{"id":11284,"date":"2013-06-02T18:15:17","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T17:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=11284"},"modified":"2019-04-11T17:29:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T16:29:14","slug":"an-eventful-drive-over-the-pelion-peninsular-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/an-eventful-drive-over-the-pelion-peninsular-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"An eventful drive over the Pelion peninsular, Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave the motorhome has crossed the Pelion peninsular, and is now on its east coast sitting by a beach (for a change) in the resort of Horefto (N39.45757 E23.11861<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Last night as we headed to bed it started to rain. We like it when it rains at night, it keeps the ‘neds’ away (neds being anyone who dares to be noisy after we’ve gone to bed!). The only problem was we were parked under trees, so the rain was doubly loud as it bounced onto Dave’s roof. I struggled to sleep for a large part of the night, eventually drifting off at the weather eased.<\/p>\n

This morning we had a lie in, tired from lack of sleep we didn’t surface until gone 10am, well it is Sunday! As I tidied Dave and washed the pots Jay took Charlie for a walk in the woods around us, we knew we’d have quite a bit of driving today so we thought it would be good if Charlie had a bit of a leg stretch.<\/p>\n

\"Jay's<\/a>

Jay’s morning stroll followed these steps into the woods<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ivy<\/a>

Ivy growing in the cool of the mountains<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Don't<\/a>

Don’t be fooled by the look on his face, Charlie loves bridges over fast flowing water – not!<\/p><\/div>\n

We set off to drive over the Pelion peninsular, firstly heading for the big town on the route – Zagora. We hadn’t gone far when we spotted a large, furry shape in the road. We’ve seen many dead animals at the roadside, it seems to be the norm around here – yesterday I saw a chap dragging a dog from the road by its hind leg. The shape looked up at us, it was another collarless dog. There were several others sitting on the side of the road watching it. Its face was splattered with blood and its hind leg badly damaged. Jay undid his seatbelt to go and see if he could help the poor creature, but I had to stop him. Injured dogs lash out, some bite – I’m pretty sure even Charlie would if he was in pain – and although it was heart wrenching, we had to drive on. The look in its eyes will stay with me forever. I hope someone stopped and took it to a vets, but I doubt it.<\/p>\n

Another few kilometres up the hill we were at the scene of a recent accident. A car had somehow driven off the road and up the rock face next to it. Another car was parked behind it with its hazard lights on, we pulled in behind. I jumped out to check everyone was OK, a man said yes everyone was OK. I checked to make sure that there wasn’t anyone trapped in the car, but fortunately everyone had got out. Jay checked the visibility of the crash site and decided that our warning triangle wouldn’t be much use, it was a fairly straight bit of uphill road, so no one (except the car up the rocks) would take it at great speed.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/a>

No idea how someone managed to do that!<\/p><\/div>\n

The woman nearest to the car was on her phone and lighting a cigarette, a common combination for Greek drivers – perhaps that is what caused the accident, or was it the boy racer man? Once we were sure that we couldn’t help any further, we headed off. It was only after we had gone that I realised that the woman next to the car was probably the driver, on the phone to get help and having a cigarette to calm her nerves. The man, who I had assumed was the boy racer\/driver, must have been in the car behind with his young family. Lesson learned, never jump to assumptions Julie.<\/p>\n

\"Over<\/a>

Over the top of the peninsular, and we pass the local ski resort<\/p><\/div>\n

As we got closer to the town of Zagora, the trees either side of the road changed from wild pines and olive trees to cherry and apple trees. Our guide books tells us that this is the apple capital of Greece, it’s just a shame we were here at the wrong time of year.<\/p>\n