The official Camperstop in Thessaloníki proved completely unusable. It was full of trucks going in and out but also so steep the levellers kept sliding away!
But then we found this place on Park4night. Right by the sea, fantastic view, just a big space that the flats use for parking. And Valerie made friends with Makis who has his joinery workshop there plus a vegetable garden and arranged, in Greek, for us to stay here.
Makrinitsa is a village about 40 minutes further north from Anakasias. There is a folk museum there, and we were told that there is a cafe with paintings by Theofilos on the walls.
However … be advised not to go there in a camper van/ motorhome. The village is high up and located all the way up the hillside, so numerous levels. The road is narrow and very steep with continuous hairpin bends. In addition when you get there is no where to park. So unfortunately although we made it up to the village we couldn’t stop, except to do a rather anxious making 3-point turn.
We travelled on the Anek Superfast ferry which from Venice took a long time – 32 hours. But it was a pleasant trip and as Anek is a Cretean company all the food was from Crete and surprisingly delicious.
The ferry was of course late and didn’t get to Patras until 1am. We’d decided to go to a campsite 30 minutes away rather than stay by the roadside and the man at Camping Kato Alissos couldn’t have been more helpful staying up until 2am to let us in!
Stayed at a Camperstop in the pretty village of Vila Viçosa In Alentejo on our way to visit a vineyard. Great big car park area, had some toilets, and we discovered a delightful restaurant in the park. The village had once been the home to the Bragança dynasty and has some amazingly huge buildings
Travelled to the village of Narlai outside Ranakpur only to discover that I’d left my phone charger and adapter behind. Potential disaster! But no, this is India where the mobile phone is queen. Wandered down the road to find three tiny mobile phone stalls. Initially they didn’t have a iPhone lead, but then it turned out that the salesman just happened to be there on his motorbike bringing supplies. iPhone lead? No problem.
Various people we’ve met (both Indian and tourists) have recommended a local mosquito repellent called Odomos – doesn’t contain any deadly chemicals, is an Ayurvedic preparation and smells ok
If you look it up it has an interesting story behind it
Indian train toilets are green! We saw this notice on the platform at Kannur station
Once Jeremy has nationalised the railways perhaps we can have the same!!
The Indian rail system is an extraordinary beast. It looks as though the bookings that I made through the irctc web site have worked. Here we are at Ernakulam Town and our names are top of the booking list pinned on the wall.
Back in Italy in the hills in Umbria and it’s a bit of a shock as the evenings are positively cool and I’ve had to wear my fleece!!! This isn’t what we’re used to.
This is for our camper van / motorhome friends who have LPG tanks.
We found we couldn’t put any gas in. We knew from the monitor that it needed some but the pump thought it was already full. After phoning various people in England for advice the conclusion was that if the outside temperature is very hot (it was about 30 C) the temperature of the van’s tank is greater than the pump tank, so the pump thinks the van is full. We went into the mountains where it was 19C and could fill the tank with no problem.
So … if you have problems filling your LPG tank because of the heat either go up a mountain, or try early morning.