10-14/07/25

24 days in the UK for me and 14 for James.  Maddy and I actually got on well!  I did a lot of cleaning and sorting… my daughter and son-i-l are both messy, well compared to most! 
We met up with a lot of friends and saw all the family, which is great. I won’t see family till November.

We had the Easyjet flight from hell on Thursday. 6 hours late landing. Broken aircon was fixed. Then, crew out of hours. Then, another 2 hours to get an air traffic control slot. I guess they thought that our flight was so late already, we went to the bottom of the queue.

We should be due £350 pp in compensation, but won’t forward spend it, as it will probably take months!  And we don’t want £700 in vouchers … that would be more trips than we’d ever book!

Arrived in Chania Crete at 1.00 a.m. Cancelled our friend who was due to collect us and booked a taxi. Only €48, normal rate, despite the late hour. Bonus of 2 snoring 5 year olds on the rear seat. 

3.5 nights at home. Not ideal, but we are getting close to having had the motorhome in Greece for 6 months.

Out to dinner twice. A short early morning walk with friends. So quite social but a lot of unpacking, cleaning and repacking.  We collected Jez at 0900 this morning for the final time from his private parking. Loaded. Had a late taverna lunch. 

We are now on an Anek ferry at Heraklion. I was reversed, within inches, between lorry trailers. Now on deck with a glass of well-deserved 🍷.  Lovely cabins. Anek really is much smarter and newer than Minoan, whose ship is adjacent to us … feeling relaxed and smug!

Reoccurring Fridge Repairs 

15-16/07

We managed to follow the sat nav around Athens from the ferry port and not get lost, for once. Probably too early for rush hour  😊  We were booked into  Camper Club Athens motorhome stop and workshop for fridge and hot water on gas, or lack thereof.  Arriving at 0730, somehow the gate opened for us. We parked on an empty shady pitch and filled with water. We’d emptied the fresh water tank on Crete as it had been sitting in heat going stagnant.   Whilst parked up, the internal thermometer had registered 48C. Blue tack had melted! 
The workshop replaced the fridge / freezer component that switches between gas/engine and EHU. Got hot water working … too hot to check heating. Replaced in in-line gas filters. New fridge fans and placed the control switch inside, as apparently humidity is what killed the previous two sets of fan controls. Sorted the plug to the fan over the bed (think this had also melted).  Bill was just under €570 and 20% of that was tax. Didn’t think to bring cash. Worth pinning as the mechanic knows his stuff.

With temperatures at 36C, we sat in the shade. The owner kindly did a coffee and pastry run (with lack of fridge, we’d no food and hadn’t passed any cafes on the way from the port). 

We left at 3.30 and stopped at a large supermarket to provision up. The camper stop would have been €40 with EHU, so we drove for 3 hrs …  parked at Thermopoli overnight … battles and springs.
A small square with houses on one side.  I asked at a house if it was ok to stay overnight. Lost in translation, he panicked, thinking I meant in his house!  His young sons put him right, as he’d seen the motorhome.

With daylight came the realisation that the fridge was no longer working on gas.  We should have shelled out the €40 for the Camper Club camperstop to make sure the f’ing fridge was working.  Camper Club suggested we drive back, but the instinct is to keep going forward.  So we headed for Zampatas Camping megastore, Camper stop and workshop. The lovely Stavros worked on the fridge for 4 hours. Gave us homemade raki and a cake. He rang Dometic who basically said, you’ve tried everything.  But he persisted. Problem seemed to be something to do with the exhaust.  Have to wonder if the money was unnecessarily spent on a new controller, burner and source switch over the last 2 years.

The freezer was working so we left it on gas overnight. And stayed the night to be sure!  Free!!!    By morning the fridge was cold. Yay. We filled with water, emptied the cassette and paid €80 for all that labour. 😊

Fantastic Fanari

17-18/07

Brian recommended a beach stop at Fanari. P4N indicated motorhomes had stayed recently, which was reassuring.  The concern is that Greece passed a law stealthily, essentially prohibiting campers from parking, just about anywhere. Public pressure had forced amendments to the law. But this hasn’t filtered down to all the police. It is an interesting way for the Greek government to effect change without lengthy and costly consultation periods … pass a draconian law, let stakeholders create a fuss, meet them halfway.

Up to do Pilates, gosh I ached and was stiff after a lack of. Despite rescinding much of the law banning Motorhomes from parking, many police are still trying to impose €300 fines. I was nervous as I saw a police car cruise by whilst I was mid one leg balance. I mouthed kali mera and got a thumbs up. Phew.

We spent the morning reading the Turkey guide book and doing a few chores. After lunch we had an ice cream and had a swim. All very chilled. Dinner on the sea front was OK prices, but pretty rubbish wine and not marvellous food. The cool breeze was marvellous.

The Turkish Border

19/07

Up at 6.00. No one was around other than the fishing smacks coming in. J emptied the cassette in the public standing up loos and left them a lot cleaner. I moved the van to the beach edge where there was a convenient tap. Breakfast and underway by 0800. Lidl for 3 days’ worth of food. Fridge still working, so some meat into the freezer. 😊
Border all fine, other than waiting 30 mins in our own queue (campers and coaches). Insurance from a super helpful chap €195 for 3 months. A cash point and a Turkcell sim. And coffee and lunch.

We were here 5 years ago with David and Karen. A penultimate stop for 2 nights after our lockdown 1 extended Turkey stay. We had a mini tour of Gallipoli as David’s uncle fought here, injured, sent back to war, injured. But then died of Spanish flu. 😲

Fascinating watching all the ships, mostly oil and chemicals. Apparently we still buy a lot of Russian oil but through third party countries.