Meteora

After a night in the oak forest I’m back in the luxury (?) of a campsite with pool, wifi, bar and lots of noise! My baby has had all her oils changed; engine, gearbox and final drive. She deserves it with the heat she has had to endure over the last few weeks and we have done over 10,000 Km since I left Wales. Even then, being a cheap-skate, whilst I changed the engine oil and filter before setting out, I only topped up the gearbox and final drive. So here I sit by the pool, relaxing in the heat of the afternoon sun (it was 31c at 8.30 this morning) and more like 41c now at 3.30pm.

Went for a ride through Meteora this morning to have a quick look at the monasteries perched high on the pinnacles of rock. Breathtaking is the only word I can think of to describe it. Particularly the monastery with what looked like a home made cable car across to it, which I saw a priest and a nun  step into and cross the ravine… and I didn’t see either of them cross themselves or utter a prayer of deliverance first!

I didn’t get round to visiting any of them as I was a bit late, that is the tourist hoards were already in attendance with their fleets of coaches.. Also my feet are still far to sore to trudge up the hundreds of steps to each of them, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to manage it tomorrow. So staying put  for two nights at The Cave Camping, or at least that is the plan at the moment.  So 9am will see me outside the gates awaiting the grand opening !

Yesterday as I mentioned I went up to Prespa lakes, once again a stunning location of which Greece seems to have a surfeit! But something which has been bothering me a little over the last couple of weeks surfaced in my mind once again. Now we all know of the dire financial situation in which Greece finds herself, it must be said, along with Italy, Spain and indeed although not readily admitted to by our politicians, the UK; but everywhere one goes in Greece there are what appear to be abandoned projects and Prespa Lakes is no exception. There has been a huge project to reinstate the natural wetlands to the benefit of the environment and the indigenous wildlife to say nothing of the local inhabitants. There are signs everywhere telling us of the involvement of the EU, the World Wildlife Fund and other such organisations and indeed a huge plaque extolling the benefits to the ecology of the first 10 years of the project which was commenced in 1990… However,  it would appear that since 2000 the whole project, which must have cost countless millions of our Euros, has just been abandoned.   And yes I do know that WWF is a charity, but therefore it’s funding still comes from us, Joe Public !

There is are huge Hotels which don’t appear to have a guest for years, a wonderfully modern tourist information office with no staff or tourists, a relatively new industrial complex who’s gates haven’t been opened in decades ! Other signs of dereliction abound, hotels half built, sports fields abandoned and if one widens the geographic area whilst still within Greece. I have seen a huge flyover that literally was the road to nowhere!! in fact so long had it been doing nothing, the local farmer was using it’s arches to house his sheep and this wasn’t just a case of the road not being finished; there simply was no road other than the little lane which I was on, for miles around.

Whilst on the subject of roads…. Now there may be some grand scheme afoot of which I am completely unaware; after all I am the first to admit that I am not in any way politically minded nor a great economist but I also travelled yesterday alongside one of Greece’s fine motorways.  The road I was riding was a fine road with a good surface and nice sweeping bends, not hairpins and was to all intents and purposes empty… as was the motorway running alongside it; a road that must have cost countless billions of our Euros. Yes, you read that right, OUR euros, as it was funded at least in part by the EU ! WHY? Yes I know it’s a bit political and I don’t do politics but I do get a bit p***d off hearing how skint all these countries are when their politicians are hell bent on frittering away money on projects that are unnecessary, unrealistic and frankly unsustainable. I lump Italy and Spain into exactly the same league as they too have wasted billions of our Euros on empty motorways. Oh, and just before I end my rant of the day I stopped by the Greek motorway for 10 minutes at around midday and counted just 12 vehicles passing (that’s both carriageways), just 72 vehicles per hours. I’m sure there are far better mathematicians  than I out there that can work out the cost per vehicle mile of said motorway! So why, oh why do we keep giving these cretin politicians more of our folding stuff to waste?



The Deserted Tourist Information Office

Incidentally, I think I have converted the guy that owns the bike shop where I had the oil changed to an Horizons Unlimited attendee. He had never heard of the site of the forum or meeting but is adamant that he will be at the Greek meeting at the end of the month. I’m going to pop in tomorrow with all the details for him.