Italy to Greece, 18th - 28th October

We safely made it to the port of Venice (eerie feeling driving towards a city where you know cars are banned and no-one else is on the road) and found our ferry company and collected tickets and made it onto the boat. A strange juxtaposition of affairs – when Mara and i went on board (leaving Pieter and the boys to wait in the car to drive it into the garage deck) we were greeted cordially by 4 crew and our luggage taken from us and we were escorted to our cabin. Mara found this hilarious as our “luggage” was a clear plastic underbed storage box and an assortment of polythene bags – not exactly the usual porter moveables! Our cabin turned out to be quite big, with 4 bunks and a window and a temperamental loo and shower. So far so good. It turned out the only other people on board were about 100 truck drivers, mostly Greeks, all transporting goods home. So it was a long (40hrs) but  the kids found a TV on deck and happily watched Greek TV as if they were fluent (the wonders of that flickering screen). We taught the kids how to play the basic card game of switch – a big step forward in the family, we can all play a card game together (although Euan is a bit ropey on suits and ruled and other basics...). Food was a bit dodgy and priced as if we were at the Ritz, but as 2 of our polythene bags contained snacks we survived. I made friends with the sour faced woman who served at a kiosk and thawed out her grumpy face and got her talking about Greece and Crete and pointing out good places to go on our map. We also discovered that the Greeks love Rusks – hurrah! To a half Afrikaans family life could not get much better...so now we have plentiful supplies of rusks to dunk in our coffee (learnt very fast to avoid the Greek coffee unless you want to chew your drink).

The boat was late arriving and we only got to the port of Patras at about 9.30pm. Then we had to squeeze through about 15 trucks by foot in the dark and claustrophobic cargo deck – a bit hairy as they all had their engines going and some wheels were taller  than Euan. Then we sat for an hour and half waiting for everyone to unload before us – the natural order of things i suppose – what the hell are we carrying that is important to the Greek economy? So we finally rolled off the boat close to 11pm into a very harem scarem port and began searching for somewhere to rest our (very) weary heads. The closest thing which could take us was a 2 star little place which did the job. Basic, but 4 single beds and curtains. We slept like logs.

Monday dawned with torrential rain which everyone said was going to last for 3 days and we had to get out of the town, stock up with supplies and find a campsite. Rather depressing to think of setting up camp in torrential rain so we found out the location of the closest tourist office and made our way there to see if there were any budget self catering places nearby. Of course we didn’t think – it’s October, or perhaps it was just that it was a Monday, or maybe tourist offices close when it rains....anyway, it was all closed up. So we started to drive South and found a campsite just south of the small port of Kyllini. It was on the beach which was going to prove lovely when the thunderstorms and howling gales subsided 3 days later. Only Austrians and Germans at the campsite which seemed odd until they explained to us that for them it’s a remarkably easy journey. 4 hours by car from their homes to the ferry in Italy. Sail to Greece and then voila....drive anywhere you like. It sure makes you realise how cut off we are from Europe in Britain.

From the campsite we explored Olympia, where the original Olympics began and between rain showers we wandered around the ruins, saw the Temple of Zeus, let the kids race on THE original Olympic track. Mum and Dad were in awe, the kids were more interested in spotting lizards. Some things don’t change!

When the nice weather finally arrived we LOVED chilling at the campsite, doing the veritable Santa sack load of washing which had accumulated, swimming in the sea and in the campsite pool (the only ones doing that, everyone else found it far too cold – how to spot a Brit a mile off!), home schooling outside the tent with sun filtering through the leaves above us, meeting the Austrian family nearby who were camping with 10month old twin boys (how brave is that?)... All too soon we had to pack up and head on though, the rain had started up again and winter is still nipping at our heels and we have more places to see. So on Saturday 23^rd we packed up and left and headed South; had thought of getting all the way to the very south of the Peleponese peninsula, but one 60km stretch of non stop hairpin bends and climbing from sea level to above the clouds in 20kms killed that idea. The car has never worked so hard having to climb so fast. Kids were singularly unimpressed to be above the clouds until we said they must keep an eye out for Zeus (where does one draw the line between little fibs to make the real world more exciting and not wanting to fill their heads with nonsense?).

So, only made it far as Mystras, which we had already heard was beautiful. There is a little village and then up on the mountainside the original village which is all Byzantium. We headed to the campsite and it awful and overpriced. So  we started to drive around the village to see if there were any signs anywhere for hostels or B&B’s. We found a room in a house which had 5 single beds, a plastic table, a hot plate, a fridge and a loo and a shower. You don’t need much more. More stray cats everywhere – seem to be everywhere. So we got to explore the ruined Byzantium village before heading off South again to the village of Gytheio (pronounced Y-th-ee-o). The only campsite open was a rather strange place – felt as if we had arrived the day after a week long party. IT was right on the beach however. Sadly the thunder storms began, the waves crashed, the rain pelted and we laid low – hanging out with some new friends –Tara and Dave, an English couple who are touring the world (or a lot of it!) in their motor home for 2 years. We had one glorious day of sunshine where everyone did mounds of washing and queued for the washing machines (of which one broke after the first person’s load) and had tepid showers. Thank God for the Dutch though – one eccentric Dutch man complained about all of it and the hot water and washing machines were fixed by lunchtime! This Dutch man turned out to be quite a character, a professional story teller, spiritual healer, ex civil engineer and has been touring the world in his mobil home for over 10years. Stranded at the campsite longer than we intended (and having said a sad farewell to our new English friends and then promptly having the kids tent flooded out in yet MORE torrential rain and needing to dry out sleeping bags, pillows, ground sheets, tents etc) we were co-erced into a story-telling evening with him and his magic carpet. Hmmmm.  While in the area we did drive around the southern peninsula and saw amazing deserted beaches, mountain side fortified villages of the Mani, went shell and urchin collecting, and cycled to the nearest town for the toughest calamari we’ve ever experienced.

Lessons learned in Greece so far:

1. 1.       Never trust the weather
2. 2.       Greek yogurt is absolutely nothing like what i’ve been buying for years; it’s better
3. 3.       Greek white wine is fine, but don’t have too much as the hangovers are sent from Satan to punish you.
4. 4.       Greek drivers are insane 
5.  Greeks love kids
6. 
   
7. Email us