Adventures with Aimile

We were away for fifty days and on the road for about half of that time, with an intensive trip during the last ten days, from Paris, where we stayed with friends, across France, through Switzerland, then down the Dalmation coast into Albania, cutting across the mountains to Ioanina and on to Pireaus. The last day was a long, long drive, through heavy rain – we’ve not had much on this trip – to catch the last ferry to Syros before the boats went on strike. After twenty-five different beds along the way, Chris was determined to sleep in his own bed that night. I was planning to lie low for a few days but got ‘busted’ in Pireaus as one of my volunteers had the same ferry in mind.    There’s a quotation about travel that I can’t remember exactly, but it states that for any journey to be worthwhile, the distance travelled inwardly must match that travelled outwardly. This trip started as a bit of a whim – my travel companion had already planned the journey but wasn’t keen to d...

  Our highest point in the Swiss Alps - a magical location for mid-morning coffee... and Mary from Ireland followed our route to get a spot-on guess. Most guesses for the cost of our fuel were way over the top. So congratulations go to Mark from the UK for his very close estimate. We actually spent only 585 Euros on fuel - which was spectacular engine efficiency from a forty year old car! Since Mark is already a regular visitor to Syros, we are also awarding him a five night stay in our Kini Cat Cottage and breakfast with our volunteers - plus a few cats probably. Well done to both of you and a big thank you to everyone who joined the competition and those who gave us hospitality along the route - the cats of Syros are the beneficiaries. Watch this blog for a summary of the trip in a few days time...

  Final kilometres from the port of Syros to the Black Pig - the scenic route! 8555 And our lucky winner with the closest guess is Mary from Ireland, who can enjoy five nights with breakfast in our Kini Cat Cottage in Syros, Plus a meal with local wine in the pretty waterfront taverna - 'Two Cicadas on the Tamarisk Tree' and a two night stopover in Athens, with port and airport transfers. Maybe a ride in Aimile too... Our thanks to the sponsors Syros Cats The Black Pig Astraeus Holidays Katerina Kafetsi at Two Cicadas on the Tamarisk Tree

  Congratulatons Joanna - no she hasn't broken her arm, she's just showing us the jewellery she won for the closest guess for our Valentines day kilometres! Her guess was 3089 kilometres. Although the closest guess she was around 500 kilometres out - we'll leave you to guess whether it was over or under... So start looking at Google maps - calculate our final distance. Remember prize one for the closest to our final kilometre count is for five days for two in our Kini Cat Cottage, with a celebratory dinner one night at a seafront taverna, transfers from the port in Syros and a two day stopover in an hotel in Athens, so you can explore the sights. Dates to be decided by mutual arrangement. All you have to do is donate 20 Euros to our cat cause and send a message to syroscats.com detailing your guesses. there will be consolation prizes for the highest altitude we reached and the amount we spent on fuel for the trip. For those of you who have already donated, you just need to ...

  Apparently there were wild boar in the hills - but we didn't see any! Aimile gingerly made her way down the mountain and back to the main road and we bore off left heading for the distant hills. We had to traverse the serious mountains indicated by the blank patch on the road atlas. It was steady climbing and the houses and farms were thinning out and reflecting the tough living conditions up at this altitude and distance from civilisation. I made sure we had a full tank of petrol as the stations were getting fewer and farther apart and this was not place to run out. The border, when we reached it, was pretty small.  No questions, we were waved to a bay with a table and ordered to empty the car. we never found out what they thought they were looking for, but poked into everything and their dog sniffed everything and moved on to the next victim.  One remaining hurdle, would Greek customs take us apart. Since Brexit any parcels coming into Greece had been held up and scru...

  Guess the top fort was how it used to be!  Montenegro, while not disappointing, didn't quite live up to what we expected. maybe it was a victim of its own marketing hype. It was not far  to the border with Albania. We were a little apprehensive at crossing into Albania, or more correctly, Jacky was, having been refused entry 50 years earlier. There was a considerable queue, pretty much the first we encountered. It wasn't until we got our turn and more hassle about our papers, that we realised it was the Montenegro side and not Albania. Clearly we had entered with them, so eventually they gave in and waved us to the customs guards.  By contrast the Albanian officials were polite and smiling, checked our passports were in date and waved us into their country.  No phone data put an end to navigating by google, it was back to a 20 year old motoring atlas of Europe. Not too much of a problem as there aren't too many roads to choose from. Agriculture is the main act...