We leave the beautiful Peloponnese via the street of Corinth: where many ships used to save several hundreds of kilometers of sea travel, today one could not even swim through the channel anymore. In different places the slopes crashed and now block the passage. However, the deep cutting channel is still very impressive.
Karin has never been in Athens and absolutely wants to see the Acropolis … So, we drive into the notoriously clogged city, make a four-hour sightseeing program, and drive out in the evening to sleep undisturbed in nature again. For the first time we see many non-European, tourists: Slowly the Corona panic seems to come to an end and seems to enter into a phase of reality!
At the latest after the ascent of the Mount Meru, high mountains challenge me. What is closer than to climb the Olymp in a busy day march, to keep a chat with Zeus and then descend again? 2,000 elevation meters up and down again including three mountain peaks in one day is indeed quite a challenge… Karin fortunately hikes only to the mountain hut which is half way up. In the evening, the Greek food in a native tavern tastes even better.
The Chalkidiki and here in particular the middle arm – Sithonia – is considered scenic paradise …. also for campers. This has advantages (everywhere are camping ban signs, but wild camping will also be tolerated as in the rest of Greece), but also disadvantages: on most beautiful bays are partly two-digit numbers of motorhomes: locals, foreigners, white bombers, Off-road-campers etc. As we prefer lonely places, we sometimes have to look for a long way to find “our place”. In contrast, the beautiful coves on the densely wooded west coast and the rugged, partly paradisiacal, east coast are impressive.
As soon as we leave Sithonia, the tourists and the campers have disappeared. From Keramoti, with its beautiful sandbank peninsula, we make a day trip with Shujoo to the island of Thassos: Thassos is the northernmost island of the Aegean Sea and Greece and is considered the emerald island … because it is so green and sealed. In fact, the northeast side is more similar to Alpine mountain landscapes than a Mediterranean island. On the island a lot of marble is produced, so individual beaches in the north-east are spectacular with white marble gravel. This makes the water much more turquoise and clearer. With hot temperatures of over 30 degrees, it should be the last midsummer day, from tomorrow the weather should change.
In fact, it rains fierce at night and in gray weather we drive the next morning towards Turkish border and Istanbul. There we want to pick up our visas at the Iranian Embassy and thus reach another milestone on our trip, direction Arabian Peninsula.
