This, this and this….and a short video
This, this and this….and a short video

This, this and this….and a short video

Basically, Greece has been one Yamaha dealer after another! Trying to obtain a new chain and sprockets before they disintegrate. I kept being optimistic thinking the next garage will have it, after-all they sell the bike here. I am currently contemplating backtracking, ordering it and taking some sort of detour, but the weather is far from great, my rucksack is as good as empty as I’m back to wearing everything, which is a great disappointment after the nice warmth of Albania where I wore no motorcycle boots or trousers and could remove my fleece for the first time!

I hadn’t really planned where to visit in Greece, Athens seemed to far south, so I wandered the roads detouring in to little villages here and there, asking locals what was good to the east but the response seemed to be that of fear “I don’t go there! I am too busy, I never leave my shop!!” Maybe they thought I was the dodgy character and I even had a woman shouting at an old man who was talking to me …I imagined she was saying “DON’T TALK TO THAT BUM!!”, but the Greeks do like to shout a lot, and always seem to be arguing!

I stayed in a lovely apartment in Halakdiki for two days, called Ocean View Hotel, completely free of charge thanks to a lovely, lovely German lady; Marion (and her dog Victor!), I was desperate for a place to stay and she saved my bacon when things were looking pretty bleak! Thanks so much for everything Marion! You can view her hotel’s website here

Then horror of horrors, having just set up my tent in a small wood, down a dirt track away from the town, I was pretty desperate for a camp site and had to settle with this one, though I was thinking how I liked it least of all my sites. As I connected the hose on my petrol stove I heard car tires on the rocky track, oh crap!, 25m away and closing, I’m busted this time, I knew this would happen The path was raised slightly above my site in the sparse wood, I crouched frozen next to my stove, tent and bike, Can I drop the tent in time….no chance, how did I not hear it coming?!the car came closer and closer, car headlight was all over me, 15m, 10m, 5m! and on it went passed, perhaps it didn’t see me in this low spot? I should move….somewhere…. sod that, it’s dark and I’m hungry so I stayed, leaving early; before sunrise, it was very, very windy and I got little sleep.

Anyway, I won’t babble on and on (like usual…or have I already) so check out the photos and a very short and pointless video below which is not so great as you can hardly see me!

Shortly after this video, riding this dirt road I came to some cows in the road (quite common) and swerved to avoid one, just as I did so all hell broke loose, the bike bucked up and swerved and I felt like I was being pulled by my left shoulderCrap, the back box has fallen off, it’s too bumpy I knew this would happen…I stop….no, back box is still there…. one of the straps had wrapped around the rear hub, then in to the chain and rear sprocket, and snapped (approx. 2.2tonnes) luckily the hub was intact and I was quite soon back on the road, though a teensy bit shaken as I was in the middle of nowhere again, stupid detours!! “Hello, AA…. where am I….mmm, well, I turned down a dirt track 2 hours ago, took a left, then a right then right again and stopped for lunch on a little boulder….”

Turkey next, but maybe I have to go backwards to get these damn parts…..