About Turn !

Sunday 5^th August

Sorry no photos, but uploading at a quick internet cafe stop. Will try to add pics later.

We arrived in Thessaloniki at about 5pm just nice for our 5.30pm rendezvous with Lefteris who came along with a surprise package… A young Russian girl “couch surfer” called Elena. She had only arrived in Greece the previous day to try to arrange accommodation for her forthcoming years study at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki . I was amazed that she could actually attend university in Greece and study her chosen subject of Economics in English! Anyway, having met up with the two of them Lefteris guided us up to the house in Vavdos, owned by his grandmother, where he has a ground floor apartment. The house is over two hundred years old and situated high up a precipitous mountain road which had a deep drainage gully in the centre… quite in interesting ride on a heavily laden bike but well worth the stress! They have a bar and a restaurant inn the square just a short walk down the hill and we took good advantage of both.

The night passed peacefully and was relatively cool thanks to the altitude ( almost 1000 mts) however awaking early as usual I made the mistake of taking a stroll around at about 6.30 am to take some photographs and managed to set every dog in village barking…  Whilst packing the bikes after breakfast we had another demonstration of just how differently Greece interprets the EU rules and regulations that blight our lives in the UK. The local goat keeper arrived in his 4x4 pick up with a big tank  in the back, which was not in any way refridgerated, into which he dipped jug after jug as he sold his fresh goats milk to the eager locals!   Try that one at in the UK and see how long you stay out of court! We were then  invited into the terrace of the hours opposite by Lefteris neighbour to sample her homemade apples in syrup; they were delicious although not exactly diet food. 

We finally got moving at about mid-day and headed up to a viewpoint even higher up the mountain from where you can see all three “fingers” of Chalkidiki, that is if the weather is clear, which unfortunately it wasn’t but it was still a nice walk from the carp park to the top. As it was Saturday and also peak holiday season the traffic was quite heavy once we got onto the main route to the middle of the three fingers, heading for a wild camp on the beach at a favourite spot of Lefteris’ . What he didn’t know was that the road to the beach had been improved, allowing not only hundreds more people to get to it but a beach bar had also been set up completely with the usual loud tuneless noise that passes for music. The whole place also looked like an open sewer ! It never fails to amaze me how people can so quickly destroy an area of beauty by their utter stupidity and carelessness. We did eventually find a relatively clean corner in which to camp but it was a huge disappointment to us all. The sea was wonderfully warm and crystal clear although very crowded and noisy the so called music going through until sunrise, at which point I got up and had a swim in a completely deserted sea… that’s far more to my liking.

Breakfast consisted of my famous sultana pancakes washed down with tea (or coffee), a quick swim and we were ready to leave… well to be more accurate three of us were, as Lefteris and Elena were nowhere to be found; in fact they were still in the sea.

We rode around the rest of the “finger” together before leaving Lefteris and Elena heading down to another beach whilst Taz, Joel and I headed North.  North? Ah, yes, North… there had been a bit of a change of plan; Joel was suffering badly with the heat which was running at about 44c at sea level , so instead of heading South to Chios and then Turkey we are now on our way to Bulgaria. In many way it makes a lot of sense for all of us as we would only have been able to do a tiny part of Turkey before heading up to Bulgaria and would then not really have had time to see either Bulgaria or Romania properly if I am to get back to the UK in time to compete in Sam’s Memorial Canoe Race on the 22^nd September… so Bulgaria here we come!

Tonight, Sunday, we are camped beside a forest track high in the mountains once more, about 170km south of a minor crossing into Bulgaria, with not a sound except the odd Cicada chirping. We should be far enough from the little road not to be seen by the odd car that comes along every couple of hours or so which is just how we like it