We are back to our old ways after a verrry lazy tour of the Peloponnese: Currently camped at a supermarket in Ancona, Italy, after a fairly long drive today.

Our ferry trip was pretty flawless, included a smooth-as-silk crossing (Niki disagrees with that characterization), hot shower in the morning, and a sneakily-made tea & coffee. The ferry is a great way to travel from Italy to Greece, and we both had very good sleeps, rocked gently as we progressed past numerous islands, with the moon casting a wonderful light over it all. Almost.
Today was a little more ragged. Departing the ferry takes you down a narrow road where they try to fit 2 lanes of traffic in a zone made for one large truck. Predictably, I suppose, Niki did the good thing and folded her side mirror in (expensive, at €500 each!!), I hugged my left-hand side of the road and … Bang! Clipped the side mirror of a Bulgarian truck. Pulled over, indicated to the driver that I was so apologetic, so he nodded, smiled, and moved on. Almost.
Tonight, after not seeing a train in 4 months, Italia Rail is doing its best to impress us with the size and modernity of its fleet, sending a train past every 7 minutes. We are duly impressed, and I’m certain that, later, we will be lulled to sleep by the regularity of traffic passing by.
The day was a bit of a blur, covering over 400km, but much of it over detours, single lane traffic with worker cones stretching for miles. We even saw a few workers, and one did seem to be carrying a bucket of some sort, so we felt satisfied in paying our €37 toll fee for the day. To be fair, this was so much a better option than crawling through coastal towns. And all along the road the countryside is just ablaze with poppies, so much so the fields seemed on fire. The vineyards, bare when we last passed, are now a multi-shaded green, and, truthfully, made the day a bit of a visual feast.

Another 400km+ tomorrow will see us at Lake Como, just off the Swiss border. Lots to do over the next few days, with visiting some friends, doing the bank closure, collecting a ton of Amazon orders (Thanks, again, Susi!) before heading off to France and packing up our household goods for shipping to NZ. Ho Hum – never boring.

Is this the end or is there more to come ? Thanks for sharing the magic – it has been an unforgettable experience. Lloyd
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Yup, really sad, but much more to do. Realise this could go on forever, so we are already looking ahead and planning what to do after Angola, before settling back to NZ.
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