Ancient Epidaurus

We left camping Athens relatively late on Tuesday after taking full advantage of the facilities and the blisteringly quick Wifi to download pretty much all of the things we wanted to watch for the rest of the trip! We had a few bits and pieces we wanted to get such as a new door mat and some duct tape and spotted a LeRoy Merlin on the outskirts, which as it turned out was an access nightmare with its underground car park. We found a safe looking side-street and managed to pick up pretty much everything we wanted, but an experience we were not prepared to repeat for the sake of a Carrefour - so we left hoping to find a Lidl en-route.

We opted for the coastal road to avoid the main toll road and were treated to some blue sky and sunshine which had been absent for the last 3 days, today might have been the better day to visit Athens but with the uncertainty that the strike action brings we were happy having the opportunity to visit at all. Before long we had arrived at the Corinth Canal and were soon joined by a French Family on their round the world tour. (See their blog here: http://family-berteau-on-the-way.blogspot.com ). It was interesting, while frustrating, to hear of their travels through Albania and Bosnia and down into Asian Turkey and the fact that being French meant they had no problem in obtaining fully comp insurance for these countries - impossible for an English registered vehicle. We wish them well on their trip and perhaps we will see them in Morocco!

Next on our list was Epidaurus which is both a pleasant town and an ancient site; we visited the town first and were greeted by a massive black charter yaught pulling into the small marina, a spectical which drew everyone out from their houses.

There are two wild camping possibilities here, the first being in the main car park (GPS: to follow) and the second located a through a extremely narrow road through the town and then onto a large open beach where we were joined by three other campers later in the evening. We took the opportunity to get 2 weeks worth of washing out of the way, since disappointingly there were no washing facilities at Camping Athens.

While we were washing we were adopted by a small puppy who was initially very scared but soon was chasing after a ball and alter followed us around the town, waiting for us outside shops. If you are a dog (or even cat) lover then Greece out of season will be a wash of stray and abandoned animals and while most of them seem happy enough at their independence you couldn't help but feel sorry for this little female puppy and she tugged on our heart strings for days afterwards.

After a couple of days in situe we visited Epidaurus and despite becoming a little numb to ruined archaeological sites you can't help but be impressed with the scale of the well preserved amphitheater.

We continued around the coast road ending up at Galactica where you can get a small passenger ferry to Poros, a small island a stones throw from the mainland with no road links. Being Saturday it was paticually busy and we were both tired so pressed on 10 miles to a remote location for a wild camp to spend a quiet night.