs and a goat herder with his herd.  And they left over the hill after an hour.

The temperature was 16 degrees due to us being at 1700m and then in the late afternoon we had a shower of rain.  It was like Scotland.  The skylight above our bed leaked and I spent an hour taking it to bits and resealing it.   After dinner we got a sunset to go with our mountain views.

Wild Camping at Kalavrita Ski Resort, Greece. N38.00589 E022.19878

Saturday 11-6-16

We slept with the duvet on the bed for the first time since Italy.  When we woke on Saturday morning the two dogs were still outside our van.  Before we left we fed them on a tin of Spam, half a chorizo sausage, some left over beef stew and what was left of last night’s sweet and sour chicken.  They seemed extremely happy with all this.  It was our last day in the Peloponnese.  Today’s plan was to cross back over the bridge at Patras and then go east along the north shore of the Ionian Sea.  We did this after 70km of mountain roads and the temperature steadily rising. At the Lidl in Patras it was 32 degrees.  Then we paid the €13.30 to cross the lovely bridge.

A few miles around the coast we found a beach at Chiliadou.  It was busy with locals but they would be gone later and we’d have it to ourselves.  So that’s another week done and it’s been an odd one, lots of campsites and a trip to the mountains.  Wonder where we’ll go next week and where we’ll stop on our 100th day away?

Wild Camping at Chiliadou Beach, Greece. N38.39419 E021.92100

Cheers, the Van Brian Crew.

Below are the updated facts and figures for 95 days away.....

The Thirteenth Week

Saturday 28-5-16

So it was Saturday and we were at a camping.  Five minutes down the road was a small harbour with four or five tavernas.  We had a walk around and decided we’d have a Saturday night meal out.

We bought our bread for lunch, the Greeks sell it by the kilo, half a kilo is a small one and one kilo is a huge one.  I then got my ice coffee fix at the site café.

I noticed they’d made a compass on the patio in mosaic, a nice touch.  What was odd was they’d made East at the top of the compass.  Is this a Greek thing?

 After a few beers in the evening we walked back into town and chose a taverna, or I should say the old lady who ran it chose us and virtually dragged us in.  But it turned out she was right to be so enthusiastic, we had a cracking meal.  Liz got a photo of me enjoying it.

We had toasted bread with olive oil, tzatziki, eggplant salad, fresh bread, chicken souvlaki, fresh grilled sea bass with Greek salad, chips, two ice creams, ½ a litre of red wine, ½ a litre of white wine, bottled water, a Greek coffee and a bag of a dozen oranges from their garden to take home with us.  The bill came to €35.  We left a good tip.  Back at the van we squeezed the oranges and put the juice in the fridge for breakfast.  It’d been a good day.

Camping Semeli, Greece. N37.14938 E022.89241

Sunday 29-5-16

We paid the camping man €30 for two nights camping and left in the morning, but only after a breakfast of cold freshly squeezed orange juice.  We climbed up from the harbour and around the bend, we stopped to look back.

 Then it was onwards north.  At a big town called Paralio Astros we did well and found a supermarket open at lunchtime on a Sunday.  We bought a huge loaf (1kg) and some bottled water.  The beach there was accessible and you could park next to it but it was busy and looked like it could be noisy at night.  Another 10km on we found the harbour town of Kiveri.  Much more to our taste.  At the end of the harbour was a carpark and we dumped the van at the far end in the shade of some trees.

 There were two other motorhomes here as well as us.  There was a posh beach café with wicker settees and arm chairs and an old taverna with the classic Greek Restaurant chairs.  I wanted to do the old one but Liz wanted the posh one.  She got her way and we probably paid double for our coffees.

 The harbour was busy in the evening but quietened down by the time we were ready for bed.

Wild Camping at Kiverio Harbour, Greece. N37.52802 E022.73118

Monday 30-5-16

Today was a retail day.  We did a very busy Lidl in Nafplio where we listened to an English couple arguing by the meat fridges.  Then we found a service station selling LPG, the first one we’d found in the last 30 days, the tanks were getting very low so this cheered me up.  Finally we found diesel at one euro a litre, the cheapest we’d found in Greece, this also cheered me up.  At lunch we reached a beach called Kathonas Beach.  A spot under some trees looked ideal for an overnight stop.

But just as we were sitting down to a tomato and feta salad a Police lady came to us and said that it wasn’t allowed to camp overnight there. This is the first time we’d had this in 82 nights away on the trip.  So we finished our lunch and moved on.  We looked at a crappy beach carpark a few miles on and were considering a campsite when we spotted a place on the map we’d read about.  So its coordinates got fed into the gps and off we went down the west coast.  We ended up in some shade by a beach at Salantio. 

So no siesta for me today but we’d found ourselves a nice spot again.  In the evening we got yet another Greek sunset to watch from the van.

Wild Camping at Salantio Beach, Greece. N37.44692 E023.12556

Tuesday 31-5-16

After coffee we did a bit of exploring.  A short walk behind the beach, where we were parked, was an empty hotel.

It closed down in the 80’s and looked like it’d been built in the 60’s.  It had a huge swimming pool, an amphitheatre, tennis courts and crazy golf.  All now overgrown and abandoned.

 Today was our 30th wedding anniversary so that evening we sat outside with a beer and a wine and gazed lovingly into each other’s eyes by candlelight.  Well we had beer, wine and a candle so that’s nearly true.

Wild Camping at Salantio Beach, Greece. N37.44692 E023.12556

Wednesday 1-6-16

The decision was made to move today over coffee in the morning.  As we backtracked up the hill I stopped to take a photo of the beach and the old hotel.

We didn’t know then but today would be a long one.  The Peloponnese is the shape of a cow’s udder with four teats hanging from it, we were driving down the west side of the far right hand teat. We headed south down the teat and found nowhere to stop.  Then around the bottom, where the milk would come from, then up the East side of it.  We stopped at likely looking places but there was no shade, today was a scorcher with not a breath of wind.  An example being behind this little church. Great spot, nice and quiet with a stunning view, but in open sun the van was soon 36 degrees inside.

At lunch we stopped at this old taverna, the quality of the sign writing was what drew me to it.  Tabepna is Greek for taverna if you were wondering.

Next we had some fun on a bit of road with one lane closed and dug up.  They’d put temp traffic lights on it and as they turned green we followed a Honda 4x4 through the roadworks.  About 500m along the narrow single lane an old bloke in a tatty white car came from the other direction.  He didn’t seem to understand what a red light meant.  He wouldn’t reverse back and we sat there while the lady in the 4x4 argued with him.  Long enough for the lights to turn green at the other end and two other cars to appear behind the old man’s car.  The lady in the 4x4 tried to squeeze by the old blokes car while he waved her on, it was obvious there wasn’t enough room and she put a nice scrape down the side of her car.  Liz got out and backed me up a way till I found a gateway to reverse into.  The traffic passed me and we carried on.  The old bloke had just driven off and left the lady to survey the damage to her car.  

I was a bit hot and bothered and made the executive decision to find a campsite with some shade.  This we did in an orange grove in Epidavros after a marathon 87 miles.  We found out later that the campsite is in the Cool Camping book for Europe  and could see why, it was very chilled.  Feeling cooler and a lot more relaxed (4 cans of beer later) I knocked up a stir fry with noodles for dinner.

 It was a success and got the thumbs up from all the Van Brian crew.  I give you sweet and sour chicken with sweet peppers, cashew nuts and egg noodles.

Camping Nicolas, Epidavros, Greece.  N37.63039 E023.15784

Thursday 2-6-16

During yesterday’s travels we’d picked up a single ring gas burner and some spare gas canisters.   The butane one we’d brought with us was great but we couldn’t find replacement gas cartridges anywhere in Greece. This new one was typically Greek in blingy gold.  It got tested for breakfast coffee and was a great success.  No more heating the van up in the morning by having the kitchen hob lit.

Liz wanted lemons and so I was tasked to get them.  All the low hanging fruit had been picked so I spent a while swinging my pole at high level fruit.  With some success may I add?

 We walked into town and bought bread and a small leg of lamb for tea, which blew the budget today.  Also the obligatory iced coffee had to be done.  It came with free cake and as I think I’ve said before I’m a big fan of free cake.

On the way back I lost my bearings and we ended up going through the remains of an ancient theatre.  This only reinforced my total apathy for ancient ruins and tourist sites, they just don’t do it for me.  I’d sooner see the towns and the people of Greece as they are now, not as they were a long time ago.  Plus they don’t give you free cake at archaeological excavations.  Back at base camp the feeding frenzy continued with a tomato salad lunch.

We chatted to a French couple on the site who we’d met at Kotronas Harbour a few weeks ago.  We gave them gps coordinates of places we’d stopped since we last saw them, they’re going around this Peloponnese teat in the opposite direction to us.

Camping Nicolas, Epidavros, Greece.  N37.63039 E023.15784

Friday 3-6-16

And that brings us to today, Friday.  This site has the best Wi-Fi connection we’ve had since leaving home so this week’s blog gets uploaded today.  Tomorrow we’ll be leaving and heading north, we’ve a few beaches and harbours to check out for overnight stopovers.  

I was thinking about what we needed that we didn’t bring and what we haven’t used.  I think we got what we brought with us about right, everything’s got used. We did leave some of the stuff we’ve brought with us in the past at home, like outdoor awning carpets and wind breaks.  

In the past on different trips we’ve taken pushbikes, electric bikes, a scooter on a rack and a motorbike on a trailer.  But those were only three week trips at most.  They never seemed to get used enough to warrant them.  So this time we didn’t bring anything like that.  It’s now clear a small scooter on a rack would have been very useful on this longer trip.  Some of the wild camping places we’ve stopped at have been remote and we’ve left them to get food and supplies after a day or so.  With a scooter we could have stopped longer.  Also the ability to park outside a town and have a good old tour about it on the scoot would have been great.  So the next time we do this length of tour I think I’ll be sticking something like the Honda SH125 on the back of the van.  I’ve got a design for a simple rack in my head that I can easily get made back at home.

We’ve now been away for 87 days and the costs have levelled off to £36 a day, which includes everything, fuel, ferries, food & drink and camping costs.  Which I don’t thinks too bad.

Camping Nicolas, Epidavros, Greece.  N37.63039 E023.15784

Cheers, the Van Brian Crew.

Below are the updated facts and figures for 87 days away.