Mud, Sweat and Gears

Sunday 22nd September

You know when you're in the middle of nowhere when the only people you see are shepherds. This has been true the last two days unless I've gone out my way to go to a shop in a village. This morning I was greeted with the most comical of scenes from the farming world. I can only assume that the shepherd had Tourette's or the sheep that day had a plan to ignore his every order because for the first half hour of my day I watched this poor old man run around the field trying to shimmy on the most ignorant sheep in the world. Shouts, whistles, grunts and even the odd raspberry blown could not organise these sheep and I would've loved to see how he ended up but believe or not I actually wanted to get going. I left the man with a chuckle and headed onto the open road. 

During the first 20 miles I was feeling fresh. There was a bit of a head wind but I had a few beautiful landscapes I could see that spurred me on. I knew today I could get to Turkey which meant I had cycled across a whole continent in exactly 6 weeks from when I left home, so there would have to be something rather major to stop me from getting to my goal.

This could've come in the shape of the two stray dogs that stood by the side of the road. Stray, wild what's the difference? I don't know, because as I got closer they both tensed up and revealed their ridiculously sharp white teeth. My first thought was, wow! How are his teeth so white? My next thought was, this is no time for children's story's and I'm telling you, I put the "ride" into red riding hood. This was worse than Croatia, if my legs were starting to tire then they were suddenly feeling a lot stronger! I put the power down as one in particular got closer. They didn't change from stray to wild until i was in line with them so i had about 6 feet until one of them went for me. I was pretty scared I'm not going to lie. Luckily I have stamina and scary dogs don't and I hope this will stay the case forever more. I have now come to the conclusion that his teeth were extremely white thanks to gnawing on the bones of cyclists that were unfortunately less fit than myself.

I needed a rest after that so I stopped in Alexandropoulos (which I still can't pronounce properly as Greek words are so long that you don't know which syllable to emphasise) I had some cheese sandwiches by the sea and watched everybody in their Sundays best go to the nice seaside restaurants where they overlooked some scrubby foreigner with a bike chasing a loaf of bread bag around. I make a point of never leaving any rubbish wherever I go even if I sleep surrounded by other people's rubbish. I like to think this leaves a clean trail and so locals won't mistreat or deny future cycle tourers of the hospitality that I have received, due to a thought that they may make a mess of the area.

As I left Alexandropoulis the wind picked up considerably. I initially had it acting as a cross wind so at a constant lean and on an annoyingly poor road I cycled for about 10 miles. This changed my mood from positive to, I can't hear a thing and I'm starting to get stressed. Then my direction turned and not only did I have the wind full in the face but the majority of the road was uphill. This is where "starting to get stressed Harding" turned into "war cry, shouting at the forces of Mother Earth Harding" i did this until i realised that my spartan-esque shouting was actually using up vital energy. This was tough. I mean tougher than anything from the last 6 weeks, give me Italian Alps anyday. The combination of the noise from the wind, the noise from the lorries meant the music was a right off, the bumps in the road attacked the bum whilst the incline and the wind helped drain the legs. I can not described how hard it was just to make one rotation of the pedals. The wind wouldn't even let the weight of my leg turn the pedals once and at one point I was going 4mph, I've seen glaciers move quicker than what I was trying to do on the bike.

"I-will-get-to-tur-key" was said with each individual push of the pedals. If i wanted to physically feel like i had just cycled a whole continent then today alone would've been enough. I saw a few flat bed trucks with a load of guys sat in the back, I must be near a border I thought. You don't see guys sat in the back of a truck without being near a border and their thumbs up and shouts helped spur me on in a kind of "Tour de Asylum seeker" fashion.

I eventually arrived at the border, I was exhausted, in pain, drained but happy. I flew through customs and just had to go through passport control where there was a duty free. I stopped there and got absolutely fleeced. Not only did I pay 3 euros for 2 tiny packets of haribo (not even the big bags) and some chocolate biscuits (think I'm addicted) at the so called duty free but I had to pay 15 euros for a Turkish visa. I didn't realise I had to pay for a visa but that made my crossing of Europe and into "Asia" all the more official I guess.

My first impressions of Turkey were flame grilled. The very first thing I saw were lines of straw set on fire and making what looked like a race of flames across vast areas of farmland. Then after about 10 miles of farmland, the first thing I saw as I entered the town was a Burger King!

I honestly couldn't remember the last Burger King I saw before that, It must've been Germany, possibly Switzerland but i decided not to take another stop and try to push my tired legs to the next town. This is hindsight, was a bad decision. I didn't realise that what was waiting for me after Burger King would be the most frustrating road I have ever come across. This may've been a combination of tiredness, grouchiness and deafness but it was a road that started off unseeled and progressed into unrideable. The sores on my rear end didn't help but the road was just left unseeled so there was not even a flat route that I could pick out. It was like sitting on a washing machine during its super spin cycle but on that washing machine were upturned drawing pins. I was in agony, my legs were like cement and the wind was still pushing  me to a halt whilst on a downhill slope! "Why am I still pedalling on a DOWN-HILL-SLOPE!" I would shout, followed by "Why am I still shouting-AT-THE-WIND"

I made the decision to collapse on the side of the highway further off the horrendous lane that I was given onto some very dry, very sharp grass. There was nothing else for me to choose from so I lay there for around 20 minutes and ate a big bag of ritz biscuits or equivalent of and made pictures in the clouds as the odd motorist beeped past me (I'm guessing to see if I would flinch or not) I managed to somehow see Michael Caine's character of Ebeneezer Scrooge from "The Muppets Christmas Carol," looking disappointed at me from the clouds and so I picked myself up and decided that I was going to cycle one more hilltop then find a field along the motorway.

The motorway turned out to be Turkey's record breaking attempt for the longest one half of a motorway under construction and so I had to cycle on a white line with 4 lanes of lorries and coaches crammed next to me into 2 lanes. The elation of cycling a whole continent hadn't really figured in today's proceedings,  it was a tough, frustrating and painful day but... I did it.

I found a field on the opposite side of the road, pitched up and lay exhausted in my tent. My face and arms were fizzing with dried sweat from the sun and only then could I manage a wee smile at actually being in Turkey.

At the start of the day I wanted to feel like I had earned riding 2400miles across Europe. By the end of the day, I couldn't even feel my legs!

My way is the highway

Saturday 21st September

Feeling fresh i had a good feeling about today. I wanted to do a few more miles than 60 to catch up some of what i was behind due to staying an extra day. The monster was still there but i wasn't letting him have another day. I had quite a comical morning conversation outside the toilet block with a man from Belgium about my bike and when i told him where i was going, a half shaving foam covered Greek man swung his head around the door frame and exclaimed "South Africaaaaa!" Sort of like a funny/foamy Jack Nicholson-esque "Here's Johnny"

I said my goodbyes and made the clever decision to take the highway route instead of the "A-road" scenic route. I say clever because it was. The a-roads are terrible, narrow, busy and the scenes I'm used to now so I don't mind a couple of hours of boring motorway view. The motorways are quiet, well tarmaced and there is a whole lane kept empty like our hard shoulder for broken down Fords and cyclists.

The first few hours I was flying, I maybe saw a car every minute at tops whereas I could almost guarantee I would've already had about 5 near misses, hit a few potholes and stopped at around 10 traffic lights if I were on an A road. I saw a live snake for the first time in Greece, this one was actually big enough to make an "S" position unlike the Croatian worm but luckily not as big as the dead one I've pictured.

After around 3.5 hours of really good safe cycling I noticed a highway patrol van ahead and I could see off the motorway that there were 2 fire engines and a few police attending a grass fire on a wooden cart, talk about over kill! Anyway the man on the hard shoulder slowed me down to a stop, "Where are you going?" He asked, "To my next stop" I replied. I like to play dumb sometimes because in my defence, there were no signs saying I couldn't be there when I entered onto the motorway. "This road is very dangerous, you must get off" he said. I looked around, there wasn't car to be seen on either side for miles and then I looked down to the side at the A road which was currently blocked by a burning cart and 5 emergency service vehicles. "Oh I see, I thought this lane was for cycling because there are no cars to be seen!!!" I said. I think he got my point but I still had to get off at the next exit. I didn't mind, the next exit was a toll and I was getting hungry so I had timed it well. Getting off the motorway involved lifting Nigel up and over a fence because my off ramp was the other side of the toll so it was easier said than done. After I managed that, I cycled through a few tiny villages that probably see a man like myself once in a lifetime judging by the stares I got from the men that stopped their game of backgammon to watch me go by. I think I may take up backgammon, it seems like my kind of game. Dominoes involves too much of a crowd and the pace can get out of control!

At one of the shops there were a few kids hanging around, I think they wanted a race. They couldn't speak much English and I have really struggled to grasp Greek so the chat was pretty preschool-esque. I added to the confusing conversation by using some of the few words they understood without even thinking about it. "Shouldn't you be in school?" I said, like a grumpy old man annoyed that there were kids hanging around his bike. No of course they shouldn't, it was Saturday! Days don't mean a thing anymore. The one day I need to know is Sunday so I don't get stung without food but I'm not in France anymore so I could probably get away with it.

As I cycled away from a very unsuccessful conversation a couple of them thought they could keep up. No chance, Nigel is not built for speed but he loves a challenge! After leaving the kids in my dust I then had to endure just that, dust and tiredness were on the cards for the remainder of the day unfortunately. The motorway looked over at me laughing but my legs and my body were too tired to care.

I had cycled around 80 miles by 4:30 and I was looking around for somewhere to chill out. I entered a town called Sabes and as I cycled along the main road I noticed through a gap in a wall some guys playing football/warming up. There were two men at the gap and I asked if there was a match. One said yes the other was absolutely hammered and looked at me with one eye and at Nigel with the other and shouted out "3 euros" "3 euros!, are Olympiakos playing then?" I joked. "No, Sabes and Yazhu" I'm certain that's not how you spell the other team but that's what it sounded like. (Which incidentally is how you say "hello" and "goodbye" so the kebab man in Kastoria wasn't telling me porkies after all...although he was about the camping!) The man at the door didn't really speak much english and the drunk guy was no good at all but the manager of Sabes was walking by at the time and they called him over. I told him what I was doing and he welcomed me in. "One photo, ok." He said. Perfect I thought, another football team to add to the list. Next thing I know, he comes back and takes a picture of me, "for team magazine" he said and then he shot off into the changing room. I thought he meant picture for me, but instead it was picture of me, in all my glory - stained shirt and dirty face.

I sat and watched the game surrounded by the noise of a hundred or so people eating sunflower seeds and nuts. To the side a few kids had a drum and the whole crowd was very civilised. Everybody but the drunk guy that chose to sit next to me! Why do I always attract the drunk guy? And why does that drunk guy never have any clue when it comes to personal space? I could smell him and I was trying to work what alcohol he had been drinking, he smelt fruity but in an alcoholic way. If you combine a homeless person with the smell "bodyshop" or "lush" kick out then you get the idea. The truth is he made me fancy a beer but I continued with my chocolate biscuits and water and watched the whole game. I had a chat with a couple of lads sat behind and the drunk man soon got bored of me and left.

The game finished 2-1 to the away team from a last minute winner as well so I felt a bit bad going up to them after to get a photo as they had just chucked a lead away against the top of the table side. I left feeling a little refreshed but with no light I was on the hunt for a quick pitch up, quick pasta then bed.

It wasn't too hard trying to find a place. There were fields everywhere and I managed to stop a farmer in his tractor as he pulled out of one field. He nodded after I mimed "sleep" and "tent" and then pointed at the grass. That was good enough for me I thought, I was knackered! Tent up, dinner on, thank you very much!

A productive day today, a few more of them on the road to South Africa please, and i'll be a happy man!

Home is still where the heart is

Friday 20th September

I made the decision last night that I was going to stay another day in the campsite and see how my stomach developed. I probably had the best sleep to date, the morning slobber on my mat would suggest that anyway. You know you've had a good sleep when you have to peel your face away from whatever you passed out on!

Toilet monsters struck this morning but as standard I openly strutted over to the showers unnoticed again. It's probably a good thing the campsite isn't in peak season as I'm sure I would've been kindly ask to leave by now or if the owner is anything like the hairball yesterday, physically chucked out completely.

I laid in my tent frustrated, the two things that I've been doing so well with the last month, (cycling and eating) I couldn't do either! I didn't want to waste the day despite it being overcast so I decided to walk into the town to buy some baby wipes or toilet roll and at least have a look around. After about 200 metres I got fed up of walking and it soon became apparent that there was nobody around, nothing to see and nothing to do. I managed to find baby wipes as they were helpfully packaged in English and I bought myself a chocolate croissant. Surely a few cereal bars and a chocolate croissant will be alright.

I returned to the Ghost site and sat alone on the private sandy beach. Even though it was overcast, it was still warm and the sunny was trying in patches to break through. Twiddling my thumbs, I went on the Internet for a bit, did a few arrow words and listened to some music. When bored I want to eat, when my body thinks its burning fat I want to eat and when I shouldn't eat all I can think about is eating!

I turned to thinking about home and family in more depth as I had more time on my hands. Hopefully when I get back I will have two nieces waiting for me in England. My sister's child will be a 1 yr old and I haven't even held her yet. My best mate's, I was lucky enough to see in hospital before I left as she was premature but now she's going strong in her new house I can't wait to see them both. Above anything and anybody that I left home, the thought of seeing them properly is really helping me through the tough riding.

I know it's only going to get a lot tougher so its good to have two great reasons to fight for as well as your regular family and friends that are supporting me brilliantly throughout. I noticed today that my ride distance has exceeded the money raised so far. I was hoping this wouldn't happen until I at least got to Africa so this is the only time I will include it  in my blog. 

To those reading this that have already supported then thank you so much and please do not stop telling people about it. I know a few people have family conversations about my blog and others have their office talking about it so if that is you then I'm pleased you're enjoying it. 

If you're enjoying my blog then please tell as many people as possible. Tell your boss, tell the guys at the gym and tell your family. My aim to raise a pound a mile I think is possible but it does need a lot of help from the people reading this blog to maybe go that little bit extra and do something that can add to that total. I'm surprised my mates haven't started doing a sweepstake on when they think the next spoke is going to break or when the next entry about poo will be!

Apologies if you wanted more stories on cycling, snakes and supermarket tantrums but I'm only mentioning this once as today has been a quiet day on the beach. The support I'm reading about is really helping so thankyou for that but I'm certainly not going to be able to do it without everybody's input into reaching that £10,000 target so please do everything you can, cheers.

I finished off today with a small spaghetti meal (by 5pm i was in pain at how hungry and bored i was so had to do something) and a read of Ray Mear's Bushcraft. I felt very outdoorsy as I read his book with the sound of the crickets in the bushes whilst being bitten to shreds by midges. My candle does nothing to get rid off the pesky biters it just makes it look like I've set myself up a romantic meal for one every night!

Back on the road tomorrow. I have no specific destination, just want to make up some decent miles so a no stopping day most likely. The more stops I make the more insane I seem to go also. Not only does it give you more chance of losing things but I've freaked out a few times as I've set off because I wasn't wearing my seatbelt! I blamed that on the crazy Croat and Montenegrin drivers though.

Sleep well

My big fat Greek...toilet monster

Thursday 19th September

The highlights and lowlights of the day go down unfortunately to the toilet monsters.

I ended my night last night watching a few night fishers at work on a lovely quite beach and was gently washed to sleep by the noise of the water. I woke up half way through the night by the washing noises in my stomach and had to act fast to prevent any catastrophe occurring. Luckily, the moon was so bright I could see well

enough and with the sea being right in front of me, it made it possible for me to successfully complete an "Asian" clean up and go back to bed.

In the morning it happened again and my good choice of camping spot on the beach meant I was out of eye shot unless you were an early morning truck driver. As bad as I felt, I had produced two satellite stations that worked exceptionally well at keeping flies away from my tent in the middle. 

I set off with a good route along the coast planned towards Kavala that Apostolis told me was beautiful and well worth taking a look around especially for the Greek history. A very straight forward and quiet 40 miles led me to just outside Kavala so I chose to have some food and a rest. After eating a whole bloomer with cheese and tomato and a family packet of crisps I needed a nap on the beach to let the food go down. 

Here's where it begins to get messy. I was ready to go but my stomach was telling me otherwise. The trouble is when I stop cycling and I'm "uncorked" from the saddle, my body starts to play havoc and toilets aren't always readily available. I was lucky to find one about 100m away and during my time in there I heard a standard knock on the door so I gave it the old "busy" and that was that. I still wasn't feeling too good and went back for round two and after that I had constant aggressive knocking on the door! After the third aggressive bout of knocking I opened the door whilst I washing my hands to experience a very short, fat and hairy Greek man shouting at me. He literally pulled me out of the wooden hut and I got the gist he was saying that I wasn't a customer of his "beach bar" so I couldn't use his external wooden hut of a WC! 

I was very calm and did not have energy for any justification of what I was doing, the rules around toilet etiquette and explaining to him the possibility of me going to the bar after the use of the toilet. I really couldn't be bothered with him but nevertheless, a very rude man that in hindsight as always I wish I had shaken his hand with my dirty hand and thanked him for displaying an unbelievable display of rudeness.

Annoyed and still feeling rough, I tentatively got back on Nigel and slowly dragged myself up and down a few coastline hilltops to Kavala. My intentions were to go a lot further today but I pulled into the first campsite I saw. It's probably best I stay in a place I know where the toilet is for at least a night or so.

Pitch was pretty cheap, just 9.50 so i may stay an extra night if i need to. I set the tent up and the toilet monsters hit again. In the toilet safely, and there's no paper, again!!!! Oh come on this is starting to get on my nerves now! I've stopped caring now, ill never see these people again I thought. Clothes were off, bike was just outside luckily, I waited till I heard no noise and then boom. I walked outside completely starkers got my shower stuff from the bag, walked back in and straight in the shower. I didn't see anyone but I don't know if anyone saw me, either way I couldn't care less. I can't even buy paper here so it looks like tomorrow and possibly tonight, ill have to do the same!!!

Shame the day was focussed around the toilet monsters as the ride was pain free and weather beautiful. Just one of those things ill have to deal with. It's going to be hard riding with the monsters, I just hope this phase doesn't last as long as it did in Bali! 16 days will take it all the way to Egypt!

Greekish delights

Wednesday 18th September

I really did not want to wake up this morning. I was looking forward to another incredible breakfast but it was what was coming after that I didn't really want to happen. The breakfast as it was yesterday was exceptional and I again made the most of it. I headed back to my room for a little nap as I wanted a relaxing ride today and my 60mile aim was out the window, I just wanted to end up facing the right direction.

I packed the bags, checked out dead on 12 and looked at my compass for east. The roads are in blocks here but there are a few diagonals that helped me with getting out of the city in the right direction. I cycled for an hour mostly uphill and was not happy with where my road was taking me. Thessaloniki is orientated quite strangely with regards to the sea and where I wanted to go. I found myself heading north alongside an army base but I wanted to go east! I just kept pedalling anyway as there was no other way around it, I wasn't going back!!! Eventually I got to the top of the hill and Greece had kept a little surprise for me. Throughout this ride there are always little things that make me feel alive and keep me realising why I'm doing this crazy journey. Sometimes a song, sometimes an act of kindness, today Greece gave me an amazing panorama overlooking a dried out lake, another lake and a very enjoyable descent down towards it! I was back! The feeling was back, the energy was back and the disappointment of leaving such a great city was eased with excitement of finding a fresh one!

The new camera helped as I can really capture my experiences in the way I want to now so I'm happy about that too. One thing I wasn't so happy about was the 3-4 foot long dead snake that I rode past, initially thinking it was a piece of hosepipe. I've held snakes before, massive ones as well,  it's just the thought of walking up to one that gets me. As I was thinking about this, it seemed I had set off a domino effect of noises coming from the bushes as I rode past. There were no noises before I saw the snake but now, now there's noises every 5 metres and one especially almost made me suck the saddle right off the bike as I jumped up!

The pace naturally increased because of this and with the good flat roads the miles were soon put away. It turned out I was right all along with my directions and it was just me getting a little impatient with heading north as I thought I had to east earlier then I could. I cycled past the lake on my left and before I knew it, the sea had popped up on my right! All I have to do now is follow the coast around. I stopped at the beach along with lots of camper and and swarms of gnats!!! It was horrible, you could be cycling along and the next thing you know it's like somebody has chucked a handful of rice at your face. I used to spit out any bugs that ended up in my mouth via an unfortunate yawn or during the big notes when I'm singing in full flow. Now though, if you're in my mouth, its your fault, you're getting eaten. Some of them have been pretty meaty also, for those I just get the water ready for the wash down. 

I noticed two cycle tourers so walked along the beach to see them. They were a couple from Italy cycling to Istanbul like myself and they had been to very similar places already as me. We could've continued to ride together but I don't know why I just wanted to head off on my own. So they showed me their map and I showed the lady the picture of the snake I had taken and then I left with her looking considerably worried about camping in the area!

A few miles further another cycle tourer from Germany was coming the other way, we had a quick chat and then carried on. That's three I've seen I thought and I'm seeing more road cyclists. It's because of the roads, you only see road cyclists on good roads. Its a sign like when cows lay down its going to rain and when a girl says shes "fine" it means you've got lots of making up to do, when you see road cyclists you know that good roads lie awaitng! They weren't roughing it Montenegro and Albania were they? oooh no but now the conditions are ok out they come with their fast bikes and inability to nod back at you!

Anyway, I found a little rocky road leading to the end of a beach. Happy days I thought and I set up camp there. The water was gently flowing up and down, the sun setting to my right, not too many flies around, just bliss. Three fisherman then turned up but I actually did mind, it gave me something to watch as I cooked my pasta. 

Greece is providing me with some amazing experiences and i hope tomorrow will be the same. A very relaxing time spent over the last few nights, in a Hotel and now on a beach. This time I'm in a tent on the beach so lets hope there's no busy bee wake up call!

Hellas Bueller's day off!

Tuesday 17th September

I woke up today with the best feeling ever. The feeling you get when you're on holiday but this holiday hadn't been planned and the days hadn't been counted down for the last 2 months. This was more like, you're having a bad day at work on a Monday and someone pops up out of the blue and says you going on holiday tomorrow, have fun!

I felt like Ferris Bueller, what shall I do today then? The buffet breakfast was first on the cards. It had everything you could think of and all to the highest standard! I had a wee look around at the different food sections first. Cold meats and cheeses right, full English section standard, croissants and pastries excellent, toast and cereals ok, health food section probably not and sweet desert section, jackpot. I'm not normally a desert man but I had a plate from each section and when I got to the desserts I didn't want to leave after! They were amazing! The buffet was 5 star to any regular person but to a man that has been living off chocolate spread sandwiches and pasta based dinners, it was out of this world. The waiting staff witnessed something quite extraordinary that morning when it comes to eating. I pretty much out ate 9 maybe 10 groups. People would arrive, be pleasantly fed and then leave and I was still there conducting my own cheese tasting session. I wasn't being greedy, my body was still in cycling time and burning it all away! I also knew that today and tomorrow are going to be the last breakfasts I get for about 6 months so I naturally took advantage. Takeaway lunches are always a possibility when it comes to breakfast buffets but I stopped myself. I had done enough damage as it was and the hotel was just too nice for that.

After breakfast it was time to explore the town. I set out to buy myself a new camera and hope it doesn't turn out to be as poor as the previous. I wandered around the town for a while, Thessaloniki is the second most populated town in Greece behind Athens and it has a massive University so there were people and students everywhere. I loved the feel to the place, it was great to not have to worry about Nigel for once so I could relax and try and take in my opinion of Greece. 

Firstly, everyone smokes. The streets are teeming with outside bars and seating areas which helps the smokers but I'm pretty sure you can get away with smoking inside as well or at least the first 2 tables in. That didn't bother me until you experience the "lady looking for something in the massive bag whilst waving the fiery spear around between her index and middle finger." You see it so often, she's spinning around with fag in hand and you've got to be like Neo from the Matrix to avoid a hole in the shirt or a burnt arm. This situation happened 3 times today!

The roads are mental also. There is a very slack traffic policing outfit in Thessaloniki which means people double park and sometimes triple park on major 4 lane streets. They just put the hazards on and go off and do what they need to do. Due to this, the traffic is mental and on top of that the people love a j-walk so how I didn't see an accident ill never know. Other than these two things I noticed that you could take as a negative then the rest to me we was brilliant. Lots of bars, great smells, great food, good shops and I managed to find a new camera that I'm very happy with.

As I sat playing around with it a man from Ghana approached me with bracelet in hand, here we go I thought, "Hello my friend, where you from?" A standard start to the conversation and I knew what was coming next. This guy then put the bracelet on me straight away though and then gave me the guilt trip after! Well played sir but you have just wasted a good bracelet on the cheapest man in the town. I gave him 40cents and even then he was lucky to get that as I had warned him he wasn't getting anything. "Not even 50 cents for water?" He said. "Water's free" I laughed, I should know, I would be bankrupt if I had to pay for all the water I've managed to get! He walked off seemingly quite gutted and I was actually rather happy with my second purchase of the day. (It has bright colours that i will make the most of before the dust and dirt attacks it and it becomes a diseased ring around my wrist)

I walked back to the hotel and sunbathed around the pool. There were 2 couples sat around the pool and one immediately goes into guess the nationality mode. I heard one girl talking, "Where in England are you from?" I asked, "near Guildford" she replied. (Nailed it! I knew it was a southern accent) Sarah and Mike were a lovely couple on their holiday and we talked for a few hours about various things but also why on general we think most people in England are less inclined to give the hospitality out that I have received on my ride. We blame the media for negative stories that keep people living in fear, not trusting anyone and with an all-round more negatively swayed view on foreign people and foreign situations. There you have it, issue solved!

It was a good chat and helped me to really appreciate where I was, what I was doing and take in what has happened. I left to go back to my room where I had a nice setup of Youth Cup football on tv, some Greek beers, a few crisps and sat in the sun on my balcony. I was going to soak this in as long as I possibly could!

A few hours past and it was around 9pm when I had a phone call from Apostolis. He was just down the road at a bar called the Beerstore with his wife and he wondered if I wanted to join him. As I was just on my way out anyway, I did. Our great conversation continued and I had food and some Cypriot beer and we sat outside talking till gone 12! The streets were still packed the place was still buzzing and I asked Apostolis "Don't you have work tomorrow?" "Yes, but this is Greece, this is what we do!" I'm pretty sure I was made for their way of life so Thessaloniki goes down just above Basel as places to return to when possible. (Sorry SCORT guys)

I headed back to the room and really did not want the night to end. The thought of leaving again tomorrow made my legs ache and I knew that was that now. From here on in, it's going to get very very tough!

Quick check of the Champions League results then night. A very nice, relaxing day.

From Hellas to Heaven

Monday 16th September

Today I was woken up by the school bell at 8.15am. It turns out the fenced basketball court I mentioned yesterday is an inner city playground and I was pretty much camping on their school field. I was not woken up from a heavy sleep however as last night was the night from hell.

I will firstly like to apologise to the barking dogs I have previously complained about as last night Scooby Doo scared off many kids that a. Kept me awake all night despite it being a school night with arguments which were probably just regular Greek conversations and b. Were undoubtedly planning some joke attack maybe an egging or a feta cheesing as I could hear their whispers but thanks to the howling dog I was up with the torch which probably scared them away before they got closer than 50 metres or so.

Then after the kids and Scooby went to bed it was the turn of the howling wind. Not just the wind outside unfortunately as well. I don't know whether to blame the Montenegrin sausages, the Albanian ham or the overpriced Greek chocolate but something if not all three combined, were creating the experience of laying eggs of gas every 5 minutes. Rotten eggs of gas more specifically and rotten eggs of gas that could've easily turned into broken eggs if I wasn't careful. Last night was a very sleepless and smelly night which was probably the underlying factor why the kids stayed clear.

I woke up extremely tired and fragile and methodically put things away in a controlled fashion with no sudden movements or mistakes. Today was a mission not enjoyment. I had to get to Thessaloniki contact a friend of a friend that may help me with experiencing the town for an extra day which would give me valuable time to decide what to do with Nigel. Firstly though, a toilet was needed.

I set off on a slow roll down the hill out of Edessa, more aware of any sudden bumps in the road then I have been before. One error of judgement and I'm rein-acting a James Bond getaway manoeuvre like a wacky racer oil spillage. I found a cafe, when cycle touring you get used to sussing out the WC sign early doors then making a B-line for it making no eye contact with the lady behind the counter because you don't want to receive a condescending look or worse, get roped into buying a pan eu chocolat when you know you have chocolate spread sandwiches on tap back at the bike! I saw the sign, far diagonal corner, typical! I went for it quickly, closed the flimsy shutter door behind me and turned to again find myself staring at a hole. At least I have paper I thought, so I took off my lower clothing completely as I still don't know how the locals do it and took up the position of "make myself into a ball" 

After the deed was done i exited feeling very relieved which soon changed to embarrassment as i stepped into a cafe of people focused on the far diagonal corner of the building. Luckily I don't get embarrassed that much so you could call it stardom that everyone was so interested in who it was responsible for making the elephants noises behind the stupid flimsy concertina door. At this point, the best thing is a nod of recognition and another b-line to the exit. A bit of a shame that my second African wildlife experience after the zebra sighting in Albania turns out to be me/an elephant in Greece but they're becoming more frequent so I guess that's a sign I'm getting closer!

Nothing to say about the ride other than I absolutely went for it. Very average scenery on a flat road so i got my head down and did not want to stop again. 50 miles in 3.5 hours thank you very much, arriving in Thessaloniki just after 1pm. I was in the bar before it started to rain and at my destination in the earliest time so far.

Now here's the good part. Here's where my day turned into an absolute dream day and I have a lot of thankyous to include because of it so I apologise if I start sounding like a drunk man accepting an Oscar! I have a friend called Steve whose family I know are following my updates very closely and have shown unbelievable support so far and I know will continue to till I'm back in England. Steve found out I was heading to Thessaloniki and this is where some English generosity can enter the fray to add to all the other nations that I've experienced it from. Steve didn't just let this fact slip but he contacted another great man in Thessaloniki called Apostolis and told him about my trip. Steve said if i contacted Apostolis then i could at least enjoy a beer or two. I am more than happy with that, Steve is already promoting the ride on his company's website and donated to the two causes himself so he's done more than enough. Anyway, with nothing to lose and being stuck in a town I have no clue about that was my plan. When I arrived in Thessaloniki I found some wifi and emailed Apostolis and waited. What if he's not at work and what if he doesn't get it? Ill ring him after 10 minutes I thought. About 2 minutes had passed, (not even enough time for me to finish my arrow word!) I had a phone call from Apostolis. We had a quick chat about where I was, about the fact there was no camping in Thessaloniki and about Nigel being less than exceptional. He said, "Don't worry Chris, i'll make some calls and see what I can do. I will ring you back in 10 to 20 minutes." A pint and a couple of arrow words later (I was on a roll) and Apostolis rung me back. "Good news Chris, I have some friends that run a hotel called the Makedonia Palace, they say you can stay there for two nights free of charge and then I will pick you up later and we will see what we can do about your bike, ok?" Ok? OOKK? If it wasn't for my bowels still not being 100% I would've been heel clicking my feet down the promenade to the Hotel! Apostolis gave me the directions that turned out to be about a km down the road. I arrived at the Hotel and its plush, oh boy i thought, I do not belong here, the Ferrari outside told me that before I even set foot in it to be fair! I walked up to the desk and said my name and the man behind the counter said "you're the bicycle boy." The helmet may of given it away but with Beirdre all over the place with excitement and the marbled sweaty t-shirt/shorts combo, the whole package I was presenting may've helped with the assumption. "That's me!" "Excellent, you're in room 326 and buffet breakfast will be at 7-10, if there's anything else then we are always here for you. Enjoy your stay." I put Nigel in their safe cupboard and collected my bags and walked to the lift. When the lift doors closed I made a noise I don't think any man has ever made. A combination of hysterical laughing, buzzing excitement and the disbelief at where I was caused me to let out a squeal like a cheap firework! The room was perfect, this Hotel is the best in Thessaloniki! On top of all of that, I had a sea view balcony. Two nights ago I had a "bird view" balcony but the living area was a bit wooden compared to where I was 48hours later!

I washed myself and my clothes, relaxed a bit and I'm not going to lie, I spent along time walking around naked. First time in a month with a decent mirror and the comfort of my own room to tense the abs and quads and see what all this cycling and chocolate spread has done to me! Ive definitely lost weight but not so much that mum has to start sending me

food parcels so all good on the body department. Apostolis then rung me, he was down in the lobby with the Hotel sales manager Konstantinos and the assistant in corporate accounts Perry. They were very keen on my ride have been the guys behind putting me up in the amazing 5 star hotel that is the Makedonia Palace.

We had a quick chat and a drink and then myself and Apostolis put Nigel in the back of the car and took him to  the only cycle shop in town that could possibly help. Apostolis had a contact with the cycle shop aswell and I didn't really know what more could be done but they agreed to have a look at him and I was more than happy with that. At the cycle shop I met George, this man clearly knew his way around bikes and George changed the bracket so it fixed to a much stronger, thicker part of the frame and hence stopping the chances of the frame breaking again where it did yesterday. This could've been enough for some busy people like George as he had two people waiting at one point. Oh no, not only did George adjust the bracket but he gave Nigel a full service and changed the chain and brakes aswell. After taking it for a quick ride that could've been that, wrong again, he changed the pedals as well! I felt a little embarrassed to be honest as I knew Nigel wasn't perfect and i have all these things in my panniers waiting to be changed when I absolutely had to. "Save them for Africa" he said. We were there for about 45 minutes to an hour and after all was finished George wanted a picture with me. Oh contrare! I want a picture with you sir! Money was exchanged but I don't know how much and it didn't come from my pocket so again, unbelievable thanks go to George from Bike Magic and Apostolis as Nigel is now as ready as I think he can be for the next leg.

In disbelief of the generosity that i have received and dancing on cloud nine I'm then treated to a gem of a restaurant for dinner, beers and a night of Greek history. Apostolis is a very knowledgeable man and we had a great conversation about Greece, Life and how my mate Steve should hire me as his PR man because he will regret it if he doesn't!

After eating my body weight in the finest cooked pork in Greece I got back to the room exhausted, not because of the time of night but because of the emotional roller coaster i had just been on ending in a carnival of generosity. I honestly can not say thank you enough to everyone involved in my day today. Yes I am riding alone, but today was a clear showing that I can't do it on my own and I have been truly blessed by meeting the people I now know as friends.

As the saying goes, it's not what you know, it's who you know. This can be enhanced by knowing very good people like today as shown (in England an Greece!)

Tomorrow is a rest day, I think I need it!