This Is Greece, At Last

Monday 22^nd May.

We slept long and deep like bears in hibernation. Indecision confused us at the beginning of the day but finally we made a decision to stay a second night at Camping Kariotes.  Then the second decision of the day was to get the bikes off the back and go for a ride, at last.  It took ages untangling them, getting the handlebars straight, putting the batteries in, etc., but finally at 11:30am we cycled into Lygia. We watched the fishermen sorting their nets and then went for tea and cake at a little bakery on the way back to the campsite.  The rest of the day was spent washing the floor, reading our books, trying and failing to get the internet to work and then cooking up the rest of the defrosted food for dinner. Tomorrow will be another driving day, hopefully taking in some good scenery along the way. 

Tuesday 23^rd May.

Louise and her dog wished us well for the rest of our journey and offered us another spare fuse.  We politely declined; worried that they might need it themselves.  Sadly, Mel was still in bed, still not feeling great; we do hope he recovers soon.  Around 10:00am we drove over the floating bridge again and left Lefkada island, heading firstly inland and then following the coast road south. It turned out to be a lovely scenic route, potholed and slow, but rather beautiful.

In Astakos we pulled over on the sea front for a cheese and olives lunch. The sun was shining and the sea was calm.  The next leg of the ambling drive took us over the hills towards Messolongi.  At one point we drove over a bridge to an island completely covered in buildings!  We drove one kilometre around the north side of the island, onto another bridge, and then crossed over to the mainland.  It seemed a rather odd arrangement, but it worked. 

Now we wanted to pick up the motorway south but there were no signs, and our rather out of date GPS had no idea. So rather than head inland over more hills, or take the slow road south, we drove north searching for an entrance onto the motorway.   After a frustrating eight kilometres, we finally found one and headed south past Messolongi and onto the enormous and rather beautiful Rio Antirrio bridge. We zoomed past Patra, praising the smooth straight road until it turned into sixty kilometres of 50, 90, 70, 30, 50, 90 limits.  Two lanes, one lane, two lanes, one lane. It was not an easy drive.  It was a relief to finally arrive at the campsite and find that Sue and Mike had reserved a good pitch close to them. Pitch D9 was marked “Australians”.  Nice.

We set up camp, really enjoyed lovely showers and then tarted ourselves up for the evening.  It turned out to be Sue and Mike’s wedding anniversary and our table at the restaurant was covered in rose buds and petals, and our four chairs had white bridal style covers over them.  All the other diners stared at us getting such special treatment.  The meal was delicious, the conversation brilliant and a lovely start to our stay at Camping Ionion.

Wednesday 24th May

Right let’s get sorted. The Mediterranean spring seems to have arrived at last.  We washed all of our sheets, towels and winter clothes in the desperate hope of continued good weather. The fingers are crossed again.  Everything dried quickly under the clear blue sky and after the winter gear was stashed away at the very bottom of the wardrobe, we strolled north along the pebbly beach to the first headland, followed by a couple of hours relaxing on sunbeds beside the pool.  Ahhhh this is what we were looking for.