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Day 44: Near Playaria to Camping Nissos, August 14th.

I was awoken by the inordinately loud sound of a cricket creaking. It sounded like it was inside my head. When it finally stopped I dropped back into a grateful sleep.


Back up around 9:30. I turned my wheel around. It's been on backwards for about a month. It took all of 30 seconds to fix. I packed, cut my nails, and took down the tent. The bodged pole ripped it. Something needs to be done.


I didn’t have much of a plan today, but suspected I wouldn’t be going far, so left late. I got out of the camp by cycling up the steep hill at 10:45. Then I realised id left my charger behind and had to walk back down the hill for it. I ended up getting underway at 11.



I followed the main road, stopped in a small town and ate two croissants, in addition to one I’d bought in the camp. I think I’m overdoing the food. My belly will come back. Then I was off up and down the rolling hills in the searing heat. I ate a whole bag of watermelon sweets and listened to a podcast about Trafalgar. I climbed up and up into the hills, away from the coast. This went on all morning and I made slow progress. At 14:15 I stopped on a shady bench overlooking a bay with a castle, ate some crisps and drank some coke. It was nice.


After that the hills mostly stopped. I found myself down by the coast passing along lovely long beaches and through coastal olive groves. There were still some hills but I made good progress. Greece is beautiful. What a surprise!


At 16:00 I stopped in a town and bought more water and snacks. I expected to still be cycling for a few hours, but at 5 I stopped at the last option for a campsite before I headed inland around the Ambracian gulf. If I sopped here I’d have to do 160km tomorrow but I’d get food, washing, a beach etc. And I wouldn’t have to wild camp with a dodgy tent. I decided to check if they had room and let fate decide. They did. Fair enough.



I spent a while finally trying to fix my pole. The pole I’d found in the lookout near Rijeka in Croatia finally came in handy. I bodged a much sturdier repair by forcing my slim tent pole though the thicker rusted one I'd salvaged from the bin. I hope it holds. Then I sat on the bench for a while, read, ate crisps, went for a swim, took a shower, did some washing, hung it up, and came to a restaurant where I ordered souvlaki and a beer and wrote this. A friend of mine (Liv) is on holiday just south of me and has offered to host me for a night or two. I plan to get up super early tomorrow to be with Liv at a decent time. Hopefully I sleep well tonight.



***


I sat on the beach for a while, reading on a sun lounger, eating a croissant, then went to bed. It was very noisy, so for the first time I wore ear plugs. They worked well and I slept around midnight.


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