Beach barbecue at sunset.

Spent this afternoon trying to start Dave's Pajero ( again!), but to no avail so we towed it up to the garage where they'll give it the once over. Whilst looking in the boot a very large and very fat ugly lizard appeared from amongst the clutter in the back and gave Dave a big shock! Don't think it was happy about being disturbed!
After that we took our dinner down to Trapezaki beach and had a barbecue and a swim as the sun went down.

 

The campervan was just behind us in the trees so once it had gone dark we went and made a coffee, then sat and drank it under the stars. Lovely!

 

 

The Doll's House and the Canoe!

The apartment we're staying in is fine. It's owned by two very nice people and Dave spends time chatting with Dionisis about life in Greece. They are keen to have us staying here, and we're grateful for the internet, but it makes me laugh a bit to think we're staying in a doll's house! The fixtures and fittings are tiny, I don't know who they're intended for but it obviously wasn't for Dave! This is him trying to wash up....

 

..... and this is me doing some ironing!

 

 

The shower has been built to the same scale too !

 

Anyway, the weather is still hot and sunny and is due to continue. Yesterday we went to Trapezaki beach with the canoe. The water was so clear you hardly needed a mask. We parked the van right on the beach so it was nice to be able to have a cup of tea when we wanted one.

 

 

Today we put the canoe in down at the harbour and canoed around the coastline to a bay only accessible by boat. We went snorkelling and saw the usual fish. My favourite are the rainbow wrasse. They are electric blue and yellow striped and very pretty. I think this is one, or if not they are very similar.

 

Second week in Kefalonia

We've spent the week pottering about locally. Dave had some things to sort out so we've been into Argostoli several times. We've also found an English gardener who's worked wonders on Dave's plot of land. He's strimmed the grass and planted yucca trees along one of the boundaries. Next time he's going to thin out and prune the olive trees.
Dave's friend Paul has been out staying in his villa this week with his family. This villa is where we've stayed several times. It's a fabulous villa and can be hired through the Owners Direct website, ref. no. GR32. It comes highly recommended!

 

We went round yesterday for a barbecue which was great fun and today we met up with them again for a swim at St Thomas beach, it's another of my favourite beaches and is only a 5 min drive away.

 

 

St. Thomas beach.

 

The weather is lovely, most days at the moment it's between about 22 and 26 degrees C. Can't be bad for the third week in October! Sea temperature is still good too and we swim everyday.

Perfect Weekend!

Sat 12th and Sun 13th.   The storms have passed for now leaving beautiful sunny days. The sea is calm again now and the Med is looking like it should do! Yesterday we spent the day at 'The No Shoes' beach which is one of my favourites. 

 

Today we found a new beach and did some snorkelling. This evening we went out exploring on our bikes.

Arriving in Greece

Thurs 10th - Once we'd docked in Patras on the greek mainland we drove down to Kyllinni and got another ferry over to Kefalonia. It was great to be here, although it was very grey and pouring with rain. Stayed overnight on the beach in Katelios.
In the morning we went into Argostoli, the main town on the island. While Dave was in the bank I went to the harbour to see if I could see the turtles. They're nearly always swimming by the fishing boats, and I was really pleased to see them. They are huge, yet so graceful in the water.

 

We went to Spartia to have a look at an apartment we'd rented for later in the month, but did a deal with the owners and decided to take it straight away.

 

Fri 11th - We spent today on the beach at St. Thomas'. The weather was cloudy but the sea was really warm. It was quite rough so we had great fun playing in the waves.

 

 

Later on the sun came out and the beach looked a bit more like the Med is supposed to, even though it was still quite choppy !

 

 

 Needless to say we had the whole beach to ourselves.

 

 

 

 

Along the Mediterranean coast of France.

Sat 5^th – We woke up to a beautiful morning so we drove along ‘la Route des Cretes’ which is a steep cliff top drive looking down to the bays between La Ciotat and Cassis in the ‘les Calanques’ area. Stunning!

 Next we explored Cassis town. It was beautiful, I couldn’t fault it. The beach was lovely, the port was buzzing, the town was lovely and there was a market going on. It had a really nice feeling about the place. I'll be back!!

Sun 6^th – Had bacon sarnies on the beach at La Lavandou, then walked along a twisty path along the rocks between the beach and the port. Carried on to Ramatuelle where we stayed overnight. The village is a medieval hilltop village and was very sweet.  Had a walk along the rocks, sea was lovely.

Mon 7^th -  We stopped for our pains au chocolat and coffee in the sunshine on the beach in the bay of St. Tropez, before following the spectacular coast road past Monaco and into Menton for lunch.

 

Kept on the coastal road into Italy, before a very long drive across the north of Italy towards Rimini where we stayed the night before dropping south down to Ancona.

Tues 8^th – On the ferry to Patras in Greece now. Fab boat, and glad to get to some wifi for a bit of a catch up. 

Wed 9th- It was great on the boat. We were booked as 'camping on deck' which meant we had access to the van. We couldn't use our gas though so Dave treated us to an excellent meal in the on board restaurant. Another great lightening show overnight. This morning is bright and sunny and we're passing the croatian coastline and greek islands of Corfu etc.

Still not very good at blogging! How does it read, do the photos come out? Can someone email me to let me know if I'm wasting my time or not. Thanks.

 

Leaving caravan behind in France.

Sun 29^th- This morning Bruno came back to his house after having been out on call nearly all night with a bag of pain au chocolats and croissants for us. These really are kind and genuine people. Explored locally on foot and had a lazy day.

Mon 29^th- Got up at 7am and Bruno loaded the campervan onto the back of his truck, then took us to VW in Le Mans. They plugged it into the diagnostic machine and said that there was a cut out device which had been activated because the engine was working so hard. They said it would be ok to continue and that if it should lose power again to switch off engine for a few minutes. We went back to collect the caravan from Bruno and Nadia’s house, and headed off again for the caravan storage site, south of Limoges.

After about 100km the van started to misfire so we stopped for a bit to let it cool down then carried on, avoiding the motorways because it costs a fortune to be recovered from the motorway in France. Finally we arrived at the storage site in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Bruno and Nadia have kept in contact, and we have promised to keep in touch with them throughout our trip.

Wed 2^nd Oct- Cycled into the nearby village for coffee and croissants. The sun is shining and we are back in shorts and tee shirts. Hooray, this is more what we had wanted the trip to be like. Tomorrow morning we shall set off in the direction of Italy, hoping that without the caravan the campervan will behave itself. Fingers crossed.

Thurs 3^rd- Left Suris and the caravan behind for the winter and headed to Clermont-Ferrand in mid France. Had lunch in a nice village called St. Leonard de Noblat, on the banks of the river Vienne. Found a tiny aire for the night right in the heart of the volcano region. A bit noisy but free!

Fri 4^th- Drove to Lyon along the autoroute with the intention of going into the Alps to Mamora and Bardonnechia but unfortunately the weather was wet and the clouds were low so there didn’t seem much point. Instead we turned south to Marseille and went along coast to Cassis and la Ciotat in la Calanques area. This is somewhere I’d wanted to visit for a long time. On the Med it’s warm and sunny and we paddled. Others were in swimming. We found a campsite right on the seafront in St. Cyr la Mer. We took our dinner down to beach and enjoyed a lovely warm evening. Massive thunderstorm over night though!!

Google Les Calanques.

Arriving in France

Thurs 26^th- arrived in Dieppe at 4am and stayed near beach until morning. We found a very friendly campsite and left the caravan there whilst we went to suss out the VW dealers. Got the new pipe ordered to be fitted tomorrow in Rouen, 60km away.

Fri 27^th- VW garage was very helpful and replaced the pipe, so after that we went for a siesta in the sunshine on the beach.

Sat 28^th- set off for Limoges feeling quietly confident but got to Le Mans and the campervan lost power again. Limped off the motorway and called for assistance again. A local guy turned up, with his wife and turned out to be a godsend! They lead us slowly to a campsite, but they wouldn’t accept a twin axle caravan, so they lead us to another but it was closed. Eventually they insisted that we followed them back to their property where they offered us somewhere to stop for the night, food, water electricity and use of their toilet! They even went shopping for food and brought us back a regional delicacy for us to try. During the course of the evening they were called out two more times, and both times left the house open in case we needed anything, with only their dogs to keep us company.