We had a very brief stopover in Athens where we lunched with Ruth Ennals in her flat in a beautiful cool old building. She is the daughter of my fathers first cousin and we have known each other since childhood. Her family (as mine did) came from Walsall. Her’s stayed and mine drifted off. The grandparents brought us together for family events.
It was strange seeing her historical family photos on the wall, many of them Ennals’s. It was intriguing seeing photos of my younger self and my brother Ford at large family gatherings from years ago. As ever, we had a good catch up and a delicious lunch which Ruth prepared while we chatted.
Athens is notoriously difficult to drive around and park in. Many streets are hellishly narrow and prone to turning into steps! This is an issue for a large heavy Sprinter. However, courtesy of I Overlander we were directed to the Dora Stratou Theatre carpark which tolerated campers like ours and was located in the heart of historic Athens and just about accessible for a large rig.
Dora Stratou Parking spot when we arrived
On arrival at the car park in the middle of the day, we found it full of a theatre crew. Imagine a filming set with hundreds of people with vans full of technical gear and marquees for shade and costume racks. Not a lot of space for our Sprinter amongst the motley crew. And nothing flat! So we found ourselves a parking spot not far away and resolved to return at dusk to see if entry was possible.
We took a taxi to Ruth as it avoided us having to work out how public transport worked in Athens. Even that was hard to find and on our return later, so difficult that we mastered the metro and shank’s pony.
We found ourselves back in Dora Stratou in the early evening and watched an unbelievable amount of gear disappearing into countless black vans. The only thing remaining was a portacabin set of toilets next to our van. Unfortunately, these were removed by a lorry blaring loud rock music next to our sleeping quarters at 7am. The next morning we planned to head North by Motorway towards the border with Turkey.
Part of the Mou t Olympus range
We drove through wonderful valleys and mountain passes. We spied snow capped peaks in May, including Mount Olympus and swept passed lots of Greek towns with names straight out of tales and legends such as Marathon, Thermopylae (Spartan), Thebes/Thiva.
The Battle of Thermopylae was an epic, three-day face-off between a small group of Greek soldiers (Spartans) and the massive invading Persian Army in 480 B.C. Although the Greeks lost the battle, the Spartans are remembered for their extreme bravery in holding off the Persian invaders for so long when heavily outnumbered.
The 25 mile (40km) marathon race is named after a herald, who was sent from Marathon to Athens, to report wondrous news of a Greek Victory over Persian invaders in 490BC. He ran for 25 miles and on arrival he delivered his message and promptly died of exhaustion. To commemorate his dramatic run, the distance of the 1896 Olympic marathon was set at 40 kilometres.
Jim also recounted the story of the Sacred band of Thebes. These were a fighting force comprising 150 pairs of male lovers. Such was the skill, commitment and ferocity of this Theban force, that they beat a Spartan Army in battle, ending Spartan domination of the Region in the 4th Century BC.
Even though the tales Jim recounted as we swept past these alluring turnings off the motorway, it was still a long motorway drive.
As we pushed on towards the Greek Border with Turkey at Kipi / Ipsala, occasionally we drove very close to the sea and on one of these occasions we spotted a little harbour and small fishing boats close to a motorway exit. We decided to drive back through olive groves to find our spot and to our delight there were 5 houses, a handful of colourful boats bobbing in the windy harbour and a sea front cafe in Phthiotis, which attracted knowing lunchers from their Athenian second homes, plus a handful of locals. We were absorbed without effort. The village itself was far up on a hilltop behind us. This was the village harbour quite a long way from the main population centre. So it was very quiet. We were offered the menu or the catch of the day! Needless to say, this was a big temptation.
After lunch we drove on and eventually came to rest down a hidden track and came to rest at a deserted pebble beach nestled under palm trees beyond Thessaloniki. Again this was an excellent suggestion, found in iOverlander, of a place where wild camping was tolerated. A view of the sea, tranquility, corporate refuse bins and access to a water tap to top up the tanks!
After our peaceful meal by the stony seashore, we wandered up the shingle for a stroll and found hidden under some more palms, another black camper. These were a young couple from Germany still at the start of their big Silk Road trip. We noticed that on their picnic table were real glasses and chilled wine. We thought we should make more effort in the future!
Tomorrow we leave Greece wanting more and plan to enter Turkey.
