Igoumenitsa and Plataria: not everything going to plan

Monday 20^th May Igoumenitsa and Plataria

We left Ioannina in the morning continuing through the Pinhos Mountains down to Igoumenitsa where we saw a few more snakes, a few which had been crushed by cars on the road, but no tortoises today. We stopped at Igoumenitsa to book our ferry tickets for Corfu on the 23^rd. It cost 90 euros. We decided to drive southwards to find our planned camping spot. Mike had identified a few others north of the town but these were less that 5k from the Albanian border which seemed not such a good idea. Before reaching our planned site we fell upon Plataria. Plataria is a lovely small pleasant sea side town with a long beach front and small harbour. We found somewhere to park along the beach front and watched 10 or so small yachts return to the harbour. We later found out that they were part of a Neilson flotilla that was touring the Greek Islands. Something to think about for next year. In the evening we had a beach bbq and two lovely dogs attached themselves to us and stayed all night. It got us both thinking about having two puppies when we get home.

Tuesday 21st May Plataria

It was a gorgeous hot sunny day but Jacqui had already made a decision to work today so Mike had to amuse himself on the beach. Eight hours later Jacqui was screaming for a break so we went to one of the beach cafes and ate expensive ice-cream - well she had worked all day. We then went back to the van and had a late supper.  It was a hot still night and it was difficult to sleep especially as some mosiquitoes had found a way in. We eventually killed about 8 and went to sleep.

Wednesday 22nd May Plataria

Jacqui did another couple of hours work first thing but after lunch we set off back to igoumenitsa to complete some tasks before leaving for Corfu. These were find bank and get cash, get loo chemicals, diesel, LPG and food.  We managed to find the loo chemicals in a marine chandlers (no camping shops). The bank was easy, we counted 10 different branches along the front of the Port. We shopped at Lidl and got our diesel but no LPG.  At the petrol station we were told of somewhere about 20Km away where we could get it, annoyingly it was back in the direction we had come from.  We eventually found the garage. When we pulled up we thought we weren't going to be served ; this is the second garage that seems unable to comprehend that our van uses both diesel and LPG.

As we had passed Plataria we headed back there for another night. The weather was deteriorating with heavy cloud and the wind was strengthening but it was still very hot.  The fridge was struggling to cope with the temperature as it does not work when outside temps are above 32C.  Worryingly we were also getting a 'fumey smell'. Mike checked and cleared all the vents but could see nothing wrong.  It was over 30C when we went to bed and we had as many windows open as possible but only slightly.  This was a mistake as at 12.30am there was a huge gust of wind that ripped our large cabin window off its hinges.  It landed in the road.  Fortunately it did not break and Mike was able to retrieve it before any vehicles ran over it. At 1.00am we were discussing how to fix it over a cup of tea and the only solution appeared to be to hold it in place with 'Duck tape' and try to find a Burstner agent. It was a restless night with the high winds but at least there was no more van damage.