It was time to move on again today. In a way we were sad to leave Camping Chrissa. It is not in a very fashionable position for Greece, being away from the sea and there is little to do close to the site. However, we really enjoyed our two days there. We had an enormous pitch with a great view, there was a really clean little pool and the restaurant served excellent food. All for €15 a night and with fast wifi thrown in.
View from Camping Chrissa
But we have a serious schedule to meet if we are going to get up to Norway. It isn’t unrealistic. We only have to average 50 miles a day and that should give us enough slack to visit sites on the way and even stay two or three days in one place if want to, but keep moving we must.
Today we moved on to the Pilion peninsular on the east coast of the mainland. It meant a fairly long drive (130 miles) and we had a choice whether to use the excellent Greek motorways or save money and take 6 hours or more to do the journey. After being stung round Athens on the motorway I was tempted by the longer option, but I read a blog from 3 years ago which said this piece of motorway was much cheaper, so motorway it was.
Well the motorway was excellent, but it isn’t cheap anymore. €15 to do just over 60 miles on it is seriously expensive by European standards. The French and Italian motorways are much cheaper. I suppose this is another measure to reduced Greece’s deficit, but begins to bring home the sort of hardships involved for struggling Greeks and this is just a minor issue compared to slashed jobs and pensions.
We needed to restock Basil’s empty cupboards again and LIDL called. LIDL is beginning to become like an old friend. Whichever country we are in LIDL is always there. I’ve already checked and there are LIDLs in both Bulgaria and Romania, so nothing is going to change in our shopping habits soon!
LIDL didn’t have any Romas in the car park but there were still two beggars. One sitting in a wheelchair with paper cup outstretched and another young man wandering around the car park apparently trying to exchange some seedy looking womens’ underwear for cash! We ignored both, but intended to give our trolley money to the wheelchair bound man.
When we had finished our shop nobody followed us to Basil, but I noticed that the wheelchair, with its occupant, was strategically positioned not far away. While Sarah unpacked I took the dogs for a little walk nearby. Once Sarah had unpacked the trolley she stepped inside Basil to pack things into various cupboards, leaving the trolley empty. Neither of us saw what happened, but within seconds it had disappeared. I like to think that, like Andy in Little Britain*, the apparently disabled man had miraculously gained the power to walk, run across the car park, taken the trolley and then resumed his position in his wheelchair in the few seconds we weren’t looking. It’s either that or he was beaten to it by the unsavoury underwear salesman, which would be much less satisfactory.
After a quick break for lunch in a noisy layby next to the sea, we finished our journey to Camping Hellas (39.309478, 23,1084480) on the Pelion peninsular. It is a top price site on the ACSI network at €19 a night, but we have been located on a pitch literally 10 metres from the sea. As usual the Aegean is crystal clear and a beautiful turquoise colour. Sarah has already been for a swim and I think I will be in tomorrow.
Sarah takes the plunge
The restaurant on site looks good so we will be blowing the budget again tonight I expect.
Our pitch at Camping Hellas
*For non-UK dwellers Little Britain is a sketch show in Britain, where one of the characters is apparently paralysed in a wheelchair, but whenever his carer’s back is turned he gets out of his wheelchair and gets up to all sorts of amusing antics.