{"id":1130,"date":"2024-02-19T19:14:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T19:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/?p=1130"},"modified":"2024-02-19T19:14:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T19:14:35","slug":"into-the-land-of-the-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/02\/19\/into-the-land-of-the-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Land of the Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Greece, Early January.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

We are on the hunt for fresh fruit and vegetables.\u00a0 The village that we are passing through has a small mini-market that stocks little but convenience food. People clearly eat fresh food, so it\u2019s just a matter of finding where people buy it.\u00a0 I can see plenty growing in gardens, but decide to drive to the next village instead of raiding a stranger’s veg patch. By chance I spot a fruit and veg van and after a series of dubious driving manoeuvres set Rosana loose on the unsuspecting vendor.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our park up for the night is on a community campsite, perched atop a hill overlooking the mini-market village.\u00a0 It’s January, cold and wet and unsurprisingly it’s not very busy, just us and a guy in a caravan. Shortly after arriving we are joined by an old boy on a moped and the the fruit and veg man who toots and waves to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old boy is busy preparing a bbq.  It\u2019s an impressive installation, reminiscent of the parillas of South America.  I think that he\u2019s telling us there\u2019s a free BBQ tonight.  I am wondering what sort of event is happening, after all, there is no such thing as a free lunch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s clearly a language barrier issue here but we are lucky – the only other occupant of the campsite, an Athenian in the caravan speaks good English and is able to bridge the gap –\u00a0the BBQ is for campers to use if we want, to cook our evening meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is great, except we are completely unprepared and have nothing to cook on a BBQ. We quickly make some burgers and spend the evening warming ourselves\u00a0 around the fire while burning burgers and finishing off the last of the Christmas Baileys.\u00a0 The weather joins in the (post) Christmas spirt and it starts to snow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

On the Rocks<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The area of Meteora is geologically impressive.\u00a0 Great rocks protrude hundreds of metres into the sky like giant termite mounds,\u00a0towering over the villages below.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What most people come for though are monasteries, built high on the hills as the monks try to get closer to their god.\u00a0 There\u2019s a visitor car park in the hills that gives easy access to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity but we\u2019re not most people and we park in the village of Kalabaka and hike up.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a long or particularly arduous walk.\u00a0 It is a bit tricky trying to find the early parts of the path, but once we\u2019re on it there is no danger of getting lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All around there are impressive structures built into the face of the rocks and lots of cave conversions but it\u2019s not until we reach the top that we gaze in awe at the monasteries perched in the sky.\u00a0 The Monastery of the Holy Trinity, the one we can visit is not the most impressive, but the view from the courtyards is amazing.\u00a0 Along with he monasteries and hills, we notice a big green expedition truck across the valley in the visitor carpark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sensible People<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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We\u2019ve been chasing some friends across Europe.\u00a0 Matt and Lucy (and their dog Minkey) are ex-HiAce owners, having made the sensible decision to move to a larger and more modern van for their journey.\u00a0 While we\u2019ve been in northern Greece, they have been enjoying the beaches, historic sites and sunshine of southern Greece.\u00a0 Finally our paths cross, on a frigid beach just outside the Mount Olympus national park.\u00a0 They are running low on their Schengen days and are making a run for T\u00fcrkiye, so the meeting is brief but we manage to take in the Mount Olympus visitor centre together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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While we are wandering the visitor centre and getting better acquainted with the Greek gods of old, Rosana recognises some other visitors in the centre and outside we find a big green expedition truck parked alongside our vans.\u00a0 It\u2019s German plated, but they are Danish.\u00a0 Matt and Lucy have also seen them before in Athens. Our happy group of travellers chat awhile before\u00a0we say our goodbyes.\u00a0 Our friends head east, and we decide to head up the mountain to find the old monastery. The Danes have lunch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Daft Mistakes<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not long before we see patches of snow on the road.  Then ice.  I\u2019m not happy about this, I have no experience of driving in these conditions.  The road is a type very familiar to us now, narrow, twisty and steep. Barriers protecting us from plummeting over the edge are few and far between.  We look for somewhere to turn around but there is nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The road turns to ice and I make the mistake of stopping.\u00a0 Trying to reverse doesn\u2019t work, all steering input is ignored and I’d rather not risk heading towards the edge.\u00a0 Forwards doesn\u2019t work, the rear wheels just spin.\u00a0 It is time to play Godkuki!\u2019s joker, but he’s old school<\/a> and first I need to lock in the front hubs.\u00a0 I exit the cab onto the steepest ice rink I\u2019ve ever experienced.\u00a0 I lock the driver side hub and then slide around to the passenger side as nonchalantly as I can.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I can see Rosana is worried and my job is to make this look like it\u2019s a normal every day occurrence (I fail).\u00a0 With 4wd and low range gears engaged the van pulls forward effortlessly.\u00a0 With the van moved further away from the edge I can reverse safely and before we know it we are back on tarmac.\u00a0 A seventeen point turn later we gingerly make our way down the hill using the low range gears to avoid braking on the ice. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see the big green expedition truck heading towards us and I stop to give us both more space on the icy corner.\u00a0 They stop to ask as what the road is like.\u00a0 Too icy for us, we reply.\u00a0 They move off and the truck slides, luckily away from us.\u00a0We move around the corner to get out of the way and then walk back to see if any help is needed; the truck is going backwards but manages to find traction and forward motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside the new monastery, still quite high above the town below, we stop on a large gravel viewpoint.  We\u2019ve had enough excitement for one day, so we put down roots for the night.  Twenty minutes later we are joined by the Danes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flickr Albums: Community Camping<\/a> | Meteora<\/a> | Mount Olympus National Park<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instagram Links: Wandering Falcon<\/a> | Projekt Weltreise<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In which we meet up with friends, meet new people and try not to die horrible icy deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115,138,39,9],"tags":[10,11,139,13,146,145,20,21,32],"class_list":["post-1130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu","category-greece","category-mountains","category-van-travel","tag-camper","tag-campervan","tag-greece","tag-hiace","tag-meteora","tag-mount-olympus","tag-toyota","tag-travel","tag-vanlife"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240112_140931-scaled.jpeg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1130"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions\/1164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}