WOW !! Just spotted this Rich and remembering our chats at Techenders - so pleased you took the chance to get out there and explore Looks like you`ll be heading over to Northern Greece , try taking in Thermopylae for a `300` history lesson if you`re passing and glad Meteora is on your list , incredible scenery and monastries . We stayed a couple of nights at Camping Meteora in the valley and had a week or so of wild camping in the area , dunno how easy it is to wild camp these days though - security and all ... There`s talkers and do`ers - and you are indeed a do`er !! Nice one
Cheers Lasty, you were definitely our inspiration. We are just heading over to Plovdiv for our last stop in Bulgaria and then we'll be heading down to Greece so we'll definitely look at stopping off at Thermopylae
We made it to Greece, our 10th country so far!!! And we've only stayed on 4 proper campsites, mainly to get some laundry done. We have spent the last 2 nights in this brilliant free spot directly on a small beach near the harbour, complete with it's own Kantina snack bar, a nice beach shower and toilets 2mins walk away at the ferry terminal. The locals have been really friendly and loved the old bus (but didn't think much of the germans who turned up for a while in their massive mohome)
This has to be the most amazing wild camping spot ever!!! All alone, only room for one small camper and a view to die for. Then the old bus got us all the way up to the top of Meteora this morning (with lots of second and even a bit of first gear) absolutely amazing!!!
The Greeks still haven't forgiven the Germans for WW2 maybe. Back 40 years ago (35 years after the war) with blue eyes and blonde hair you could feel the hatred until I opened my mouth, then it was "sorry, thought you were German". Being English was the opposite, I think we were there chasing the Jerry's out at the end. s'cuse my poor grasp of history.
Incredible area and so pleased it's all working out !! Prepare to be woken up by bell ringing and chanting , I found it totally surreal but what a fantastic experience. Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
I'll be thinking of you and your travels tomorrow evening as we fly over you, somewhere out there on our way to Rhodes as I think we go over part of your route. Hope the adventure continues with more splendid scenery
Into Albania, which we were a bit worried about but, no worries, everyone was so friendly and so many amazing sights. And then the ferry over to Puglia in Italy. This place is absolutely gobsmacking. We happened by a place called Polignano which had an international cliff diving competition. Amazing!
Still in Italy but got as far as Cattolica so about 3/4 round our route. We've just gone past the 4000 mile mark, not bad for a 50 year old bay!! We got bored of the bland Italian coast after Puglia so headed up into the hills again, staying in some cool free camper spots in impressive fortified hill towns such as Amandola, Sarnano and Urbino. We visited the amazing Frisassi Caves and the Temple of Valadier. However, the mercury is hitting 38 degrees now and although it's great to get nice weather, this is way too hot. The old bus was starting to feel the heat and run a bit lumpy with the odd backfire so I did a mini service, checked and cleaned plugs, checked timing (I'm topping up oil weekly). I did find one of the air hoses had split where it attached to the fan housing so I've fixed that and we seem to be running ok again. Prior to the lumpy running I did have to abort a particularly crazy hill climb where the satnav tried to route me to save 3 mins so I'm thinking that I might have got some Marmite in the carb. I've added redex but I do carry a spare fuel filter so that will be next job if we don't pick up. We've come down from the hills again and I'm trying to do short hops in mornings and evenings so we don't push the old bus too hard. I reckon we've got about 4 weeks to go as a slow meandering route back home so fingers crossed, the old bus will manage the final push.
Superb. Some old boy who I met many years ago had taken his bus all over the middle East and beyond. He said if you can't go up in first, do it in reverse . I thought that was good advice at the time but fortunately never had to use it. We came close on one occasion in Crete. Having seen inside our transaxles now and the rather small reverse gear with its massive teeth I'm not sure I would! But if it worked for him...why not
Just catching up with your adventures! It looks like a fabulous trip. Glad the bus is behaving, and goes to show what they can do. Excellent
I'm not going to argue the toss on such a wonderful thread but quick point of order - the old boy is wrong . Having stupidly driven down a dirt track to kip on a flat area above the beach I tried three times in reverse but got nowhere near the top , had to do a butt clenching millionty point turn with about a foot to spare on a crumbling 6 foot cliff above the beach and normal forward progress did the trick - easy peasy .... Moral ?? Don't listen to old boys ... (Oh , hang on ) Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
By gum it's just too hot now. The bus is struggling a bit in 39 degree heat so we are working out routes to do an hour driving and a 2 hr stop. But we did manage to get up to amazing San Marino, our 14th country so far! We travelled early evening and found a great free camper stop 300 yards from the bottom of the gondola up to San Marino with squat toilets and everything. Great night chatting with the Swiss T6 owners next door and then first lift up to town before the crowds got there! Then on to Comachio, a gorgeous small town on a network of canals, where we met a cool Swedish couple in a T25. The only T2 we've seen tho in over 4k miles is a foreign one on the Albanian border which we didn't get to speak to. We are now in lovely Firenza before we move on to Lake Garda
TBH tho, being a complete novice to this stuff 3 years ago when I finished restoration of the old bus, I wouldn't have even attempted this trip if I hadn't got on TLB. A few trips to Techenders did the trick and gave me confidence that we can actually get anywhere we want to and I could fix at least the basics. So thanks guys!, Great to be part of the community of TLB!
