11/5/2013

10 countries in 6 days !!!

We left Australia [1] on Sunday morning and after stopping over in Hong Kong [2]we arrived in Holland [3] on the Monday morning very early. We had already prepared the camper on the first trip to Holland a few weeks earlier, it only took u a day to get ready.  Tuesday morning we  set off on our long haul drive to Greece to meet up with Clyde and Anna. The first days drive took us through Holland and most of Germany [4] where we slept overnight next to a small campervan and lots of trucks in a side road off the side of the freeway. Getting up very early the next morning we set off again driving through Austria [5], Slovenia [6] and into Croatia [7]. Again we slept in  a road side parking spot but set a bit lot further from the road and much quieter. On Thursday we again started early and drove through Serbia [8] and into Macedonia [9] sleeping next to a disused factory off to side of the highway.  Friday we drove the final leg into Greece [10].  The driving went very well and the roads overall were very good. We travelled over some toll roads but they were not very expensive, we were surprised when we went to pay a toll after driving for a couple of hundred miles and it was only about $12 [10euros].

The Bunyip drove well except for one problem !!!!

I love Slovenia

We have only had car problems twice in the 5 trips and both times we were in Slovenia.The first time we were helped by many people and our problem was finally fixed [read ourprevious blogs on Slovenia in 2010]. This time we were also helped out by some Slovenianpeople. As we were driving Jenny thought that she could smell diesel, which could have been due to the trucks on the road. But as it turned out it was us. After stopping at a supermarket in MariborI looked under the camper to see diesel dripping from the motor to the ground.I thought Oh S*** it did not look good. We decided to go into the shopping centre hoping to find wifi and I asked a young man at the phone shop if there was internet at the centre. After we explained that we needed to look for a workshop he straight away looked on his computer and printed the name of the workshop and a map of how to get there. After a quick basic grocery shop we drove to the workshop and the manager had a quick look and told us to drive in where his mechanic would look at it. The mechanic took less than 10 minutes to fix the problem and told us that something was loose and he just tightened it. I went to the manager to pay and he said “welcome to Slovenia” and no charge. I thanked him , gave him and his mechanic an Australian hat and we were back on the road. The Slovenian people are amongst the friendliest we have met.

Clyde and Anna we presume!!!

We organised a place to meet up with Clyde and Anna on a beach near Stavros in Greece. At lunch time we arrived there and waited. After lunch we decided to have a nap and soon after we woke h a car horn sounded and finally had our rendezvous. The meeting was 4 weeks delayed due to our return to Australia.

After a cup of tea and general chat we moved on to find a campsite for the night. We drove past two on the coast and they were both run down and one was definitely closed. We then decided that the beachside areas had some nice looking parking spots and would do for the night. We had a lovelyevening catching up over a bbq tea and a few drinks chatting well into the night and around 11.30 decided it was time for bed.

Saturday morning a slow start and then a drive for about 3 hours where we will stay in the camping Municipal at Alexandropouli. A nice spot with generous pitches and views of the beach with free wifi. Weather is fantastic, warm, sunny, light breeze and looks to be getting warmer the next few days.