June 12 2019

Riding off the ferry gives me a good feeling. Greece!  From the harbour areas, I head for Patras city to get some fuel.  Immediately I notice the difference between Italy and Greece.

The traffic is lighter, and people give way to each other, no more fighting for space.  When I reached Naples two days ago, I was horrified not only by the state of the buildings and roads but also by driver behaviour. Nearly all cars were unwashed and had dents in them. Although with the temperature in the mid 30’s they drive with the driver’s side window open and have at least their hand or part of their arms outside continuing giving hand signals when negotiating dense city traffic. Cutting off other road users and making sudden turns seems a standard thing.

Now in Greece, I notice that it must have been an Italian thing.  After filling up and buying some food items at Lidl (which is a store like Aldi), I head south.

To plan an exciting route is easy. I had chosen to ride south as far as the town of Pylos. Google maps show a distance of 211 km in 3 hours. Zooming in you can see that the route is relatively straight forward meaning that the 3 hours given would involve many towns and villages. However, going inland means mountains and narrow roads. Google maps show 5 hours for about the same distance while on the map, it seems shorter. For me, that means lots of mountains with hairpin bends, switchbacks and twisting roads. Also, it keeps me away from the campervans.

Enjoying the ride through the mountains, I pass Mount Olympus and the town of Olympia the site where the first Olympic games were held in 776 BC.

For the first time, I have not made arrangement for an overnight stay, I am not sure where I will end up. Just before Pylos, the road runs parallel to the beach where I spot a large camping/caravan park between the road and the beach area.  During the last 6 years, I have been carrying a tent and sleeping equipment on the back of the bike just in case I face an emergency however today, I decide that it may be time to camp as the weather is excellent, and the location superb.  

Interesting to notice that there are very view people with tents these days.  Nearly all spots are taken up by campervans ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.

 I wouldn’t mind owning a campervan, but no larger than say a VW transporter fitted with an awning as basically, you drive, sleep and stay in places. Why some people think they need vans the size large tourist bus is beyond me. I am camped near one of them. It even has sections which can move outwards to make them even bigger. Each to his own I suppose, at least you won’t see them on the narrow roads.