It's been a while since my last blog post and a lot has happened since then: including cycling the whole way through Greece and into Albania; becoming a pyrotechnic in the woods of Kallish and closely being ravaged by two guard dogs. Not forgetting a few punctures.
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| A lake that near to where I wild camped in north-west Turkey |
Where to start?
Greece. One of the great things about Greece is no more than it is a host to one of my favourite supermarkets - Lidl. In the past 4 days I have been treating myself to no end of scrumptious goodies and a good example of one of my hearty breakfasts is shown below - not the healthiest, but don't worry about that. The total calorific content of the pictured, comes in at over 2000 calories.
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| Whole loaf filled with Phili and salami, a choco mouse a whole pack of biccies and a bottle of pepsi |
Another great thing about Greece is the women. Turkish women weren't best and I barely saw them because of the sexism in Turkey. Greece brings beaches. Beaches bring women. This is good for motivation and morale for a tired 22 year old on a push-bike.
Greece also brings fantastic views of valleys, mountains and the Greek riveria.
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| Life's a beach! |
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| Greek riveria |
A few things I'm not overly keen of about Greece are: Firstly the complete incompetence lack of respect of all guard dog owners. The casual passer-by (of the slower variety) have to fend these brutes off and the further you go off the beaten track, the more there are. On one particular occasion at around 16:30 (the become more active as the day cools off), two dogs gave chase to Sophie and I for around 200 metres. The smaller of the two listened to the beckoning of the owner; although the other saw red and had rage in his eyes and his teeth were presented as to give someone (being me) a good hiding. Luckily it was I had a tailwind and I managed to crank the speed up high enough to get away. Unfortunately I didn't see the railway track in time; Thump. Another puncture prevailed!
In the future I carry around the dog slayer (a decent sized stick) and I will show no mercy on these b*******!
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| Some Greek architecture - plenty around. |
Another experience I had in Greece was that of starting a small bushfire. The way this came about was when I was cooking up my spinach and cheese tortellini with the methelated gel I got from Turkey. After waiting a good 10 minutes for the 400mls of water to boil; I was getting bored and hungry and put the tortellini in, despite the water not being overly hot. After another 5 minutes, I noticed the fuel was running low. Instead of waiting for the stove to cool I topped it up while it was on still hot. Next thing I knew, the bottle had exploded and highly flammable gel was all over the dry dead grass. Immediately I started stamping the fire out. Then, turned round to realise my shorts and the bag for my stove was also on fire. Eventually I put everything out and inspected the damage. Wasn't too bad, but the lesson was learnt - never fill up a hot stove and clear an area for the stove that is bigger than required.
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| My burnt stove bag :( |
Out of the 14 nights I have had the pleasure of wild camping on most. To give you an idea of some of the locations I have been sleeping at check out the pictures below:
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| Camping at the beach in Greece |
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| Camping on a pass near Florina in North-Western Greece |
An update on the wild animal watch; below are pictures of a 12 foot snake with a 6" wasp having a go at it and a tortoise... Shell.
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| Dead, I'm afraid. |
| Dead, I'm afraid |
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| It made a good picture though |
In the end, I passed on Mount Olympus and headed north to some of the taller passes. 5000ft of sweat and tears below.
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| Pass near Florina in Greece |
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