24th June 2012 to 26th June 2012


I have not written up this blog for 5 days so it;s time to catch up.


Sunday 24th June 2012


We retrieved our bikes from the underground car park at the Hotel Famissi in Meteora and set off along a whole host of very small back roads which eventually spat us out onto the main road near the small town of Neapoli. We followed the main route 20 which is itself a very nice twisty mountain road with not much traffic and we eventually found our way through a network of valley roads to the small village of  Monodendri near the large town of Konitsa. The hotel Archontiko Zarkada was easy to find and when we were shown our rooms we decided to stay for two days. We had an excellent room with an ante room complete with sofa - all very nice. We had a beer on the veranda and watched the rain and hail pour down during a 15 minute thunderstorm and said that we were lucky to have arrived when we did or we would have had a soaking, but it soon cleared and the blue skies were back again in no time.


We showered and went to eat and found that the outside television projector was being set up especially so that we could watch the England Italy Euro 2012 quarter final game. We had a nice meal of Greek salad followed by grilled lamb before settling down to watch the game (started at 9,45pm because we were two hours different to UK). What a miserable game - we were joined by a coachload of Israelis (strange bunch) on holiday most of whom went to bed before half time and the remainder long before full time but even we gave up at extra time and had to get our sleep.

 
Monday 25th June 2012

Hot and sunny again - this is getting boring !

We chose to walk out a little and see the monastery at the beginning of the Vikos Gorge and took some pictures. The walk there in the searing heat was uphill and seemed to take forever but the views were worth it. After all that exercise the only thing we could possibly do was have a few beers in the bar and I spent the afternoon mending my broken boots and sewing my ripped riding trousers - what an exciting day - even better I let Mark loose with a razor on my hair - aaaarrrrghhhh , it's  very very short now and I look like a criminal (but at least it is cooler )


Tuesday 26th June 2012
We left Monodendri and doubled back up into the mountains and came out near the large town of Konitsa. We turned north towards Kastoria and my map showed a small mountain road just a kilometre from the small town of Plagia, What a wonderful road it was too. As with a lot of Greek mountain roads we took time to dodge the snakes and tortoises crossing in front of the bikes and every so often we would come across small icons at the roadside,

Icon at roadside high in the mountains

The small road twisted and turned upwards through pine forests and not a single bit of traffic save for a fire truck patrolling the area in case of forest fires.

Sheer bliss

Difficult to find a bad road in this part of Greece !!

We reached the main road into Kastoria and decided nto fill ouir fuel tanks. We were stopped by a couplke of Greek bikers who insisted that we travel into Kastoria and have a coffee with them (I had already been to Kastoria ;ake nbut Mark had not) so we followed them in and had a frappe (cold iced coffee) by the lakeside.

Our new Greek friends

Mark... complete with pelican on Kastoria Lake behind him

It turns out that this day, Tuesday, was their day off - one was a bus driver and the other a border guard, They wanted to take us on a tour of the lake but as I had already done this befor we politely declined. We showed them our planned route and they told us the road from Korce to Permet in Albania was not a good road and very dangerous. They escorted us nback to the road to the Albanian border and we set off to our next new country.

Beware of bears in the Kastoria region

We left Greece after a quick passport check and, for nsome nstrange breason, a look at our insurance and we entered the Albanian side. Passport check OK but I just could not find my vehicle registration documents anywher. I knew that I had taken them with me when I left the UK...  we stripped down my bike at the border until, in the end, the guard got fed up and just put my bike registration into his computer and told me to carry on So, I am in Albania but can I get out with my bike - I will find out at the next border !!


There was nowhere that we could see to buy insurance so we pressed on uninsured, We reached the first large town of Korce in the heat of the afternoon sun and found a bank.  We cashed 200 euros in exchange for 27,500 Albanian Leks and so we now had fuel and money for the next part of our adventure.


We started out from Korce and found the road to Permet. It was good tarmac but was potholed in places but easily rideable. We soon spotted one of the many thousands of concrete bunkers that Albania is famus for at the roadside. The road was fairly flat for about 35 miles then it picked up and we had a nice mountain ride with fantastic scenery through the Barmash pass at 1759m highand then followed the Vjosa River gorge with ints mint green mineral water. 

View of the Vjosa River

Road to Permet

We stopped around 5pm and found an nice roadside hotel which did us dinner, bed and breakfast for both of us at 35 euros ~ (less than £30) and that included beer and wine too with the added bonus of air conditioned rooms. Everest, the nephew of the owner spoke good English and looked after us as we entertained his younger brother and cousin with some magis tricks (I always carry something to show the locals !)