The land of 1euro Souvlakis, beautiful beaches and Greek Gods!! well the food and beaches for sure but sadly havent come accross any Greek Gods yet!
Arrived on the mainland to a place called Patra after a night arguing with the Greek captian on board the ferry, (another story) from here we rode our way south fighting strong headwinds all the way to the polluted smoky atmosphere of Athens, the biggest city I have ever come accross! after arriving in the port that was as big as the city I grew up in, we decided we didnt really care where we went so bought a ticket on the next ferry leaving to the Islands, 10 mins later on the boat, 4 hours later finding ourselves on a very quiet cute little island called Syros. Spent 2 days here doing nothing but relaxing on the sandy beachs building bonfires, baking bread in the hot sand and swimming in the rather slightly cold water. Could have Island hopped all the way south but we are a bit of a restless bunch and sitting on a beach for two days was more than enough & when you can bike around the island in one day you do start to feel a little trapped.
Dogs have become a major issue and scare the hell out of me, we have each rigged up a quick release system on our bikes to pull off a weapon in secconds in defence against these fast running biting frothing at the mouth monsters that want to eat us, havent been biten yet, but I can see it coming. dogs are no longer little cute pets but mortal enemies!
So we are now in Rhodes where we were hoping to get a ferry to either Israel, Cyprus or Egypt and well sure enough, we have hit our first obstacle or should I say brick wall!! no ferries exist now to any of these destinations since 2001, bugger! Internet sites need to be updated!!!!!! have talked to every boat in the marina asking for rides and information. Spent a good 20 mins pleading and trying to get ourselves on a $50 million private boat that was going to Egypt last night like the stranded gypsie that we are but no go, gutted!! 29 hours and we'd be there. So it now looks like we have to totally change our whole plan of route. So we are now heading over to Turkey this afternoon, spend more time talking to boats and people over ther getting information on how to get to where we want to. Quick trip to Ancara for Visas than a long way down the coast over many more mountains and eventually into Iran where we start the new part of the adventure, it is definitely the more direct route, through Iran in to Pakistan and than into India but not where we had initally wanted to go. Oh well. Not sure what it will be like riding a bike fulley cladded in a black robe showing only my eyes?
My bike has now decided it is a 10 speed, have totally lost all use of 7 gears and was hoping to be able to fix it in Israel, one way to look at it is Im getting way fitter quicker than the guys! is hard work!! dont know what the chances of getting bike parts from here on in are?? apart from that everything is great, all motivated about the new plan of route but a bit gutted to miss out on that part of the world, and seeing You Cei, gutted!! will have to be another time.
again photos arn't working and probably wont be from here on in sorry! not sure of the chances of interneting frequently in the back roads of Turkey and Iran??? will be intouch when I can.
Things may still work out as originally planned, have got a whole other port to beg and plead with tomorrow. wish us luck. will let you all know of the plan when we have it sussed.
Peace, Asti
