Day 103
Cross the border to Greece in good time, then get a puncture. I find two pieces of glass and a thorn in the tyre, the thorn looks like the culprit and I locate the hole, patch it and load up. Only to find it’s gone flat again. Unload, find and fix the other hole, give it a few minutes and it looks good. After ten minutes it’s going down again and the third hole is too hard to find so I replace the tube, and the tyre as well for good measure. It’s now gone 11 and I’ve not even covered 50 km.
The wind gives me a boost to catch up. It’s even stronger than yesterday, gusting force 8. I pass a few touring cyclists, the first since the Danube, and I stop to chat to Jurgen from Germany and Max from Zagreb. They’ve hooked up as Max’s riding partner has got stuck with a bike issue, and he has the tent. So Max is sharing Jurgen’s tent as far as Istanbul. Jurgen has a similar plan to me – ie no plan at all. He’s hoping to get to Japan and/or Vietnam and has several options, as a German he can go through Iran. But he knows he’ll be flying at some point. His bike has a Rohloff and belt drive. That seems like a good set up.
The Greek landscape is different to Turkey. It’s very yellow with more scrubland and fewer trees, apart from olives. After Alexandropolis I turn towards the mountains and into the wind. Despite the hold up earlier I make my target of Komotini.
Day 104
More of the same. Pass through the town of Kavala with its impressive aqueduct.
It’s too early to stop, but there’s nothing between here and Serres, which I suspect I won’t reach as that would make a 200km day.
My suspicions are correct, so I’m camping. Minor panic when I couldn’t find the pegs and thought I might have forgotten to bring them
Day 105
Not a great night’s sleep. I have a self-inflating honeycomb style mat and I don’t normally sleep on my back. It was very hot, and despite thinking I’d found a rectangle without rocks there was one under the sleeping area. At about 3AM it had cooled down and I got into my expensive down sleeping bag, which is gorgeous and worth every penny.
Up at dawn to break camp, it was fantastic being out there, and great to just pack and go. I’d drunk most of my water overnight and the water point was the other side of the very deep gorge. I back tracked to a petrol station not expecting much out here at 7AM on a Sunday but it turned out it had a café which was full of old people drinking coffee. Not in a village, and no cars, so unclear where they all came from.
As above, I’d quite like to get to N Macedonia today, but my target city is 200 km. Checking closer, the border is only 160 km and there’s usually hotels at a border.
Progress is slow, and I realise that the last time I ate was yesterday’s breakfast. At 9 I find a place with food and things improve shortly after. The mountains loom ahead, but my route will take me round a couple of lakes which are hopefully not too high.
The first lake is around 30 km long, and quite a menagerie. First insects: I’m hit in the face by something very large, probably a grasshopper, thank goodness I had my sunglasses on. Then a wasp flies into my ear and stings. There’s a large group of horses coming down the road, the last one is limping with a badly injured rear hoof. It looks like it might have been hit by a car, there’s a lot of blood on the road; sure enough, round the next bend there’s a broken car and lots of people on phones, hopefully getting help for the horse as well. This is followed by a herd of cattle with no cowherd: cows with large horns, calves and massive bulls. This is causing chaos for the cars, I manage to slowly weave through avoiding getting between any mums and calves. Then finally I have to stop for some tortoises crossing the road – I must be close to North Macedonia now! However, when they see me they also stop and go into their shells.
As I get closer to the border I have the roads to myself. There’s a lot of evidence of people trying to set up tourist businesses and abandoning them. I stop at a town where there’s a lot going on, mostly locals probably, but it’s a lovely place and if it weren’t for bloody Brexit I’d have stopped here.
The Greek side of the smaller lake that forms the border is completely uninhabited, but after crossing into North Macedonia it’s like a holiday resort on the Med. That was another 160 km day, I’m going to take it a bit easier tomorrow.
