SuzyBlue goes east 2019: floating monsteries in Greece, 24.-28.4.

After quite a wild night on the ferry - ask my room mate, she had to switch the whole night between bed and bathroom - I reached the Greece mainland at Igoumenitsa with no problems. SuzyBlue had just been tied to a thin little rope but she didn't take any damage. Getting off the ferry worked fine and so I headed on small roads through the still unknown countryside of Greece.

My aim for the first night was Kastraki, a little town at the foot of the Meteora rocks. Famous not only for climbers allover Europe but mainly for the 6 still inhabitated monasteries from the 14th century. All of them had been placed on top of alone standing, up to 500m high rocks. In earlier days the monks had to tow food, material and even people in a basket with a simple rope up to the monastery. Nowadays you can reach them through steep steps and there are loads of tourists visiting these monateries every year.
I visited just 2 of them, the rest I preferred to have a glance by walking from one to another through the beautiful, wild oak forests.

 

 

The next day I traveled on again through beautiful mountain area. At least one road was still closed due to snow - I gave it a try but had to turn back ;-)
Great winding roads, mostly in really nice conditions.

Lots of turtles on and next to the roads, some of them I could not help but rescue :-)

 

Soon I reached Neoi Pori, a little town next to the Agais sea. The village is REALLY quiet this time of the year, most of the shops, hotels and bars still closed. What means perfect for just relaxing :-)

SuzyBlue ha d a nice and cosy private parking place :-)

The next days I'll do some walking at the beach, hike up towards mount Olympos - with 2918masl the highest mountain in Greece and of course place of the greek gods of the antike. I'll not walk to the top as it is still covered in snow therefor I probably will miss Zeus and Co. ;-)

SuzyBlue goes east 2019: the start to my new adventure towards Nepal, 22.-23.4.

wow....hard to believe but it's almost 4 years now that I had started on my trip from Alaska to Chile. Of course I was not only working the last years. 2017 I traveled from Switzerland up to Northcap and back (about 6500km) and last year I was on an adventerous trip from Albania back to Switzerland (about 4500km).... part of it offroad (TET).

Now this year I again have a lot of time for another epic trip. I'll travel from Switzerland to Kathmandu, Nepal. Passing fascinating countries like Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Iran, all the "Stan countries", a little bit of China, Pakistan and the north of India. At the beginning I even planed an "open end" as I have quit my job. But love never comes as planed....that's why I'll be sure back in Switzerland for winter time:-)

All these trips of course still with my good little companion SuzyBlue. She's well prepared again and I was able to do or help with some of the maintenance.  But of course I hope that I'll never have to use tha knowlegde ;-)

I could bring the rear tire to MuzToo (a Swiss motorbike company) which will take it to Osh in Kirgistan with a group of bikers. The perfect solution for me as I didn't want to carry the tire all the way with me.

Next to the maintanance I had a lot of paperwork to do. Plan the route quite exact as I needed Visa's fro 6 countries. All of them I had to apply for in advance. But again some of them would not be possible to apply for more than 3 months before the entry. Quite a tricky task. Therefor I organised a second passport which I can use to apply for the Visa's while I'm on the road already. Took me a bit of arguments to persuade the authorities.
Iran, Turkmenistan, Tadschikistan, China, Pakistan, India..... all these countries need a Visa. Only Nepal is possible to apply for directly at the border.

The Turkmenistan Visa is really highly apprecieted as this Visa is hard to get. Or just with luck.

Right now it looks quite good, just waiting for Pakistan and India Visa. China was not problem as you have to book a guided tour in case you like to cross with your own vehicle - as it will be registered in China and will get Chinese papers and even a plate ;-) The only problem so far might be Iran, as they started to apply a law that was never applied the last  few years since it was "born": no bikes allowed in Iran bigger than 250ccm (a reaction to the sanctions...). But now since the last reactions from a big country (!!!) towards the Iran National guard and even more sanctions they are really strict and reject all the bikers trying to enter Iran for about 1 week now. I still hope that their will be a solution until May 24th.... the day I wanted to enter Iran. If not I still could take a ferry from Aserbeidschan directly to Kasachstan. But what a pity to miss such a great country with such hospitable people.

Until then I'm heading south-east: to Italy and take a ferry from Ancona to Igoumenitsa in Greece. I'm already on the road and everything works fine so far.

 

Ohhh..... I almost forgot.... I'm not traveling alone. Of course I have my little companions with me which always have a good advice or a bit of smalltalk with me:
Putput, Pat the Tiger, Max the frog (they had been part of the team already on the Panamericana) and absolutely new: "Griite" the wild little dancing angel (or whatever she might be) ;-)
Together we are an absolute "dreamteam" having a great time together and able to solve all problems that might occur....

So you're invited to travel with me.... stay curious and be surprised about the upcoming adventures :-)