Greece, mighty old Greece

I landed in Igoumenitsa in Northern Greece, together with a few other “offroad” travelling souls I met on the ferry. Some younger, some older, with and without kids, all different objectives, the time on the ferry passed by really quickly with all the stories everyone had to tell… The bunch that was not continuing to Piraeus rounded up their trucks (one other Unimog btw) on a small and pretty beach not too far from the port (Dietrich’s secret spot ;-) The stories continued late into the night as everyone was tapping their respective volatile fluid stocks… (not the diesel obviously). It was a great night and I hope I see you guys somewhere on the road again.

The next morning started with the obligatory swim in the Mediterranean…it was so tempting to stay a bit longer but I was itchy to get on the road, as this seemed the real start of the trip in a way. Loose plan was to roam through the Pindos Mountains reminiscent of a trip I did with my friends Johannes and Bernd 20 odd years ago in a “Bulli” full with toys. We got entirely lost on impossible offroad trails in these mountains in the quest to look for rivers with enough water to kayak down. Due to the lack of it we ended up paragliding down numerous hills negotiating landing rights with armed shepherds and climbing and skiing (Johannes) down Mt Olymp in a snowstorm… (I am getting diverted though… must be the age…;-). The roads do still exist, most of them with tarmac now, I guess a lot of the Euros went here… The roads are winding through the mountains, up a down, in beautiful valleys and gorges, hitting an historic arched bridge here and there and no-one on the road…take your mountain bike get here and make something of the spent Euros, its magnificent. I did even find a few dirt tracks (had to be), marked on no map obviously but I managed to not get lost too badly this time. I even got to engage my 4-wheel drive once and was proudly wading though trickling “mountain streams” that wetted maybe just the studs of my tire thread…;-). I had a great time but I had crossed the mountains in 2 days already and so I was on my way to Turkey mainly on the highway from thereon.