The end of Greece

"How better to complete our tour of Greece than by a couple of nights at a city that we've never heard of? We journeyed west from Meteora to Ioannina, which is a university city in the west of the mainland. 

We approached it through high mountains, managing to avoid the new motorway with its many tunnels and instead we followed the old road, twisting and turning. The reward was marvellous views of 2,000m+ mountains, with the only issue being the debris on the road consisting of anything from small stones to large rocks. So you need to be constantly on the look out for obstacles.

Ioannina is on the western side of a large lake and we arrived from the northern side, looking for the one and only campsite that the map showed to be on the southern side. It meant driving through the middle of a bustling old town, only to discover that there was no campsite there.

It was only then that I remembered a feature of my satnav that I had discovered just before leaving home. Points of Interest, such as ferries, fuel stations and so on, can be selectively displayed on the map. The feature I had discovered is that user-generated files of specific points of interest, can also be created and downloaded into the satnav. I had found a massive database of campsites, maintained by a guy in Holland and displayed as POIs as 'Archie's campsites'. I had forgotten that I had already loaded his POI file before we left the UK and all I had to do was enable it to be displayed on my map.

Lo and behold, the campsite that we were looking for was shown, on the north side of the city. So we made our way back across the small centre and turned onto the dock used by a very active rowing club, alongside which there is a very informal site.

On registering, I found that they would be charging €23 per night for two adults, tent and car (with electric hook up included). This is by far the most expensive that we have come across in Greece and I explained this to a helpful lady who promptly dropped it to €20. Normally we have paid around €16-18.

On Saturday 20th June therefore, we found ourselves eating a lovely evening meal out and walking around the city, taking in the sights, as were many others.

There was the small matter of the Ioannina International Folk Festival which just happened to be in full swing so after dinner, we stopped to watch. This is the team from Bulgaria.

Dawn wasn't very impressed, complaining that as far as she could see, they didn't appear to be moving at all.

This continued until I realised that it's because she's quite short at 5'2". She not the 5'4" that she's claimed to be ever, since she scraped through the medical for her military service. She simply couldn't see their feet and the dancing was "all feet". So this was sorted by a swift change in position and she was then able to more fully appreciate the contribution from Bulgaria.

Overnight on Saturday, the lakeside bar just a couple of hundred metres from our campsite, had live music. The volume increased hour by hour and with the decreasing temperature, the sound in our tent became louder and louder. By 3:30am we resorted to ear plugs. It's a pity that in our fit-full sleep we hadn't tried them earlier.

On Sunday we drove up into the mountains north of Ioannina and specifically to the villages close to the edge of the Vikos Gorge.

In a small cafe we started talking to the owner about bees. He produced a bowl of pollen, straight from the hive and suggested that we eat a teaspoonful. We did and he says that two per day "would give you all the vitamins you need". I can't verify this but it tasted slightly better than cod liver oil and a lot worse than rose-hip syrup. (Keep-up old timers).

It was here at this café that I learnt yet again to keep my voice down low, as I suggested to Dawn that we move tables as "we're getting a full whiff from that old Greek boy's pipe".  The old Greek boy happened to be ex-Hartford College, at Oxford University and whilst he is an old Greek, he also understands loud English.

A few days later I was again overheard on a beach, suggesting that a screaming toddler be taken down to the sea and held underwater for a moment or two until the crying stopped. A German guy turned around laughing, so I think he realised that it was only a joke, Ja!

Back to the Vikos Gorge. This is in the Guiness Book of Records as the deepest profile gorge in the world. It's about 900m deep and very narrow - just how narrow I'm not sure, but it is spectacular.

From the path it is an immediate vertical drop-off in places- very dodgy for people not taking care.

That donkey was a bit suspicious too, always turning up in the most unlikely of places.

I have done a little bit of climbing but I have never looked straight down so far. It really is quite unnerving to be able to see hundreds of metres directly below your feet.

Returning from Vikos, we stopped at a huge bronze monument, positioned on an outcrop looking down the main valley south towards Ioannina. This fine lady has a bag on her shoulders and is carrying a purse and is striding out intently. I've tried to translate the plaque below it, using a funky new Google translate app which will scan a photograph of words, recognise the text and then go on to translate it. The inscription is a tribute paid by the woman's descendants to the people of the Zagori area, who gave her shelter during the night of 28th October 1940 as she escaped from the hands of Eisvolea Ekopazoume. It's signed "The Panoraveniotes".

Our last night in Greece was far more peaceful than the previous. We had a nice bbq, watched the sunset and all was tranquil. The following morning we drove north west for an hour or so to the border with Albania and our tour of Greece and this phase of the trip, was sadly over.