14 July – We spent a hot morning giving “Lefty” a good clean – well needed. After lunch we caught the bus and metro back into the centre of Athens and explored the Temple of Zeus. This was a huge structure. The size can be judged by the enormous pillars that remain. Next we found the Panathenaic Stadium. This ancient stadium was restored in 1896 for the first Modern Olympic Games. It is the typical Greek shape - narrow and open at one end. We walked thru the gardens and passed the parliament buildings with the guards in their costumes including slippers with huge pompoms. We crossed Syntagma Square, full of protesters & banners opposing the cuts in government spending (retirement age raised from 50 to 65!!) so that the EU will lend them money so the country will not go broke.(Greek politics 101) We wandered thru the centre of Athens. To our surprise this is a beautiful clean city with many parks and pedestrian only areas full of restaurants and bars. At 4:00pm we meet Colin and Pam Laker (work mates from Auckland) who have been in the Greek Islands for the last 2 months. We all caught the metro and bus back to our camp for a drink and a catch up before going back into town for a nice meal at one of the many outdoor restaurants. It was a very pleasant evening and we managed to catch the last bus home at 11:00pm.

15 July – We left Athens and headed NW thru dry farming country and eventually climbed into the hills. A very pleasant drive. We stopped at one of the mountain villages which is now a ski resort before continuing on to Delphi. This is 600m above the Corinth Gulf and a little cooler (33 degrees). After a swim in the camp pool we biked to the ancient site of the Temple of Apollo. All set on the side of the mountain with a theatre and a stadium. This area was established around the 14th century BC. Our camp site overlooks the mountains and the Corinth Gulf. Very spectacular!! At a lot of the camps recently we have had parties of older school children (15 – 18) staying. At this camp there are three groups, all from France, and sleeping under the stars. It seems to be an educational trip but they still seem to have fun. A bit noisy around the pool though.

16 July – When we got back to the camp yesterday we realised we had missed the most spectacular ruin which was further along the road and fortunately free, so we left the camp and drove to the Sanctuary of Athena. We headed back into the mountains again and followed a good road north and east eventually joining a motorway and then onto the Pelion Peninsular. We are camped on a great beach at the village of Kato Gatzea. It is hot again and we enjoyed several swims on the little beach. The water is unbelievably warm and crystal clear. This is now the start of the Greek holidays and the camp is nearly full but we found a great site 1 row back from the beach. We had our final swim after sunset just to cool down.

17 July – We spent most of the day on the beach with a break around lunch time when it is just too hot to be out of the shade. After sunset we walked around to the town and the harbour and had a Greek dessert at one of the many outdoor restaurants along the water front. This is a beautiful area frequented by mainly Greek families on their summer holidays.

18 July – A repeat of yesterday. Sun (mostly in the shade), the beach and swimming.

19 July – We drove west and north slowly rising into the hills until we saw the promontories of Meteroa. In this area there are weird geological formations of huge rock pillars rising 100s of meters above the surrounding valley. The most interesting thing is that there are 6 Monasteries perched on the most impossible sites at the top of these pillars. They date back to the 14 century AD and when the monks were being persecuted. They built these monasteries, which could only be accessed by ropes, to protect themselves. After a swim in the camp pool we cycled up to Kastraki, a small town under the pillars. We decided that the best way to visit the Monasteries tomorrow will be to drive “Lefty” up the road.

20 July – The lady at the camp told us it would get to 41 degrees today so we decided to explore the Monasteries early. We were on the road by 8:30 to drive the 10kms around the sites. We visited 2 of the Monasteries. I had to put long pants on and Val had to wrap a sarong over her shorts. Most of the Monasteries are accessed by either steep steps/track or across a bridge. All the freight etc is still winched up to the sites. There still are religious sects living there and the tiny Greek Orthodox churches are beautiful. We returned via the modern town of Kalambaka where we shopped. The afternoon was spent around the pool. The lady was wrong and it only got to 40 degrees!

21 July – A bit of a strange day! We decided to drive north to Kastoria, a town on a lake close to the Greek/Macedonia border. Unfortunately the camp at Kastoria, which we had intended to stay at, did not exist. We decided to drive to Ioannina (pronounced Yanina) on a scenic road thru the mountains. 20kms down the road we passed a small sign that said the road to Ioannina was closed. We hooked a U turn and followed the motorway to Ioannina. This was a stunning piece of construction with many tunnels and viaducts. We are camped close to the town on the edge of a very pretty lake which unfortunately is very polluted. This does not stop the locals enjoying all sorts of boating sports including sailing, water skiing, rowing and kayaking. To cap off a frustrating day we discovered that my bike had a flat tyre.

22 July – It is much cooler here. 18 degrees when we woke and a max of 30 degrees. We went for a bike ride along the water front and into town which included getting the tyre fixed by a little old man. After lunch we biked to the next village to visit a limestone cave complex. We joined an hour long tour thru the best caves we have ever seen. The limestone formations were spectacular! This is our last day in Greece so we will go to a taverna for dinner. Tomorrow we cross into ALBANIA!! (the bad lands)

23 July – A ¾ hour drive brought us to the Albanian/Greek border. We had a about a 45 minute delay in a queue waiting to be processed. As our vehicle insurance did not cover us for Albania we paid 35 euro for a certificate which in theory covered us. What for, we never did find out!! The first 20 kms was on good roads with very careful drivers. There were many police stopping cars for unknown reasons. After a major town the road deteriorated and became very rough and bumpy with huge pot holes. The best technique was to follow a truck as they knew when to avoid the worst holes by veering all over the road. The rough asphalt turned into road works which was very rough gravel and sand. This all lasted for about 100kms!! Eventually we joined a better road and even the highway which was smooth but for some reason the bridges were either a foot higher or lower than the road. Watching the traffic in front gave you a clue when to slow from 90 kph to almost stopped to minimize these huge bumps. The country was very barren and ugly. At one stage we drove passed old oil wells with a lake of stagnant water with oil on the surface. The smell was like the gas works!! About 70% of the cars are Mercedes of all ages but surprisingly quite a few new ones. There were also horses, donkeys and many motor scooters. As we neared Durres the country and the roads improved and we found our camp easily. It was located at a beach and we had a beautiful sunset over the Adriatic sea. We met several other couples from various countries and swapped Albanian stories and road tips. Although the roads are exactly as we expected, the people seem very friendly and the children all wave. Campers are a bit rare in this part of the world.

24 July – We continued north on good roads and pleasant country up to the border into Montenegro. Sunday must be wedding day in Albania. We must have passed 20 wedding processions. The first warning is the wedding videographer leaning way out of a car followed by the bride and groom in an ornately decorated car and the guests following also leaning out of there decorated cars waving ribbons etc all travelling at 90kph. A shorter delay than the other border but we got no stamps in our passports to say that we have left Albania and are now in Montenegro and there was no possibility to buy insurance. We are not sure if we are covered so it’s a bit of a worry! The queue waiting on the other side of the border was huge. We estimated about 4 kms long. We are now at a nice holiday resort with the very authentic name of Rocky Beach. The camp is full and the beach was packed but we enjoyed the large surf. This is like a typical NZ camp in the holidays with families set up for 2 weeks with everything including the kitchen sink. There seem to be a lot of Serbian families as Serbia is shares a border with Montenegro. The guy next door is plying us with his dad’s home made brandy. He was Costa Zoo’s coach (the Russian boxer who defected after the Sydney Olympics) so he speaks good English.

25 July – Another brandy from our Serbian friend. He swears it is good for you first thing in the morning!! We drove north up the dramatic Montenegro coastline. Mountains on our right and cliffs and beaches to our left. There are not many camps in Montenegro so we stopped at one that looked promising. It is very quiet and a bit like a DOC camp with limited facilities all set in olive trees and bush. Quite a contrast from last night. It has rain off and on all day and there is not a great beach here, so we settled for a long walk between the showers. When we returned the skies opened and we had a deluge which caused a small river to run thru our site. Thank god we are not in a tent!!

26 July – We continued thru some great towns and resorts to the Montenegro/Croatia border. At one stage we used a ferry to cross Europe’s biggest fiord. Leaving Montenegro the customs guy wanted to know why we had no Environmental Tax certificate. We explained, as best we could, that there was no one at the entry border to sell us the tax. After a quick look in the camper he shrugged and said “goodbye”. At the Croatian side the camper in front of us was being completely searched. Luckily, after checking our passports we were waved thru. We followed the coast past some great beaches and are now in a tiny camp at Srebrena about 6kms from Dubrovnik. We walked down to the local beach and shops and changed some euros into kuna (local currency). When the rain cleared again we went to the beach for a swim. This place has a very nice feel to it despite there being a hotel next door that was shelled during the 1991-1995 war. We checked out the ferry to Dubrovnik which we will use tomorrow. This camp has great internet so we will post this blog and skype the kids.