We're on The Beach

Thursday 29th May.

We are parked up this afternoon on a beach a few hundred metres south of the village of Kato Polydendri and it's lashing down with rain. Thunder in the distance, big black clouds overhead and we've been forced inside as the awning wasn't really protecting us. Today started off quite nicely, weather wise; a little hazy, warm but not too warm for driving and we set off for the restored mountain village of Panteleimonas on the recommendation of a lass at the campsite. A lovely traditional village (very romantic she told us) with tavernas built around massive old beech and chestnut trees and whilst a few houses had been converted to tourist shops, not too many to change the feel of the village. We spent an hour or so wandering around, had a coffee and bought a bottle of local wine which was decanted from a big box and a bottle of the local speciality, Tsipouro, an Ouzo type spirit made from Arbutis berries from Olympus.

Then we decided to drive down the coast and find somewhere to park overnight before setting off tomorrow to visit the monasteries of Meteora. Unlike folk embarking on trips like this ten or maybe even five years ago we have a lot of resources to help us find places to stop. We have the ACSI book for campsites; camperstop book for free, or inexpensive, overnight parking; we have over 30,000 European stop offs from Archie's guide (free) and specifically for Greece we have Peejays stop overs and the details of the trip a couple of years ago by the folk who now run Motorhome WiFi as well as tips we receive from fellow travellers. And we have the route our friend Bernd from Germany took a few weeks ago (we've never met Bernd but we like to think we are friends). So, we upload all this information to MapsWithMe and then plan each few days accordingly. Each morning we put the GPS locations into the Sat Navs and off we go. Easy.

But some days, like today, we give the Sat Navs a day off and head off to a village and then in the general direction we want to go, pretty confident that we will find somewhere to stay. At this time of year people here are pretty relaxed about wild or free camping so long as you don't abuse it. For example, we wouldn't park on a bit of wasteland opposite a campsite; that's just being stupid and offensive. We don't park where there a BIG no camping or parking signs. Our difficulties arise because it seems to be a national pastime here to deface or obliterate every directional road sign! Now, I like a bit of graffiti as much as the next man but this is just ugly vandalism. I wouldn't mind if there was a political message behind this but there doesn't seem to be any consistent slogans I can identify. So, if there are any Greek parents reading this - do you know where your kids are tonight! If not I'll give you odds they are spray painting a road sign somewhere.

The view from Panteleimonas.

And with Mt Olympus behind.

 

Our beach just before the heavens opened.

 

Pat.

 

 

 

 

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