A relaxing day at the beach in Lambinou, Greece
Dave the motorhome hasn’t moved an inch, he’s still sitting in the car park a few metres from a perfect beach at Lambinou on the Pelion peninsular. After seeing what a perfect spot we had found yesterday, we decided to go crazy and stop for another day.
Last night a couple of wild dogs wandered around Dave, sniffing at where pampered pooch Charlie had been snuffling around before. Charlie lay in his bed snoring. There wasn’t a soul around and in the quiet of the night we slept like logs (or should that be dogs as Charlie can sleep better than any log!)
This morning we were woken by the heat of the sun, always a nice way to be woken, as opposed to an alarm clock. I crept out of bed and opened the windows to let any breeze in to cool Dave a bit. It was just after 8am. We relaxed in Dave, Jay cursed the flaky internet connection as he tried to do a bit of work while I read my latest book – Twilight, I missed the whole phenomenon of it the first time around and wasn’t overly impressed by the film, but figured I’d give the book a go. Verdict: not bad so far.
After a king’s breakfast of avacado and bacon sarnies, we set off for a walk along the road that had brought us here. It carried on around the coastline above the bay we were swimming in yesterday. After five minutes the road changed to a dirt track, another five minutes and the dirt track became a footpath winding its way through olive trees and past abandoned looking houses. Ten more minutes and just as we could tantalisingly see another bay around the corner, the footpath was blocked, a metal barrier was firmly across it. Unsure if it was to keep out animals or humans we took the hint and turned around.
This morning’s walk – it started as a road!
A glimpse of another cove, but we were denied
As we wandered back Charlie started to make some very strange noises. If you know Charlie you’ll know he does make odd sounds, but these were odder than normal, it soon became clear that he’d snuffled something up his nose. The poor pooch stood with all four of his paws splayed out to steady himself and sneezed non-stop, eventually a tiny bit of grass appeared out of his nose. He sneezed again and it became a slightly bigger big of grass, another sneeze and there was more of it – eventually a 10cm long piece of grass appeared from his nose, I have no idea how he sniffed that in by mistake!
By now the sun was high in the sky and the air was heating up. We hid from the midday sun in Dave and I had a lovely afternoon nap. Just after 3pm we packed our stuff and headed down to the beach below our car park. It was quite busy down there today, about eight people (this counts for a packed beach around here) were lying out in the sun’s rays. A few fellas were lighting fires a bit further up the dried river bed that led to the beach, using them to burn the bits of wood and tree that they had been chain sawing down all morning. At the beach bar a group of men worked to set up metal wire supports for two parachutes which would create shade over a patch of bright green lawn in front of the bar – a cool retreat from the summer sun. I suspect the little beach bar gets quite packed out over the next couple of months – at least I hope it does, it really deserves to.
Parachute men busy at work.
Jay snorkeled and Charlie and I laid in the sun (well actually mainly in the shade provided by our golf umbrella with a sarong over the top of it). The afternoon drifted by, the shadow of the sun going behind the trees the only sign that it was time to get up and go.
Charlie and me hiding from the rays and have a read on the beach.
Our busy little beach at about 4.30pm judging by how far the shade it across it!
It’s cool to lie on the beach with butterflies wandering around
Jay and Charlie having a shower at the end of a hard day on the beach – I think one is enjoying it more than the other!
We’re back in Dave now, Jay has just rustled up some tea. Charlie is snoozing and the internet is still flaky. Fingers crossed it will get better as the sun sets – no idea why, but this does seem to be the case.
It’s been a lovely relaxing day, giving Dave time to steel himself for the climb back up the mountain side from here. Once again we need to get the maps and brochures out to see where to head for next, although this place will certainly take come beating!
Ju x
The fences are normally there just to keep animals in or out. If there`s a gate (of some description) in the fence and the path continues the other side, then should be okay to carry on. Just leave the gate as you found it.
Been following your travels for a while – very jealous – especially of your travels around Greece. kalo taxithi (good journey)
Hi Venessa, thanks very much, good to hear as we’re constantly wondering if we’re about to make ourselves unpopular wandering onto someone’s land. Greece is a pretty special place, I really don’t want to leave. Jay
Hi
I’ve been following your travels with a lot of envy and even more pleasure, well done for having the courage to do it.
I do have a question and you can email me directly rather than posting the answer. How do you deal with mot and tax while you are travelling in a UK registered camper. My wife and I are planning to travel for a few years before we retire at the moment we live in Italy, fairly close to where you stayed in Carrara, and so we’ll be using an Italian registered camper at first, with a 2 year mot cert. But we’re thinking of registering it in the Uk after that, as our daughters live there.
Sny hints would be greatfully received.
Keep on travelling and posting
Best wishes.
Paul
Hi Paul
Glad you’re enjoying reading about our little tour. I’m replying on here as it might be of interest to other readers.
The joys of having a UK registered motorhome means we have to go back every year for an MOT. We went back in September last year, so our two year tour has effectively been two loops of Europe! Tax is simple, as Jay’s parents look after our post they let us know the code on the letter we get from the DVLA so we can buy it online. The Tax is due in August, so when we arrive back in the UK our tax disc is out of date, but we’ve bought the next years worth and the disc is waiting for us when we get home – we’ve not been asked about it, but figure if they did pick us up on it we could easily prove that we couldn’t get it to display in our window before we got back home.
The insurance is high for us as we are full timing in our van, it might be worth a serious look at the differences as we’ve found that European insurance bought in Europe covers you for – Europe, where as that bought in the UK doesn’t cover countries like Albania, Macedonia etc – not even with a Green card. Also if in Italy you only need to get an MOT every two years, it might be worth keeping it registered there, unless you plan to go back and visit your daughters every year.
Hope that has helped it bit, but if you need any more clarification, please just drop us an email.
Julie
Hi both,
We had five fabulous nights in our new van and have made various lists of needs from our experiences so far. Glad you mention the heat in your update, we have been wondering how best to keep the van cool for the dog if we had to leave him, albeit for a short spell. How do you manage for Charlie? We have blinds etc already fitted, but it does get pretty hot.
Greece has never appealed to me before seeing your blog, I think you should definitely introduce yourselves / the blog to the tourist board, and why not The Times!
We can’t wait for our next little trip, coast I think.
Jen x
Hi Jen
Glad you enjoyed your first trip. It’s always fun trying to puzzle out how everything works on these things. We have a switch in the cab area which we still don’t know what it does – it has three options on it, summer, winter and off. We keep it on summer in the hope that it’s influencing the weather!
We do leave Charlie in Dave from time to time, as often he’s not allowed in cities or on their transport, or we fancy a meal out without his big brown eyes coveting our food! Before we left I lined all the curtains in Dave with thermal and blackout lining material, it’s sort of rubberised material. It works wonders and keeps all the heat out – your blinds might do the same, but as it’s only about €30 for the material and a bit of time to sew them in, it might be worth doing it too. We have got black out blinds in the windows, but the rollers are old and sometimes don’t roll back away all that well, so we just use the curtains.
When we know we’re going to be leaving Charlie in the van in the day we make sure it’s parked in the shade, then we open the top skylights, close all the curtains (hang a towel across the back window as the blind on there hates rolling and it has no curtains) and top up his water bowl. We also trim all his fur off, so that keeps him a bit cooler.
If the weather is just too hot, like it was in Croatia (topping into the 40’s) we don’t leave him, it’s not worth it. We change our plans and maybe go to where we wanted to go in the evening when it’s cooled down.
We’ve had a few people say they’d never considered Greece before we got here, neither had we really – but we do love it here, everyone is so friendly and the scenery is amazing. I can certainly recommend it.
Keep us posted how trip two goes!
Ju x
Yasas Guys,
Looks like you’re really having a rubbish time…!! We love Greece; having visited various islands on 4 seperate occasions, the first of which was our island hopping honeymoon :-) I’m so jealous!
We’ve started reading your blog from the very beginning and we’re just hoping that the next 18 months flies so that we can get started on our European adventure! There are so many things to think about and your blog has helped no end. We will definitely start some kind of blog or at least a Facebook page to keep people updated on where we are and what we’re up to while we’re away, so will let you know.
Take it easy,
Kalinihta!!
Pete and Sue
:-D
Hi Pete and Sue, great to hear from you an wonderful to hear you’re off adventuring! Yep, there’s loads to think about before you set off, but once you’re on the road all that stuff seems to fade into the background. We’ll be after inspiration to keep us going through the time we’re back in the UK grafting for our next set of travel-tokens, so we really hope you decide to get a blog going. Drop us a line if there’s anything we can help with, otherwise thanks again. Cheers, Jay
Hi you two….sorry 3 ( and hi Dave), been missing your postings for last few days. I hope all is ok ?!
Andy from sunny (for once) Lancashire.
Hi Andy, all’s cool old chap, we’ve been posting – no idea why it’s not making it over to you in Lancashire – great to hear the sun’s out – have a top weekend! Cheers, off out to do battle with the local Greek ‘supermarket’ to try and get an Internet top-up. Wish us luck. Cheers, Jay
We were abroad last month when our Road Tax expired, we just applied online. Here is the DVLA intro –
“You will need either the 16 digit reference number shown on your renewal reminder, OR the 11 digit reference number from your registration document or certificate (also known as the Logbook) and your vehicle registration mark (number plate).”
We used the reference number from the front of the log book and had the Tax Disc posted to our registered UK address and a friend popped in to collect it and send it on to us via Recorded letter.
The reason for having it sent was in the back of my mind there is an offence for not displaying a tax disc even if it is bought and paid for. With cameras reading everything about your vehicle as you re-enter the UK they sure as hell could read a tax disc if required.
Just a thought…
Thanks Jamie
Our disc ran out at the end of Aug and we were back mid Sept and as we stop so little on campsites (where we could have had it posted to), and have been let down by post restante before we left it in the UK.
I’m not sure of the laws these days, but with so many un-taxed cars on the road and a decent excuse for not having the piece of paper in the window I can’t see it being a problem. We’ve met quite a few people who have done the same thing so we didn’t worry too much, but I guess it’s down to the individual and how comfortable they feel not displaying the bit of paper.
Julie