Woke up at 5.30 having a nightmare about work, great !! Gave up trying to get back to sleep and got the kettle on. While I waited for the boil I remembered how strange it was to travel 3000 miles to Turkey and end up talking to a Turkish guy who had just retired. He had worked for over 30 odd years at the BMW motorcycle plant in Germany as quality control. He retired recently and moved into the villa next to Bev & Mel. I would have loved to have asked him if he remembered checking our bike but that would have been daft ! Any way he could speak German or Turkish and I none so that was that.
Drank the tea down and got packing, the weather didn't look all that bad. We left the site at 7.45 and got onto the deserted E90 heading for Thessaloniki.
After making good progress and feeling peckish we decided to turn of just outside Kaval. I can't recall the name of the place but it was a tiny unspoilt fishing village. All of the tavernas were closed so we found a small bakery. We sat on a bench under trees on the village square stuffing ourselves with cheese pie, apple pie and doughnuts washed down with bottled water. Not healthy I know but god it was good. Then it started to rain. Wet suits on and off we went.
The rain continued on and off as we sped along the E90 towards Thessaloniki. Took the wrong junction and then spent 30 minutes getting back on route. Maybe its time to replace my Garmin streetpilot for a new model then I could load map sets for Greece !
The rain started to come down heavy as the motorway climbed up towards Kozani but the views twist and turns kept me interested. I don't think I have ever ridden a motorway with as many tight bends. By now we had climbed up into the low cloud cover. Visibility was down to maybe 10 meters. Angie woke up and thought she had died, can't repeat what she said !
We refuelled for the second time today at Kastoria as the motorway ran out. It would be minor roads from here to Lake Ohrid.
The forest that lines the mountain road was starting to show its autumn colour. Strange I thought, when we last passed this way it was in full sun and lush green. What a difference a couple of weeks can make.
We reached the border crossing at Bilishti in the mid afternoon. It was dead quiet and we were through in 10 minutes. This was the part of the journey home that I was least looking forward to. It was never far from my mind since the last visit. Don't get me wrong, travel would be boring if everywhere was the same but this couintry just does not have much going for it in my opinion. Little did I know at the time but it was going to get a lot worse. We put our clocks back an hour to local time, at least that would give us more time to find somewhere to spend the night. On the trip down we stayed at a hotel in Elbasan. No chance of that today. It was gone 3.00 pm, wet and already the light was fading, the mountains of Albania are the last place I wanted to be in after dark! We rode on through Pogradeci , it was very hectic for a small town. The roads full of street vendors and people going about life as normal except everywhere was dirty, it smelt and we where attracting a lot of attention. We got through and continued up the road running alongside lake Ohrid. We bounced along trying to dodge the pot holes and mad Albanian drivers. Even in the rain this late in the day fisherman stood at the roadside with huge tanks of fish. They jumped into the middle of the road as you approached trying to get you to stop and buy the fish. We don't like fresh water fish other wise I may have been tempted.
We found a campsite about 30 minutes out of Podgreci. It didn't look the best but we were not in a position to be fussy. The facilities were poor and the patch of grass that we pitched on looked like it had been attacked by a couple of guys with metal detectors seeking another Staffordshire hoard ! Two guys came out of the house speaking Albanian, the one then switched to Italian when we did not respond. The times people have mistaken me for Italian this trip. Must be the nose. I told them "English" a few times then the penny dropped. "Ahhh" said the one guy pointing at 5.00 on his watch and then pointint at the office saying "English" so I came back at 5.00 and spoke to a young school girl who could speak perfect English. I paid the site fee of a whopping €8.00 ( the cheapest fee this trip ) and she asked if we would like to eat supper in the restaurant next to the house. I thanked her and explained that we had already eaten. I didn't like to say that I'm not fond of fresh water fish.
We pitched the tent with the wind blowing the rain sideways. Crawled in and got the kettle going. Its hard to describe and if you are not a camper you may think it mad but when you have had a long day there is nothing better than crawling into a warm sleeping bag and listening to the rain drumming on the tent. We both slept like logs.
Total miles today 413.
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