Monday 16th July

Today has just got better and better! I awoke to an almost mirror image of last night’s sunset but shining on Corfu; a deserted beach and a wonderful refreshing dawn swim in the Ioannion Sea. It was then back to Igoumeitsa to try to replace my sandals and hopefully get a haircut ( yes there is still just about enough left!) Well 50% ain’t bad, got the first failed on the second.

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I then spent a very pleasant hour or so sat outside a café which happened to have WiFi, lazing over the best Frappe so far whilst also updating my blog... However I must say it made me feel pretty old watching two young lovers sat on a park bench opposite completely oblivious to all and everything around them! As the old song says “ young and foolish, we haven’t long to be” never has a truer word been written.

Anyway, it was time to get my arse into gear and head for the hills. The plan(!) was to head back towards the Albanian border but further inland, heading to Kerasovo, a ride of only about 80Km. What can I say? if I ride any slower I’ll fall off! Joel & Taz really have worked their spell on me. After more stops for than a number 9 bus to take photos, I round a corner in a mountain top village to spy one of the most picturesque café/bars that I have ever seen… and it was about 1 o’clock, so I did the decent thing and gave them a boost to their profits by having a couple of ice cold Cokes and a Greek salad, which consumed another hours or so of my day.

 Onwards and upwards… well yes but the road sort of kept running out. The higher I got the worse the road got, and I’m not just talking about a bad road surface. No,no,no I talking about no ROAD! Yes, in a couple of places the whole shooting match had up’d and headed downhill ! It’s  a bit daunting to say the least when you round the corner on a fully laden GS to find a great gaping hole, even at my leisurely pace. Well to be fair they had sort of replaced it… just not quite at the same level or in the same place.

Then at bout 3.30pm, yes that’s right 3.30pm (it’s not a misprint!) I spot what looks like it be a perfect wild camp as you can see from the photo. So here I am. I am comfortably hidden away on a track that I can easily get back out of and with views, well judge for yourself from the photo.  The tent is up with just the fly sheet and mossie net over the top as think it will be way to hot for the inner tent tonight even though I am at about 1000 mts.

Oh! While I am on the subject of exiting from wild camp sites… You may recall (if you read that far!)that I was just a little “ concerned” about get back up from the beach last night. Well, no problem, what I hadn’t realised until I watched everybody departing late last night was that I had come in by the “back door”. There was a perfectly easy track at the other end of the beach. LOL

So here I sit in the shade of a very convenient tree contentedly typing whilst trying to drink water as quick as it runs back out of my skin… I think I’ve developed a few (million) leaks!. Temperature is still well into the 40s, it was 38c at 10am this morning. If I can be bothered , it’s Greek meatballs and pasta with a garlic and tomato sauce for tea… on he other hand it may just be a glass of water and a peach.

Oh, and if the earth moves for me tonight, I’m in deep DoDo!  It means that the ledge I’m camped on is heading down the hill to join back up with the road it lost last winter!