The route home

 Fri - Mon 13th - 16th Oct

Thoughts have been about driving home. We have committed and booked the Rotterdam to Hull ferry for 25-26th October and so that defines the end of the trip.

The question is, how to get there? The ferry routes to Italy are numerous. Leaving from Greece at either Patras or Igoumenitsa, you can go to Brindisi, Bari, Ancona or Venice. These take an increasing amount of time and I’m not sure how we would spend that time. Maybe there’s a sky lounge with an up and coming singer entertaining the audience but that would be a test I think.

Also many dates are full, a result of all the return trips that are pre-booked by everyone else. No-one else seems to be driving overland except the Peelies. Those dates that are available are almost €600 for the one-way trip. In spite of what my camping neighbour said, the overall journey time is similar and the overland route could be made interesting and we would rather spend a fraction of that driving and looking at the views.

We are not intending to hang around en route though, as any weather will be worse than here in Stoupa, so all we need to do is plan a route that goes past campsites that are in the right places and that are open in late October.

It isn’t easy but the Chief Planning Officer has done it and this is it.

We are avoiding FROM, now North Macedonia, because we have not forgiven the zealous border official who in 2015 forced us to pay excessive € to cross. We are taking a route into Bulgaria and then traversing Serbia in a day, mainly as there are few places to stay.

Then it’s on through Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Germany. We have reserved space ahead at each destination, so that we are sure of an overnight halt. It will be dark, cool, cold? and possibly wet. 

Actually we have forgotten what horrible weather is. Every day here is a mid to high 20s day and the nights are mid to high teens. We have the upper floor flaps unzipped and just the three flyscreens in place up there, so it is a beautiful temperature in which to sleep. The additional duvet that we move ‘downstairs’ and then up the next morning, will be used on top of the sleeping bags too soon now.

The mornings start slowly at 7 or 7:30 with tea. Then the errand boy walks to the bakery on the top road to buy the day’s essentials and sometimes a non-essential too.

We walk the 5 mins to the town beach. We have given up with Kalogria where the bars have filled the beach with rows of sunbeds. The minimum spend to occupy these is €20. In mid October.

We have a swim, a big swim, of about 45mins crawl. We go out diagonally from Patrico’s sunbeds, where there is no minimum spend, just any kind of spend, to the far buoy at the north end of the bay.

Then we swim along the line of buoys almost to the harbour, turn around and follow them again. In her drive for higher performance and endurance, the Chief Swimming Officer then decides on a few more strokes back and forth between the far buoys, before allowing us to swim back to the beach. That leg itself takes six or seven minutes of swift crawl. To be fair to the CSO, she does lead from the front. She sets a strong example.

After that we have coffee and cake at Patrico’s and then it’s time to look around from the comfort of the beach.

The other day the main road was ripped-up. That was a surprise. It was a slightly rough and ready job and for a day or so caused frustration to the shopkeepers as the water went off. It also caused trouble for the many people who seem to have some walking difficulty.

Apparently the block paving surface is being extended. I wonder why they didn’t wait another two or three weeks. The season is definitely drawing to a close.

One of the highlights of the day was to see this couple. Each morning they walk the length of the beach and also play a fast game of boules. I’m not sure how many there are in a full set but the guy seems to be able to carry them all. The funny thing is that he has a whole wardrobe of these smugglers. Each day he sported another pair. Vivid orange, sky blue and various jungle patterns were spotted.

It has made for a humorous few moments and some nifty camerawork yesterday, when I decided I just had to capture a couple of shots.

Today we start the return journey. We are going to drive to Kalamata and then up the dramatic road to Sparta and on to Ancient Mykines, which is a slowish start and gets us to near Corinth.