The Earth Moved For Us!

Sunday 25th May

We are parked this morning on a pretty little campsite next to Sikia beach on the Sithonia peninsular in Northern Greece. The drive yesterday should have been a little less than three hours and we set off early from Agios Vasilios after filling up with water. About half way through the journey we spotted a Lidl with Mythos beer on special offer so, of course, we had to stop and stock up. It was then that I noticed that the water tank cap was missing, I'd forgotten to put it back after filling with water two hours ago! So we drove back and found it next to the water tap where I had left it. We eventually arrived here late afternoon and settled down for a stop of a few days. Phil did a couple of loads of washing and we went for a stroll along the beach before dinner and then settled down to watch the Champions League final over a poor WiFi signal. I suppose a team costing £422 million was always going to prevail over one costing £64 million but the score line was a bit harsh in the end.

Now, Greek campsites, in fact pretty much all of Greece, is full of dogs. This doesn't bother us, we quite like dogs but yesterday afternoon they never stopped barking. We went to bed and were woken half a dozen times by the dogs running up and down and barking like crazy. We also thought the wind must have got up because a couple of times the van rocked a bit. This morning we didn't feel rested and when I went to collect our bread I mentioned the dogs to the campsite owner mentioning that we were thinking of moving somewhere where we could get a nights sleep. That's when he told me about the earthquake. It occurred about 250 kilometres away yesterday afternoon, ten kilometres under the sea and registered at 6.9 with aftershocks all night. Hence the dogs going barmy and the van rocking. We haven't heard a peep from the dogs for a few hours now so I guess they are exhausted and lying in the shade somewhere. We've decided to stay now as it really is a nice location. There are only a few other motorhomes and a couple of static caravans here (no British, of course) but the owners are nice people, it's spotlessly clean,it's cheap and it gives us a couple of days to plan our tour of the rest of Greece.

Talking of dogs, on our way here yesterday the traffic was held up by what we first thought was a flock of sheep crossing the road. As we got closer we saw that it wasn't sheep but a pack of about 50 dogs with a couple of guys leading them (dogherds?). They were all the medium sized dogs used here by shepherds but we have no idea why there were so many of them but they were being obediently led across the fields and a surprising sight to see. The other amusing event yesterday occurred as we drove through a tiny village after leaving Agios Vasilios. As we drove through there were a half dozen old guys sat outside a cafe drinking coffee, it was a small village so they watched us as we maneuvered the van through. When we came back through on our way back to collect the water tank cap they watched us again. When we came back the third time they must have thought it was Groundhog Day. I certainly did.

Evening:

We went for a stroll earlier along the beach:

 

Stopped at this little cove:

 

And had some lunch:

 

Crispy, tender Calamari, a jug of chilled white wine, complimentary sweet and coffee - now we know we are in Greece.

This part of the peninsular is pretty unspoilt; you really need your own transport to get here and it hasn't been overdeveloped yet. It's early in the season so we have the place to ourselves pretty much. There were a few Greek families here for the weekend but they've gone now so it's very peaceful. And the dogs have stopped barking!

 

Pat

 

 

Posted with Blogsy