12th September
We woke up early feeling quite tired and headed straight to Thessaloniki airport. It was a quick and easy drive - the roads in this area are great - and we got there quite early. We parked in the car park and got a coffee and then sat and people watched in the arrivals lounge which was quite fun. Pete's dad - Kenneth - arrived and we got in the van with me lying on the bed in the back. We'd decided that we'd liked the campsite in Marmaras so much that we'd go back there for a couple of nights. The lovely campsite guy was surprised to see us and said that only ten minutes ago some people had come and taken our spot! We still got a very nice spot just next door and we parked the van and straight away went out into the two to get some lunch. We stopped in a fish restaurant in the harbour and had a feast of prawns, calamari and bream. After a wander through the town, showing Pete's dad all the good local shops we'd found, we had an ice cream and then went back to the campsite to set up properly. It was slightly overcast but the sun did end up burning through and we went to the beach and I read my book whilst Pete and his dad played bat and ball. We had a lovely chicken barbeque for dinner and stayed up drinking and chatting a while but had to go to bed as we were all knackered. About an hour or so after getting to sleep we woke up because of a storm. It was raining really hard and we had to get out and shove everything under the van. Our first rain for ages!
Woke up quite late - we obviously were feeling a bit sleep deprived - and had tea and breakfast at camp. We went for a walk along the long stretch of beach behind the campsite; the one with a promenade of tavernas and hotels. We went all the way to the end and waded around some rocks to a little private beach at the end. There were a couple of nudists there (they always find the best beaches) but it was quiet compared to the busy stretch of sand. We had a swim and collected a few of the very pretty rocks which were red, green and grey. Back at the campsite we had lunch and then went to our own campsite beach where I read my book and sunned my self and Pete and his dad played bat and ball - achieving a record of 213! We had a delicious barbeque (they are becoming regular now!) and when it got dark we watched the most incredible lightning I've ever seen. It wasn't raining and it was warm and muggy and we watched over the bay the whole sky light up every 2 seconds or so. It was so frequent and there was no thunder at all. Very cool. Thankfully the rain didn't come at all so we stayed up drinking vino and then had a tasting session of our spirit collection - Croatian cherry liquer, Irish whiskey and Italian peach schnapps.
We decided that we wanted to move to the other side of Sithonia as we had explored this side already with my mum and dad. Some other campers told us about a town called Vourvourou which they said was good so we decided to head there. The drive was easy and we found camping Rea - a very nice site with access to a lovely beach facing straight out to Mount Athos - on the third leg. We set up camp and had lunch before heading out to explore the beach. The left side had a few fishing boats and as you walked around to the right there was a sand spit sticking out and you could wade through the water to another spit so it was like you had your own island! We chilled out on this beach a while and had a swim. More bat and ball was played but no records broken. In the afternoon we drove out in the van to find Vourvourou town in search for some food for dinner. It was not a long drive and the town was quite nice; it seems to be made up only of tourist apartments and small resorts but not in a horrible way. We stopped at a small supermarket and then explored further through the town and took a turn off to a beach. The car park was chocca block, as was the beach, but what a beautiful beach! Lovely bay with white sand stone rocks at either end and still turquoize water. We hadn't bought swimming stuff but we walked and sat on the sand stone and admired the cool shapes they'd formed into. We sat here a chatted for a while and then drove back to the campsite. We had no barbeque tonight - just a good old vegetarian pasta and lots of wine.
The beach/spit at our campsite. ^
Vourvourou beach. ^
Mary, our Greek friend, had told us about a beautiful beach at a town just north of where we were, called Ormos Panagias. We thought that we'd check it out and we drove the short distance to the small town. The town itself was quite cute so we stopped for a coffee in a restaurant with its chairs and tables right on the sand of the beach. It was a small harbour town and we also discovered, on the otherside of the jetty, two fish mongers. We decided not to get any fish right now as we had no fridge but we would definitely return! We drove onwards through the town to a peninsula just south. We found a lovely little cove with a few people on and chose to clamber around teh rocks to find our own spot. We found a perfect one under the shade of a single tree and it was very picturesque. We all had a swim and then I lay basking on the rocks whilst Pete and his dad snorkelled out and bought me back presents of shells and sea urchins. It was already early afternoon now and we all realised that we hadn't had any breakfast or lunch and that we were hungry! We drove back to camp and made a huge lunch of salami and cheese and tuna and salad etc and ate it in the now closed restaurant terrace in the campsite. The terrace was shaded by grape vines so we picked some for pudding. We spent the afternoon at the campsite; Pete's dad went to the beach, Pete sat in his hammock and I updated the blog. In the evening we all agreed that we were still full from lunch so instead we nibbled crisps and peanuts and drank wine and played cards.
Woke up to a pretty grim morning and got the umbrella out so we could at least sit outside in the drizzle. We played dominos for a while and had breakfast and drank tea, which was actually a fun rainy day activity! After a while we did get a bit restless though and we thought we might as well go for a drive and explore this side of the leg. The drive was very pretty, albeit a bit grey, and we were heading in particular to Kavourotrypes - or crab hole - beach as it had been recommedended by the campsite owner. We drove a bit too far and turned down towards a beach following a sign for a cafe. The cafe wasn't there but instead we found a huge closed down campsite. It had huge pine trees and old abandoned caravans and led down to a huge sandy beach, which had a very end of the world feel underneath the big dark clouds. Walking back through the eerie campsite we found a massive tarpulin that had a few holes on one half. We got my fabric scissors from the van and cut it in half and got our selves a huge tarp ready for winter! We also took a few big bricks as we planned to change the tyres and needed something to rest the van on. Pete also found him self a fish grill. Result! With our new stuff we drove off quickly before anyone saw and found Kavourotrypes beach. Coming out of the car park in the forest to the left was a very pretty bay covered in beach umbrellas and to the right was another very pretty bay with a few people swimming and jumping off the rocks. We think its called crab hole beacause the two bays end with rocks jutting out and look like crabs claws. Anyway the weather had brightened up a little and me and Pete had a quick swim before decideding to head back up the coast towards home. Before getting to the campsite we stopped for coffee in Vourvourou where we saw a boat rental place for a very good price and thought we might do that in the next few days. We also drove to Lidl to stock up on food! Back at the site we were quite happy that we'd got our tarp because as we rigged it up, just to test it out, it actually began to rain quite a lot. This did not stop us from having an amazing barbeque of homemade burgers and chocolate bananas whilst sitting underneath it in the dry! And thankfully the rain did eventually stop.
17th September
17th September
The sun was shining when we woke up and we decided to change the tyres. The van is front wheel drive so the front tyres have worn down alot over the last five months, compared to the back which still look almost new. So we had to swap them, and for some reason you have to swap them diagonally. As you can imagine this was a bit of a pain in the bum and it took us all morning (don't laugh!) but when we'd finished we were very pleased with ourselves. We were also very hot and sweaty and very hungry and after a quick rinse we sat down and had some lunch at the campsite. We were feeling like a lazy day so we got our beach stuff together and headed to our beach at the site. Waded out to the sand spit and chilled here all afternoon; Pete and his dad broke their bat and ball record and got 276! Later on me and Pete left Kenneth on the beach and drove to the fish mongers at Ormos Panagias. We got three big bream and went back to fire up the barbeque. We had another great dinner followed by lots of wine and conversation.
18th September
At the moment were staying on an east facing beach so we get the sunrise over Mount Athos. Kenneth had been up early a few times to see it but me and Pete hadn't managed it yet! Last night we promised we'd get up, and actually the sun doesn't rise until just before seven so it's not even that early. Anyway it was well worth getting out of our cosy van for! We walked out to our beach and sat on a small wooden jetty over the lagoon and watched the amazing colours over the sky and the mountain. What a way to start the day. Afterwards we had a lazy morning - Pete had a nap - and we drank tea and hung out at the campsite. We decided to explore a bit more of the coast, this time further north of Ormos Panagias, where we hadn't been yet. We drove up and parked in the town and went for a walk over the headland with a picnic packed, prepared for a long coastal walk. After about five minutes we came to a nice long sandy bay that went on for ages until another headland. It was a hot day and we were already worn out from the short walk so we sat and swam on the beach for a while. We were here a while and also ate our picnic here. We thought that the beach looked too long to walk so we went back to the van and followed the track along, past a big hotel, to the headland in the distance. This was a big grassy cliff with a stone ruin on top and on the other side the cliffs dropped down to rocks and rough sea. It was a pretty walk and we really feel like we've explored Sithonia alot now. In the afternoon we went and had a beer in a nice little bar in Vourvourou and then chilled out on our campsite beach again. I can't remember what we had for dinner, but I'm sure it was delicious. I do remember that we drank gin and tonics and more wine!
Sunrise. ^
WEX on the beach! ^
19th September
We didn't quite make it up for sunrise but we did get up early and we all went for a walk around the rocky headland just outside our campsite. It was a lovely walk through the shrubs and gave us a good view of the island across. (Don't know if I wrote this already but this beach is opposite a small island called Diaporos which is very pretty.) We had a relaxed morning - as usual - and in the afternoon drove to Vourvourou beach; where we'd visited a few days ago but not had a swim yet. The beach is really beautiful and therefore is quite busy, but very nice anyway. There was a new bat and ball record of 372! We stayed here all day and got chips and hot dogs from a 'Kantina' van for lunch. After all this relaxation we nipped to Lidl for provisions and came back to yet another barbeque feast. This time Pete went all out and made chapati type bread on the grill and we had tortillas with pork chops and veg. Yumm! Oh and also in the day we stopped in Vourvourou town and booked a boat for tomorrow. So we had an early night ready for our boating adventure tomorrow.
20th September
We all woke up very early and got everything together for a day on the boat. It was quite cloudy and cold and we all were hoping it would clear up. We drove and waited at the boat place - we were there before the staff even! When the guy did come he told us it was meant to rain today so we'd be better off going tomorrow. We were a bit disapointed but obviously we would rather go on a sunny day so we went back to the van to decide what to do. Aristotle was born in Halkidiki a few hours north and they have made a park dedicated to him. We didn't know exactly what it was but we thought it worth a look as it definitely wasn't beach weather. The drive was a couple of hours and we stopped off in a village on the way called Pyrgadikia. It was very quaint with a few nice old buildings covered in vines. We chose an old man cafe to have a coffee and the old toothless lady working there was proud to show us lots of pictures of celebrities inside. They hadn't been there or anything, they were just pictures. We also saw two old couples sitting out the front of their house making pasta which was pretty cool. Anyway, on we drove starting to wind up into the mountains. We came to Stagira, the town where Aristotle was born and just at the end we found the park. We went in with our picnic and found that it was a big lawn with a great view point down the mountains to the sea and installations representing Aristotle's discoveries on logic. There were spinny optical illusions, a huge xylophone, a sun dial and other things. It was quite fun to play with everything and it seemed that we'd found the only sunny spot as we ate our picnic in the sunshine whilst looking down over the cloudy coast. After eating and chilling out a while we carried on driving to Arnea, another mountain village. It was very pretty; probably the prettiest town we've seen yet in Greece as everything else has been quite modern. We wandered around the small streets and then stopped for a coffee in the lively town square. The drive home was another hour or so and by the time we'd got back Pete was pretty tired and had a sore hand from shutting in the van door earlier. Me and Kenneth decided that we would cook dinner and we made a huge tomato pasta in the dark under the umbrella protecting us from the drizzle. We had a fairly early night and all hoped for sunshine tomorrow.
Not getting the boat. ^
Pyrgadikia village and the pasta makers. ^
Aristotles park. ^
Arnea. ^
21st September
Sunshine! But very windy. We all got up early again and headed out to the boat. We were the first ones there again, which paid off as we had already been given instructions on how to work the boat and were riding off into the ocean before ten o'clock! The basic route that everyone does is around the island that has multiple beaches you can stop at. Because of the wind it was quite choppy but the guy said it would calm down in the afternoon. For now we stayed on the sheltered side and stopped at two small sandy coves, which both had evidence of people having camped there which we thought would be really cool. On the second beach we even managed to scavenge a few left over things including a (unused) teatowel, some cutlery and even some unopened rose petal jam, which is a traditional Greek condiment. Coming around the island slightly we stopped in the middle of the water in a large bay so that Pete could do some fishing. He was just giving up when he lifted the line in and to everyones surprise there was a fish on the end! PETE CAUGHT A FISH!!!!! We took loads of photos and Pete got very excited and kept talking about how cute and lovely this ugly little fish was! He was a rock fish of some kind and was quite small so we unhooked him and set him free. Pete didn't stop talking about it all day! By now the wind had died down a bit so we came around the end of the island and stopped on a lovely sandy bay for lunch. There were several other rent-a-boats about but every beach we stopped on we had to ourselves and it felt like a desert island. Afetr a lovely lunch I had a go at driving and I took us around to the top of the island to find the 'blue lagoon'. There were quite a few other boats and a huge yacht anchored in the turquoize water. We joined them and then all jumped off the boat for a swim in the gorgeous clear water. Pete was snorkelling and dived down a got us a new knife from the sea bed! We hung out here for a while and then carried on further round. We didn't see any other beaches that we wanted to stop at and we wanted to have a go at getting dragged. We tied a rope to the back of the boat with a stick at the end to hole on to and then drove fast around in circles. Imagine water skiing but without the skis. We all had a go and it was well fun. We did this for quite a while and then stopped when we weren't paying attention and we nearly lost Pete! We cruised back really slowly arriving pretty much bang on six. How eight hours flies when you're on a boat. On the way back we stopped at a market and got a new camping gaz and had a healthy bean salad for dinner. Great day! A boat and a fish!
22nd September
Chilled morning at campsite. After breakfast and tea we decided we would go for a walk and try and get into the hills. We set off on a walk out of the campsite and followed the main road along. This wasn't exactly relaxing as Greeks drive as fast and crazily as the rest of Europe and after a kilometre or so we turned around and headed back. We were still determined to get into the hills so instead we drove WEX along the road until we found a a track turning inland. This was much more successful and we parked the van and walked along the dirt track into the forest. It was a lovely walk through the rocks and pines and when we got to a big dried up lake we saw the biggest goat herd we've ever seen coming in to find some lunch. There were hundreds of goats and lots of them had bells so they made a lovely sound as they came through the woods. We watched them for a while, there was one little one that was half stuck in the mud which Pete wanted to save but we thought that the Goatherd would probably do that. We carried on the track, passing beautiful purple flowers growing out of the dirt track. When we were hot and hungry we turned around passed the goats again (one still stuck in the mud) and went back to the van. We stopped in Vourvourou to get some food for lunch and outside one of the shops was a man with a van of fresh fish. We got three good looking red snappers from him to have tonight for our last dinner at this campsite. For lunch we made a Greek salad and in the afternoon me and Pete stayed at camp and read and wrote the blog and Kenneth went down to our beach to soak up the sun. Dinner of course was delicious and we stayed up chatting, playing cards and - guess what - drinking wine.
Funky shirts! ^
It had rained in the night so annoyingly we woke up to lots of damp stuff. We had to pack up anyway and luckily it was a another glorious day so everything was dry pretty soon. We checked out of the campsite a drove the quite long drive to a campsite up on the west coast near Thessaloniki. We wanted to visit a cave which was on the way to the site so we thought that we'd stop there and have a look around before getting to the site. Unfortunetly the cave was closed on Mondays so we carried on towards the campsite and thought that we'd come back tomorrow as it's only half an hour or so away. We got to the campsite which was set on a huge sandy beach and I went to go and check in. This is when I realised that when we checked out of the campsite this morning they hadn't given me my passport back. Shit. We went to reception anyway and got shown our spot - a nice grassy patch in a nice campsite - and then I went back to ask to use the phone. The lady in reception was helpful and spoke in Greek to the other campsite lady and they organized my passport to be sent by courier as soon as possible. This was a relief because we didn't have to drive the two and half hours back but also worrying because now I wouldn't know exactly where it was. Anyway I tried not to think about it too much and we took our stuff and went and chilled out on the beach. It wasn't quite as idyllic as the beaches on Sithonia but still nice to relax on. The beach was a very long stretch of sand which we realised, from photos we'd seen in the campsite, ended in a long curly spit. Kenneth had seen it in the plane when he flew here. Late afternoon we set off for the long walk to the end. Apart from a couple of beach bars near the campsite the beach was empty and quite scruffy looking. There were some rusty looking fishing boats and lots of low shrubs and it was all very rustic. We walked for over an hour and we still weren't at the end, although we had come around the bay so that we could look straight to the campsite. The sun was setting though so we decided not to go to the end and turned around instead. Back at the campsite we got clean and Pete cooked Chicken with a delicious lemon and fennel sauce and mashed potato and Kenneth said it was the best meal of his holiday. Another evening of chats and wine.
24th September
As it was Kenneth's last day we decided not to go to the caves and just to have a chill out day. We went to the beach, we had lunch and we played volleyball at the campsite. In the afternoon we drove out to find a Lidl and on the way back we stole a huge watermelon from a field - there was one left just at the side - and I drove some of the way home! The watermelon was absolutely massive but sadly not edible. In the afternoon I asked about my passport and the girl said she didn't know, she had given her mothers name and her mother wasn't here at the moment. This didn't sound very reassuring but I tried not to worry. If it didn't come today we would have to come back after dropping Kenneth at the airport, which would be really annoying. After more chilling at the beach we came back to camp to get clean and have pre-dinner drinks. I went over to reception in the evening and found the mother and she had my passport. Thank god! She said 'you're lucky it happened in Greece' and I think she was right - can't imagine what would happen in Bulgaria or Romania! Anyway I had my passport and put it away in a safe place in the van and learnt never to let this happen again. We went out to the beach to watch the sunset - we were west facing again - and it was a lovely one over Mount Olympus. Kenneth kindly cooked us dinner this evening - a fantastic spaghetti bolognese and we had one last evening staying up drinking vino.
25th September
Cotton. ^
Me having a drive! ^
Our cat friend. ^
25th September
Woke up at sunrise so we had time to do the washing up, take the tent down and pack up. We had done all of this by half eight and were at the airport at exactly quarter past nine. Perfect. We said our goodbyes and left Kenneth in the very long queue in departures and headed back out to the van. We had a great time with him here and it felt funny to be alone again after three weeks of family! We were heading west in the direction of Albania. I didn't know the best way to go as I'd heard toll motorways in Greece were insanely expensive. However, the satnav told us that the section of motorway we wanted wasn't tolled so we were able to drive fast across half of Greece. It was actually wrong and as we came up to a paying station we were cursing the satnav for taking us this way. Luckily it was only two euros - and well spent - and we carried on up to the town of Kastoria, which was underlined on my map as 'a place of tourist interest', but I didn't know why. As we came up through barren mountains with nothing except us and this brand new motorway - not even many other cars - we were thinking what the hell could be up here of tourist interest? It was completely deserted and felt more like we were driving through the Middle East than Greece! The drive was also alot longer than I expected and just as I was giving up hope we came to the junction we wanted and came over the hill to Kastoria. It is a large town set around a big lake with a peninsula jutting out into the middle. All the houses are set on the mountains and it looked much more like an Italian town than any we'd seen in Greece. It was beautiful. We followed the roads, not sure where to head to, and ended up on top of the hill on the peninsula in tiny one way roads with way too much traffic than neccessary. Because there was nowhere to park everyone just stopped in the road and it seemed that as long as you put your hazard lights on this was okay! The town was lovely and had some very old looking buildings but the drive was getting quite stressful so when we saw an opportunity to pull over we did and we went to get a coffee in a weird old man bar. There were seats on the pavement looking down to the lake and from up here we spotted a place we thought we could free camp tonight. We followed the road down and actually managed to find it - a dirt carpark with trees right on the edge of the lake. It seemed pretty good, at least for now, so we parked here and set off for a wander around the town. It was really pretty with medieval buildings, byzantine churches and higgledy piggledy streets. There were also a noticable amount of young people and trendy bars which seemed really strange out in the middle of nowhere and we assumed it much be a university town. We headed back to the van to eat some lunch - left over spag bol on bread - and sat reading by the lake. Some fat police with huge guns arrived on two motorbikes and stood around next to us for quite a while which was a bit off putting. After a while we went back to the cool looking bit of town and got a beer in a nice bar by the water. We sat and played cards and made use of the loos. It was still only about six o'clock and Pete decided that we should take a drive along the road that lined the lake to see what there was to see and also if there was a better place to free camp for the night. We set off and quickly came across beautiful apple orchards all blooming with great big red delicious apples. The picking was in full swing and carts were being filled with the apples and driven to big warehouses where they were pilled high in crates. It was lovely to see it all especially in the golden evening light. We carried along the road all the way around the lake and back through the town onto the peninsula, where the road fell directly into the the lake on one side and laybys were dotted about occasionally. The road was a leafy lane and we found a perfect layby right on the lake and decided to camp here for the night with a spectacular view of the mountains and the town on the hill. Stayed up to watch the sunset and then got in the van when it got dark as the bugs were out in full force.
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