After paying the bill at Sykia (Fig Tree) Camping
and saying our goodbyes, we headed off to Volos to the tyre repair
place that the breakdown people had recommended. On the way I saw
some metal showing through the road surface and the memories came
flooding back. We had seen the old disused narrow-guage railway lines
running out Volos and noted that a preserved railway was still
running a little further down the road. However there was also a line
that used to take the same route as the road. With the railway no
longer in use and a need to create or widen the road, the solution
was obvious – use the old trackbed. After all the ballast in the
trackbed would provide a good foundation but removing those rails
would have been a lot of work so it was much easier just to asphalt
straight over the track and rails. All along that stretch, small
sections of rail appeared through the surface and sometimes both
rails were clearly visible for some distance. I should think that it
would be quite interesting to hit one of those when you were on a
bike – there is not much grip on a railway line!
We soon found the tyre shop to the west of the
port and explained what was required – repair the puncture, put the
repaired wheel back on the van and the spare back under the van. The
latter I knew was going to be a pain in the neck (and the back and
other places) but I guessed that that expression was probably beyond
the man's English and it was definitely beyond my Greek so I just
warned him that it was very difficult. He did complain that the
person who designed the spare wheel storage and retrieval must have
been mad but within half an hour (most of that getting the spare
back) it was completed and I had paid the amazingly reasonable bill
of €10 - £9!
Unusually we decided to use the motorway for the
first part of our journey because the other roads were going to take
us a lot longer. Greece has an unfortunate method of determining
their tolls that uses height and doesn't make an exception for
motorhomes. This means that motorhomes pay the same as a small lorry,
nearly three times the cost for a car. We spent more than €22 (£20)
between Volos and Thessaloniki and a considerable amount of that was
single carriageway due to new road construction work.
We drove on normal roads to Larisa and as we
approached the city I stopped at red lights and saw in my wing mirror
an identical Hobby motorhome approaching in the outside lane. We
rarely see any Hobby motorhomes in the UK and, although there are
more on the continent, it is very rare to see our model. To my
amazement, I noted that this one was Greek. We have never seen a
Greek Hobby in all of our travels. The van pulled alongside us and
the driver called across “Nice looking van you have there”. I
repaid the complement and we exchanged details of destinations. They
were off to Thessaloniki but I don't know whether that was for a
holiday or if they were on their way home. Too quickly, the lights
changed to green and we were off. It would have been good to have
more off a chat as we haven't met any Greek motorhomers who could
speak English.
Before and after Larisa we covered more of the
Thessaly Plain with distant views of mountains before climbing up and
over the hills. There is another plain on the East side of
Thessaloniki which is farmed extensively and has two lakes. We were
able to leave the motorway here and take the old national road 2. We
were expecting to see a mass of blue water as we approached Lake
Koronia but saw only fields. Eventually we saw an area of white that
looked like a very shallow salt lake surrounded by marshland. The
lake was much smaller than that shown on our map and a large part of
it seems to have dried up.
The second lake was blue and very pretty. On its
shores there was the hot spring resort of Loutra Volvis – another
time we must stop and investigate. Further east we watched a
windsurfer speeding across the water. We could see the scar of the
newly-constructed section of motorway on the other side of the lake
and were glad that we had taken the old road.
We had a number of options for campsites on the
route but chose the first at Asprovalta, appropriately named 'Camping
Asprovalta'. We stayed here on our 14-month Odyssey six years ago and
liked the site. It is right on the beach and the all of the vast
number of pitches are huge but I had forgotten the two drawbacks –
it is difficult to find pitches with a power supply (especially one
that works) and there are huge number of mosquitoes. By the time we
had selected a pitch and connected to a working electricity supply
(with help from the neighbours), I could count 10 mosquito bites on
my legs and arms. Still, a stroll on the beach made it all worthwhile
and the locals on their semi-permanent pitches were all very friendly
wishing us a 'Kali Spera' (good evening) as we passed.
Photos: Fish for tea? The beach at Camping
Asprovalta.
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