Efharisto Greece

6fartsinacart
May 29, 2017
3 min read

25 May 2017, Thursday: 6:30am sharp the plane leaves from Thessaloniki airport (just across the main road) and flies over Merzy. Since the plane has flown over, we can now put the kettle on. The final load of washing goes in before the last blog update is started. We purchase a few necessities and one luxury item (a solar shower) from the camping centre. 12:30pm the blog is updated, the washing is done and we fall in queue to FLY out from the outskirts of Thessaloniki. Our destination is Kassándra, the first finger south-east of Thessaloniki. As we stop at the beach, a couple of kilometres before Pefkohóri, the fitness freaks go in search of a more suitable parking for the night. We move to this new position upon their return. On the menu is pork kebabs, braai-broodjies and potatoes in tinfoil. We enjoy a peaceful evening around the campfire before going to sleep. 26 May 2017, Friday: We are woken by another thunderstorm that really lets rip with some lovely lightning strikes across the bay. We all have a generous lie-in (the jog is scheduled for later today). The old folk get up to a bacon and egg breakfast which is served up by Genève. The last six remaining spuds which were left in the campfire last night and covered by Dad in sand (against theft by cats) is dug up by Emile. We manage to leave after carefully manoeuvring from underneath the pine trees at about 11am. Along the road the rain falls continuously causing the untarred stretches of road to be treacherously slippery. Twice we almost have to get out and push Merzy to get back on solid surfaces. Lunchtime the rain lifts and we stop to eat at ‘Nikitas’ beach (yep, that’s the real name). The final stop is at the bottom of the second finger, Sithonia, at a place unknown (not to be found on the map). The normal crowd go for a jog and upon their return we devour and enjoy our first Greek watermelon of the season. Dad and Emile go for a snorkel and return with a massive sea-biscuit, as well as a very small miniature abalone shell (perlemoen). We retire early to catch up on our daily journaling and some sleep. 27 May 2017, Saturday: Tomorrow we’ll have been in Greece for 4 weeks, so we all decide to do a large stint today. I officially decide to join the fitness gang for good and after a hilly jog, tidying up, and a little dolphin spotting, we leave around 10:30am. One of our possible stops is at a nice turquoise blue bay with flat waters, but there are too many people without clothing (above the age of 10). We pass the next possible stop and around 1:20pm we stop for lunch with a water tap nearby that comes in handy. As we carry on driving, it starts raining again and doesn’t let up. We eventually come to a halt in a port at Olympiáda at 4:30pm. Us kids look forward to another early night and since Dad can’t barbeque the patties in the rain, we have a quick and easy meal…pizza. 7:30pm and we are all snug as a bug. 28 May 2017, Sunday: Three times during the night we are rudely awakened by a mad dog that just doesn’t want to shut up! Barking at nothing specific. It had us all praying, so I guess some good came out of it. The rain is still falling and we are up and away at 10:40am. Lunchtime we stop at the ‘Byzantine Tower of Apollonia’ ruins. Mum, Dad, Genève and Emile go explore while Nikita and I tidy up Merzy. At this stage the rain has stopped. We don’t drive too far today because it is Sunday, and at 2:30pm we stop at the beach at Nea Iraklitsa. After Mum chooses photos for the blog we go for our daily jog. We come back to find all the burger preparations done (thanks Nikita) and after a quick swim to cool off, Dad lights up the BBQ and we have delicious burgers for supper.