This is Sparta

Wednesday, 05 Aug

I woke especially early and walked into cosmopolitan Sparta for a bit of exercise before the expected long day ahead of us. Sparta was quite nice, no one tried to kick me into a well as the unofficial ambassador of Australia. The view of the mountain ranges either side of Sparta are truly impressive. It’s quite understandable how the town of Sparta was never sacked as it’s situated in a natural fortress.

We had planned to leave Greece at Igoumensitsa by ferry on the 7^th and arrive in Italy the following day. Unfortuntely, that day’s ferries were fully booked or leaving at the wrong time, so we decide to leave a day earlier but drive an extra 100km for the next 2 days to make up the distance.

We packed up and drove to Mystras, a 13^th Century Byzantine fortress only a few km from where we slept. It’s a truly impressive construction with many beautiful, still standing buildings and pieces of art. The views were also amazing. It was quite hot still so we only visited the bottom part of the fortress and gaped at middle and upper buildings. We had morning tea in Sparta and had a great conversation with an older gentlemen who spoke with a Greek/American accent. He had lived in Chicago for 45 years but came back after his wife passed away.

The intent was to visit Olympia, the home of the Olympic Games, during the day and end up at Patra , a city about halfway to the ferry port. The GPS took us through a scenic route to arrive at the west coast of Greece and then head north. That took ages and started to stretch the day out. We stopped at some small town for lunch and was served by a lady from Florida who had moved to Greece with her daughter when she was divorced. You could tell that she didn’t like it there but it seemed to us she was trapped.

Somewhere after Mystras, Springy lost her bathroom wind up skylight. It probably wasn’t wound down after Mystras and blew off on the road. We’re on the hunt for a replacement. Luckily, it isn’t as important as a damaged side window or the 2 other skylights in the main part of the van.

We also had quite a bad discussion about rest stops during the trip as any places where we stay for 2 nights involve a fair bit of exhausting walking about seeing the sights. My point of view was it is a travelling holiday and the sitting in the van while I drive a few hours each day while they read, rest or sleep seemed quite a good deal. The end result is a week of travelling will be taken out of the trip for rest days and we won’t be able to make it down as far as the Straights of Gibraltar but have to see a third less of Spain than originally planned. I’m sure the summer heat played a part in the discussion.

For the last few days Dee has been managing a headache, possibly due to the heat. It was different to any of the headaches and migraines she normally has and the normal treatment didn’t seem to work. We decided to backtrack a little bit to a hospital and see what a doctor could do. After a drip of some medication, an x-ray of her neck and finally an injection of something, Dee was released at about 7pm, feeling not much better than arriving. We drove for another hour to a camping site at Olympia.

Greece has a shocking low level of co-ordination in advertising their camping sites. Using 3 different books and maps we’re only seeing a third of the camping sites and most of them haven’t addresses.

Thursday, 06 Aug

Due to the necessary hospital visit, we weren’t able to get to the halfway point the previous day so we had to make up for it today with about a 5 ½ hour drive. That didn’t stop us from visiting Olympia at 8 in the morning though.

The museum and site were great. The artifacts were amazing and it was a very special feeling to walk the Olympic running track. I’m sure some people expected me to do a traditional nudie run.
J

For the last few days I had noticed that Springy ha acquired a squeak in her front right brake pad but I wasn’t concerned too much until today when it had more of a grinding noise at low speed when passing through a town. Suitably alarmed, I made sure nothing was falling off or dragging behind. I was able to take to a petrol station and the local mechanic was able to confirm that the brake pad was touching the brake disc but it wasn’t his type of vehicle and recommended that I drive Springy to Petras, a town not too far away and, thankfully, still on the path to the ferry.

We arrived in Petras and realised we could be looking for a needle in a haystack when it came to a mechanic. Our options were at that point:

1.       1. Look for a mechanic at Petras who could see to Springy but almost guarantee we would be late for the ferry and be charged a fee for changing our booking or lose our $600 booking altogether, or,

2.      2.  Push onto the terminal to catch our ferry and have a mechanic look at Springy in Bari when we disembark but running the risk of damaging the brake sufficiently to not reach the terminal or causing a level of damage to the brake that may require extensive and costly work.

You’ll find out our decision and what happens in the next blog post.