5. Greece: Igoumenitsa to Preveza

Cycling starts proper in Igoumenitsa – but not without a spot of mechanical fixing. We manage to find a sturdy pannier rack to replace my old one and have a bit of a footle screwing it into my frame where the thread had gone on one of the holes. Quite proud of the botch that involved using every washer we owned with the only bolt we had that was long enough…

Then off we tootle and what a ride down the coast it is… We thought a few coastal days would get the legs going (they did – it’s v hilly) with stunning views of the Adriatic. We swim. It makes Scottish swimming seem masochistic.

Some really over-built-up tacky coastal stretches and then some really empty bits with long steady climbs among olive groves (nets underneath to catch the olives) and sneaky peaks of turquoise coves. Citrus fruit EVERYWHERE. Yellow and green butterflies everywhere. The wild flowers positively technicolor garish through my sunnies. Not very many birds of prey but some good hoopoe sightings.

We spend a first night in Parga – lovely old Venetian town. Narrow streets that somehow cars manage to squeeze through.Too early in the season for touristy horror. The pretty exterior of the town belies some truly awful deeds over the centuries with one wave of coloniser after the other polishing off their undesirables. Reading Kapka Kassabova’s book about lake Ohrid and I realise that we are already in the Balkans for all the horrors that have happened and all the mish mash of Greek / Albanian / Ottoman and on it goes.

On cue we meet a Greek widow in a cemetery come to tend graves – her son’s, her sister’s, her husband’s. She is super friendly and reminds us both of Rosemary! She seemed delighted that we were having a picnic near her family. We spoke a mix of German and English which seemed to work. She taught us how to say bicycle in Greek.

Onwards down the coast with some stops in ancient sites – Necromanteion with massive polygonal building blocks and a very spectacular vaulted room and rhe HUGE Nicopolis blowing both our minds in scale. We scrump some tangerines there. They turn out to be LEMONS that look like tangerines. Tangelemons. A bitter shock.

In fact on the food front Greece has unexpectedly amazing bakeries with a massive range in cakes and bread. Cakeage heaven. Food generally delicious.

We meet our first cycle tourists of this trip, Nathalie (Fr) and Oscar (NL) on a trip that makes our trip seem tiny- they are on the road for seven months. A lovely pair, also in their 50s. We spend a merry evening together eating a lot of very excellent food in Preveza. I get my salad / vegetable fix.