After our island hopping, we arrived back to the mainland at Rafina, just north of Athens and drove firstly to Marathon and then on to Volos. In the tradition of checking out film locations we decided to make a quick divert to the island of Skopelos, one of the Sporades islands made famous by the filming of Mamma Mia. We left the Bongo in a campsite (there are no campsites on the island and car ferries are few) and headed off on the hydrofoil, which was fast but scary especially when it went round tight corners. We were met at the port by a lovely Greek lady called Evelina, who offered us a room in her house. I was suspicious but had no need to be, the room was lovely and the house right in the ... read more

We had planned our itinerary to include a 10 day break in Crete to meet up with Megan and her friend. Unfortunately for various reasons Meg was unable to join us, naturally we were very disappointed. However, we decided to make use of the apartments booked in two locations, Gournes in the North East and Rethymno in the North west . Crete was surprisingly cooler than the main land with an ‘unusually high wind’... according to the holiday rep. (We later found that the wind here is quite common in August, known as the Meltemi). It was the first ‘weather’ we had encountered for several months, and we had a balcony overlooking the sea in our first apartment, which was just great for watching the waves and sunsets. Our routine of sightseeing included Knossos Palace- a ... read more

Every now and again we have clear out, where we strip everything out clean and repack. After a while things get misplaced and it helps have a reorganise, as we have gained things along the way, the lounger for instance. It has been pointed out to us on occasion ‘have we won the lottery’ . Sadly no, although travelling this distance seems extravagant we are working to a budget. Our largest expense is Diesel and accommodation. Diesel we can’t get around the costs. Most expensive? Switzerland and Albania cheapest so far, Montenegro. As for accomodation – We had budgeted for between £25=30 for camping per night. While travelling in Austria several people said ‘have you got your ACSI card?’ Well we hadn’t but promptly had one sent out to our next destination in Switzerland. This is ... read more

So fortuitous to have good friends that book their holidays along our route! Just a few days before they flew out Cally (one of my oldest friends) emailed to see if we were going to be anywhere near. A quick divert in the itinerary and we were off to Parga. Its a lovely old fishing village, a harbour with shops and houses set against the hillside. The next bay is a lovely beach, Voltas where we found a campsite, and surprise surprise we were right next to Cally and her partner Chris’s hotel. We spent a lovely few days being totally spoilt. We explored Parga using a little ferry boat service from one bay to the other, stopping frequently for sustenance and ice creams, culminating in a lovely meal overlooking Parga harbour. Cally is rather partial ... read more

Yes I know, I had to look up on the map where it is too!...east of Albania and North of Greece. It’s a small country, with a population of only 2 million. So why did we head there? Well the roads heading south in Albania were reportedly worse than the ones we had already experienced! Hard to believe! We thought it would be good to visit a new country and had heard that Lake Ohrid was nice, so we went to find out. No problems at the border, only they did not have electricity at the time and had to log all comings and goings manually which took time. We also got stung for 50 Euros for the car insurance. We eventually found a campsite 15 km from Ohrid town alongside the lake. They had recently ... read more