20 September 2025 (sunny and hot 28C) 0km

I'm pleased to report the lilo certainly did the trick and didn't seem to make any noise, as can be the case when you roll over on a lot of sleeping mats. 

It's 7.09 am. Sleeping beauty next to me is dreaming of her handsome prince.......

Yes. I meant me....bastards.

Sunrise is at 7.26am this morning.

I've been over to the loos and washed my face, carefully unzipping the tent, then zipping it back up again, so I didn't wake Julia. 

In this peaceful morning light, you can't help but reflect on what we've done. (Besides Ju was asleep and there was no reception up here in the back of beyond, so what else could I do?).

Julia will never know how much I truly love her, or how extremely proud of her I am.....oh yes she will....she's the first one to read it.

Honestly though, the mental and physical effort that we've put in has been massive. There was some self doubt there, but only because we hadn't done mountains on a continuous basis like this before.

It's great to know that even at 66 and 62, we can still set goals and achieve them. Having said that, we are well and truly over hills now!

Once Julia was awake, we walked the main road, keeping on our toes with the traffic. The last thing we want is to make it all the way to Corfu on our bikes, only to be taken out by an overconfident bus driver or inexperienced scooter driver. 

Took photos all the way as we trekked the 2.8 kms down to the main beach.

There are footpaths for about half of the walk down to the main beach. The rest of the time you're walking on the road.

I honestly couldn't remember anything about the place, other than the beautiful crystal clear waters, which we were now seeing up close.

Now that was as I remembered it.

Found a changing box on the beach, (one that you didn't have to pay for) and into the water.

Absolutely wonderful.

So clear, with fishes swimming around us seemingly not bothered about us at all.

It was well worth the ride to get to Paleokastritska, but if you'd have asked us that yesterday on the ride, you might have been given a different answer. 

Once out of the water, we did a workout on what was still an empty beach. It was stunning and what we had been wanting to see. There were only a few loungers on the beach from one restaurant, but the rest of the beach looked as natural as nature intended.

Only a few people ventured down while we were there and that was when we went in for another swim. 

Agreed again that first thing in the morning is the time to see these places, before the masses get here and before it gets too hot.

Sorry, but we just couldn't get enough of these views!

Changed and walked up the controlled traffic road to the monastery.

Here we also had spectacular views of the surrounding vistas.

The walk back was a very hot affair, and our clothes were soaked in sweat when we finally arrived back at camp.

We realized we had left our return walk too late. It was 10.30am when we left the monastery and the sun was high in the sky. With the trip to the monastery and another scenic viewpoint, we realized we'd walked 8 km on an empty stomach, as well as having two swims and doing a workout.

More photos on the way back, with the sun now on the water, looking even more spectacular!

So we were in dire need of some food by the time we got back to camp after our uphill walk in the sun. We ate our breakfast at a nice shady area with some tables out the front of the campground.  

We called Brody and Aimee, who were testing out their van on an overnighter to Patea (yes, I've taught the lad a thing or two on how to impress his girl), and then got stuck into some washing.

By then it was after 12.30pm. 

Washing done by 1.45 pm. Why did it take so long to wash a few pairs of undies and a couple of T-shirts you may ask? Well, remember we had to trek from Norway to Belgium to actually wash it, then back to Norway to hang the washing by our tent.

After that it was trying to find a bar to watch the Liverpool v Everton match.

By this time it was hot in the sun, so we only checked with the bars and restaurants near the campground, with no luck.

So back to the pool we went to yesterday, which is owned by the same family that run the campground.

Decided to get a late lunch here. Julia got a mushroom omelette with chips, while I had a burger and chips. Ju reports the omelette was nice, but the burger….well, I've had better.

Ju had a coke and I had a radler while I tuned into the Timeline on my phone for the match. 

75 minutes on the clock.

Liverpool 2 - 1 up.

Need to make certain. 

Final score 2 - 1

Get in there....!

In for a swim and a sunbathe before back to camp and then downhill to Cactus for a meal.

At 7.30pm we watched the first half of the Man Utd v Chelsea game.

In the first half Chelsea were absolutely diabolical and deserved to be two goals down and lose Sanchez, the keeper. 

We were tired so didn't bother watching the second half, but Utd won 2 - 1.

 Back to camp for milky decaf, a bounty bar and bed.