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Meandering East
  • Sumi Hollingworth
  • Sumi Hollingworth

Meandering East

Our family of three travelled in our off-grid camper, slowly making our way East, literally and metaphorically. Currently static in Al Andalus. For now. Taking in the history and learning a bit about natural farming. Lue lisää
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  • Sumi HollingworthMeandering EastMatkaaja

    Kavala and Alexandroupoli

    24. heinäkuuta 2018, Kreikka ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The coastal drive from Halkidiki to Turkey was beautiful, rugged and totally undeveloped with endless wild camping spots, and very few campers there (and almost no campsites). We needed to re-charge and fill up with water though so we eventually reached camping Sarakina, a lovely traditional Greek beach-campsite outside Kavala. Our experience in this part of Greece, campsites tended to be small and cramped full of semi-permanent-caravan-dwellings with makeshift infrastructure: kind of Affordable second homes, rather than empty bays for summer touring Motorhomes. Our next stop we wild camped alongside Turkish campers at Alexandroupoli, the last city before we reached the Turkish border.Lue lisää

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  • Sumi HollingworthMeandering EastMatkaaja
    Paralia Sykia with views of mount Athos

    Sithonia, Halkidiki

    18. heinäkuuta 2018, Kreikka ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After a much needed free pit stop and park4night at Zampetas camping and caravan centre in Thessaloniki, we headed to the quieter and less developed peninsula of Halkidiki, Sithonia. Hilly and rocky, covered in dense pine forest, with beautiful quiet coves and small beachside towns, it was very picturesque and we rested here for a week, trying out different wild camping spots. There were lots of crowded campsites but also several abandoned campsites with derelict facilities, but level ground and shade right on the beach. We stayed in one in a small harbour near Sarti beach; one at Paralia Sykia where we were driven away by a giant cricket, and then we headed to the West coast and camped near Poseidon beach complex. It was a beautiful sandy but rocky cove with a makeshift jetty where you could swim, with sea urchins and shellfish and interesting sea flora. The hotel guests used one side of the cove and campers lined the other beach. We hung out here for nearly a week.Lue lisää

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    Greneva and our park4night

    Meteora

    17. heinäkuuta 2018, Kreikka ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    We never expected to see landscape like this in Greece: Meteora was a monolithic rock formation of epic proportions, towering over the ugly industrial town of Kalabaka like some kind of spaceship. It was totally incongruous with the rest of the landscape which was otherwise fairly non-descript. It was akin to some of the awesome gorges we had visited in Morocco. Except in true Greek style, there were some ancient monasteries balancing on the very top of the outcrops. It blew our mind. We drove in a loop all the way to the top view points and then we drove on until we were exhausted and fed up, when we reached, near Greneva, a beautiful small gorge with lush emerald green river flowing through it, full of fish and a few holiday makers having a dip at sunset.Lue lisää

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    Metsovo

    16. heinäkuuta 2018, Kreikka ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Our first stop in Greece, we camped in the mountains near Metsovo, near on an old unmade road. It was wilderness and we parked next to a stream where H fished for tadpoles and newts. It was fresh and beautiful. It was so empty we were able to shower outside. We drove through Metsovo by happy accident because it wasn’t suitable for a Motorhome but it was a lovely traditional Greek mountain town. There was a wedding procession that surrounded us with smiles as we drove through the town.Lue lisää

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    Gjirokaster

    15. heinäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We parked near the top of the town for the night in the coach park and had a lovely meal in the old town, on the recommendation of a American who had bought a place there after working there in the Peace Corp. Gjirokastër definitely had charm and something fairytale about it. It was being restored to hold onto that but, like Kruje, something felt stilted as too many shops sold the same handicrafts and merchants looked forlorn as too few tourists shuffled awkwardly past. Next stop: Greece.Lue lisää

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    Siri Kalter

    14. heinäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    The Blue Eye is a natural spring which bursts at top speed from an underground cavern, thought to be over 50 metres deep, forming a river which flows down towards the sea at Sarande. The road to Muzine was dusty, nondescript, littered with rubbish and industry and did not give any hint of the landscape to come. As we descended into the valley, the river is a swimming-pool blue colour with lush green vegetation growing in and around the river valley. Huge native gunnera line the banks and other prehistoric looking big architectural plants, which naturally grow here, make the area feel like a man-made jungle: all the wonders of the landscaped garden of a Victorian Sublime stately home, or a posh garden centre in Chichester. Our jaws dropped when we arrived and stayed dropped as hundreds of dragon flies and butterflies fluttered across the crystal clear waters, and the sound of bird song and mating crickets filled our ears. Even tourists could not ruin our wonder. The makeshift car park housed some thirty cars and a few coaches but only a gaggle of tourists stood around the phenomenon, fixated. ‘No swimming’ rules had to be broken as we joined the brave, jumping into the freezing cold ‘eye’ and diving down into the black of the cave, as the rush of the spring water flowing pushed you up and along. At 10 degrees no one could stay in the water long but the urge to jump in was addictive and totally refreshing.Lue lisää

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    Butrint

    14. heinäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    A UNESCO world heritage site, Butrint is a ruined fortified city on a forest-covered peninsula, opposite Corfu. Layers of civilisations were first found in the 1920s: Roman amphitheaters, forum, Acropolis, fountains, baths and Byzantine and Cristian churches and basilica lie around in rubble in the dense forest. They appear to have no budget: wooden visitor railings rot, huge swathes of the forest are unexcavated and signage is makeshift and minimal. It’s a truly magical lost city. Wandering around in the quiet early morning, it felt as if we had discovered it ourself. We camped the night next to an abandoned campervan in the car park of a lonely, empty but friendly hotel next to the ruins, and escaped before all the coaches arrived.Lue lisää

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  • Sumi HollingworthMeandering EastMatkaaja
    1

    Livadhi beach

    6. heinäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We were looking for a beach where we could wild camp in the shade of a tree for weeks on end, but none of the beaches had been suitable so far. Livadhi was a long stretch of beach near the town of Himare. It had a couple of hotels and bars at the top end and then the dirt track continued into olive groves peppered with campsites and the odd beach shack. Horses and donkeys roamed around and Albanians trying to make money for the season selling umbrella shade camped in tents and caravans along the beach. We liked that this beach was not so developed. We spent nearly a week here at a Nasho’s Greek run campsite where we got the brakes fixed, ate like kings, swam in the sea twice a day and made some friends. H played for hours on his own in our camp building empires, learnt to swim and made friends with two Italian girls. We were sad to leave.Lue lisää

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    Gjipe beach

    5. heinäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Gjipe beach is a hidden beach in the gorge of a densely wooded river valley. It can only be reached by foot, just about by 4x4, or by boat. We parked at the top of the gorge and trekked the kilometre walk down the coastal path. The view of the coast and the beach was absolutely stunning. Despite its remoteness there were still fifty or so people there, and three beach shacks selling food and drink. There was also a simple ‘eco’ campsite set back along the river with makeshift showers, communal meals, a few solar panels and hundreds of butterflies. we decided a rent a tent here for the night and hike back up in the morning when it was cooler. H enjoyed the noises of the forest and the silhouettes of the spiders, beetles and bugs on the tent as the morning sun shone in, and petting the litter of puppies that the campsite dog had just birthed. Somebody cried all the way back up the hill and we arrived at the bus to find a puncture needed changing. Gjipe beach should stay this way forever, but it won’t. There was already talk of the land being sold.Lue lisää

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    Llogara National Park

    3. heinäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We re-remembered that cities unfortunately were not easy for us so we drove through Tirana, headed for the coast. We hit Vlora, a large beach town which had an American feel to it- like a cross between Miami and San Francisco. Wide boulevards, palm trees, and 1970s villas perched atop huge craggy cliffs. We continued along the built-up beach resort coast line, which felt quirkier and shabbier than Croatia. Also in Croatia it felt like people lived along the beach, here it felt like just holiday makers. We camped on a basic beach site in Orikum and had the worst mosquito attack yet. We moved on quite depressed. We headed for the next beach only to find a massive mountain in the way- llogora. It was a stunning drive, and when we got to top we were above the clouds. We stopped at an epic parking place and took in the view: mountains tumbling down to beaches, and bright blue sea below. The layer of cloud between us and the beach made it feel like we were upside down. It was totally surreal and vertigo inducing. The photos don’t do it justice. Our breaks failed on the way down the other side, but we were safe and two Albanian men came to the rescue and delivered us safely to Dhermi beach.Lue lisää

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    Kruje

    2. heinäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    The mountain town of Krujë was recommended as a day trip from Shkodra so we decided to make it our next stop. Krujë Camping was a lovely, small rustic campsite and we arrived to find it empty. We mused to ourselves that maybe the owner had gone to buy bread, or to mosque, and indeed he had done both, and soon returned to greet us. H had great fun rambling around the hilly stepped site blooming with olive trees, fruit trees, herbs and flowers, chickens roosting in the old concrete bunker, a duck and a guard dog. Shputim, the host gave us a lot of his time and told us a lot about Albania. We spent an hour in the town the next day which had a castle and a recently restored artisan market in the centre but H was too tempted to touch all the handicrafts so we cut our losses and moved on. Tagan was keen to find halal meat and found a halal butchers in Fushe-Kruje at the bottom of the hill. For some reason, butchers seemed to be attached to petrol stations.Lue lisää

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    Lake Shkodra and Theth

    27. kesäkuuta 2018, Albania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    When we entered Albania we headed to the nearest campsite on our map which was Lake Shkodra resort. It was a strip of land like a run-way where at one end your eye was taken up to snow capped mountains and at the other end a wooden jetty jutted out into the still lake with the mountains of Montenegro beyond. A restaurant on the lakeside served lovely food and children played racquet sports. We stayed for four days to recoup and did some canoeing on the lake. We then decided to drive to the ‘blue eye’ of northern Albania which was near Theth in the mountains. We drove the narrow windey mountain road for an hour or so where nearly at the top it became a dirt track with no crash barrier and no passing places - only 4x4s passed us. We parked up and slept at the top for the night and then drove back down in the morning. We drove through the busy market town of Shkodra headed for Krujë next.Lue lisää

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    Risan

    26. kesäkuuta 2018, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We decided to head straight for Albania and spend some time relaxing there with cheaper food and cheaper campsites. We spent two days driving through Montenegro which we loved. It was rainy and grey but the country was rugged and green and lush and wild. Buildings got scruffier, vehicles got older, things felt free-er. We much preferred this feeling to the polished regulation of Croatia. We drove through Kotor, Budva and Podgorica, stopping the night by an abandoned house on the water at Risan. Kotor was epic: a fortified busy port town on the tip of the water inlet. The inlet is shaped like a butterfly and feels more like a lake so it feels surreal to see giant cruise ships moored up looming over the town.Lue lisää

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    Dubrovnik

    25. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Tony’s last stop was Dubrovnik and we dropped him at his hotel before trying to park for the night ourselves. Dubrovnik is an epic place - a fortified city where higgledy piggledy houses, forts, castles and churches seem to nestle between mountains and islands with winding roads perched on sheer drop cliffs that seem to hang above the city, before tunnelling into mountains and pirate ships sail by between the islands. Great location for Game of Thrones. Nowhere to park a 20ft Motorhome. We managed to park illegally briefly to say our goodbyes and saw Tony off from here before setting off to Bosnia. Or Montenegro. Which ever country would take us with the least hassle.Lue lisää

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    Luka, Trpanj

    24. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We planned another stop between Makarska and Dubrovnik and quite randomly decided to try somewhere on the peninsula and picked a reasonably priced campsite on a beach near the town of Trpanj. The quickest way to get there was car ferry from Ploce on the mainland so we boarded the three o’clock. We had a hunch it might be less crowded, commercial and built up on this peninsula but we were blown away with this choice. The ferry arrived in the small harbour of the pretty town of Trpanj and we drove narrow streets for a few kilometres until we saw a caravan through the olive trees. Luka - a secluded palm tree lined beach cove with views of the mainland mountains and was our favourite spot in Croatia. Camp Vrila was German run, understated and had a lovely chilled vibe. We were sad to be staying only one night. Tony’s apartment was five minutes walk away and had a balcony with views of the sea. We left the peninsula via road- an awesome drive, through the valley stopping at the Great Wall of China-style fortified town of Ston.Lue lisää

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    Makarska riviera

    23. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We drove with Tony on board along the coast, next stop Camping Makarska Riviera. We stopped and shopped in the picturesque town of Omis on the river, before pitching up at the large campsite among the pine trees on a fairly commercial stretch of beach. We enjoyed eating ice-cream, watching the sun set and riding the train in the evening along the 4km stretch of coast to the centre of town and back. The following day we attempted to trek to Nugal Beach from Tucepi but found the coastal path was not suitable for a toddler or a 70 year old so we sped on and were glad we did as the next stop was awesome.Lue lisää

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    Split

    20. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Uncle Tony was staying in Split for three nights in a hotel then we had planned to drive down the coast and he to leave from Dubrovnik seven days later. We stayed in various car parks in the the Marjan Hill area of Split in the archaeology museum car park, Jezinac beach and Kasjuni beach, while Tony stayed in the old town. We wandered the old town together, explored the Diocletian Palace and attempted a city beach swim which got disrupted by the throngs of beach goers as it turned out to be a public holiday celebrating Anti-fascism. Strangely we bumped into two separate Croatian people who remembered us from Los Canos de Meca in Spain.Lue lisää

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    Broderica

    19. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We stayed on Camp Sani here in Broderica for a one night pit stop to wash bodies, clothes, and fill up and empty water before meeting uncle Tony in Split. This was a lovely small affordable family run campsite, five minutes walk to a little harbour and beach with beach bar guesthouse. The bay was calm and the water crystal clear and we discovered sea urchins and giant muscles and H learnt to use a water gun and nearly mastered the pedals on an old go-Cart. We loved the stretch of coast and fairly empty beaches and coves between Rogoznica and Vinisce- a bit of a backwater as the main highway cuts off this corner.Lue lisää

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    Dugi Otok

    15. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Dugi Otok is one of the more remote islands - it took nearly two hours by boat from Zadar. We arrived in the afternoon and headed straight to camp Kargita at the north of the island by the famous lighthouse at Veli Rat. It was a beautiful setting, with camp ground right on the rocky beach and only a handful of campers there. Hayyan got very brave in the water, swimming under and going out of his depth. We stayed a night before setting off to explore the island in the camper. Apart from a few small harbour towns the island was very uninhabited yet from the middle of the island you could see beautiful untouched beaches along all the coastline. We spent the night parked up near the church in Sali where we had a pizza and bought fishing equipment, and then discovered online a remote beach: Mala Voda. When we drove down the steep hill to the beach we found only a few fishing boats and a few mainly Croatian families on holiday who frequented the beach. It was truly desert island stuff and we camped here for two nights swimming, sunbathing and looking for treasure.Lue lisää

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    Nin beach

    14. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We spent the night on a very windy Nin beach: a marshy landscape with sandy spits, long stretches of shallow water great for paddling, with an unbelievable snow topped mountain range in the background. It felt like those pictures you see of Norway. We didn’t stay long because the wind whipped the sand in our faces, but we watched some epic kite surfing in the huge bay before we headed to Zadar to get on a boat to one of the Islands.Lue lisää

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    The Lim, Rovinj and Preluk

    11. kesäkuuta 2018, Kroatia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We did some shopping in Koper in Slovenia, where everyone was very stern and took themselves very seriously, before heading down the coast into Croatia. We camped the first night at the Lim, a fish farm inlet, with bat cave, where we got eaten alive by mosquitoes. We then spent the day in Rovinj (a laid back Venice) before parking up at dusk at Preluk, a beautiful bay of crystal clear waters, watching the twinkling lights of Volosko over the bay. First impressions of Croatia: beautiful lush green scenery, too many rules.Lue lisää

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    Venice

    8. kesäkuuta 2018, Italia ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    We parked in an industrial car park in Port Marghera on the mainland and got the train to Venice. Venice was beautiful and quite fantasy like and we spent the day getting fed up with lifting the buggy up bridge steps. After ferrying up and down the grand canal on the water bus we found a much needed kids play park! We stayed another night on camping Fuseta an architect designed campsite built in 1960 with views of Venice over the lagoon. MosquitosLue lisää

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