8th May 2014 Entered Greece with no problems. Got a stamp in the passport, which is illegible, no charge.
We have been free camping for the last two nights on beaches and will reach Athens tomorrow.
9th May 2014 Arrived at Marathon on the outskirts of Athens looking for suitable camping when Judy spotted a waterfront café area suitable for lunch. At the yeros shop we got to talking to the proprietor, Takis, who was very appreciative when I recommended the restaurant to some passing tourists ten per cent off. I enquired about the surrounding islands and he suggested Andros booking office a few shops down, just mention my name and here we are at 4pm with our car loaded on sailing to the Greek Isles. Throughout the afternoon we kept on bumping into Takis at the waterfront and in town, quite by chance. We are best mates now. Isn’t it funny how things work out sometimes?
Athens will have to wait.
Berthed at Andros at 7.30pm and on disembarkation stopped to study our map. A local fellow on a bicycle stopped to ask if we needed help, camping? we asked. I am the camping man he answered and directed us to his campsite where on arrival we chose a suitable area. As I reversed into one of the spots the car suddenly went down at the back, as if in a pothole, that I hadn’t noticed. I checked to find that the earth had swallowed my rear, driver’s-side wheel, down to the axle with the wheel hanging in mid air and, looking down into the void, it was very deep. I thought perhaps it was an old ruin that had suddenly given way. With the help of the winch we were able to easily pull it out to find that what we had fallen into was indeed a well some four metres deep to the water level, well, well, well !
11th May 2012 Happy Mother’s Day!
12th May 2014 For the last two days we have been drifting around the island stopping for lunch at small villages and free camping on deserted beaches in the evenings. Greece has been the easiest place so far to be able to free camp but yesterday afternoon we really had to work to get to our spot. A very steep and winding 4k descent to find our beach, but worth it. There was a house down there that we thought was unoccupied but later turned out to be lived in by an old man to whom we spoke later, and although he didn’t speak any English, was friendly and welcoming.
Andros is everything you imagine in a Greek isle, turquoise waters, white pebble beaches, little white churches propped up on hillsides, little white villages propped up on hillsides and little white farmhouses propped up on hillsides.
The Mediterranean is only slightly more wild than a lake, has minimal tides and only 0.4 of a shark attack per year so its good for gentle swimming and snorkelling.
Met a British expat who lives on the island and tells me the Mediterranean can get really wild.
16th May 2014 Athens is quite a pleasant city the Acropolis and changing of the Greek guard a must see. Spent one day more than we meant to organise our third party green card “Travel notes”
17TH May 2014 The motorway tolls here are exorbitant and there are many of them. Today I paid AUD $20 to cross a bridge, all be it a very nice one but the Sydney Harbour Bridge it ain’t which is only $4.00 max. Signs are non existent and you end up on a motor way that you can’t get off for 30Ks and then have to turn back on the same motorway and pay another toll to get back to square one. Also the tollgates are spaced so that you have to pay your toll and are then committed to the next stretch of motorway before you can exit to an alternative road, which sometimes does not exist. Some of the tollways are just one lane secondary roads anyway, so what am I paying for?
The very first tollgate in Greece had an encamped protest next to it but we didn’t understand. Now we do. I’m funding the Greek financial recovery.
So, now that I’ve had my primal scream, we are camped in Ooranos, this is literally, Greek for “heaven”, Judy say’s I’m repeating myself.
A spot by the sea, indescribable beach, water, sky, clouds, everything. Best place yet, Judy say’s I’m repeating myself.
It is worth every penny of the motorways and we will mosey on up along the coast through Albania and Croatia because of this beauty.