Monday 7th June
The Greek blokes got up very early and left the cabin before Daz woke up - I think they were as worried about us as we were about them!
The ferry docked on time and we were on the road by around 9am. It was very hard work getting back into riding again after a week off and it didn't help that it was very hot and the traffic was quite heavy. Once we got out of Athens we stopped for breakfast.
After breakfast things were a lot easier - we were moving smoothly and in no rush so had plenty of time to look around. The scenery was absolutely stunning, we missed it on the way in because we were in such a rush, which amazed both me and Daz.
We stopped for petrol about 50km outside Patras and an Austrian bloke called Match came and spoke to us. He was on his way back from Crete on an old water cooled 450 Kawasaki. All he had on his bike was a change of clothes and his sleeping bag, when he needed to stop he'd just pull over, unroll his bag and go to sleep! On his way into Greece his gear selector had snapped, and as it was dark he'd slept on the side of the road. He said he was woken up by lorries missing his legs by centimeters! Match asked if ferries were sailing to Italy today and we gave him the details of our ferry, he thanked us, wished us well and left.
We rode onto Patras and checked in. We checked if we were sharing a cabin again, and sure enough our tickets were for beds, not the cabin. It cost us 100 euros to upgrade for the full cabin.
I think they'd been a WRC rally in Greece, as our ferry was full of WRC teams. We didn't see any of the cars though!
While we waited for our ferry, Match turned up - he'd managed to get onto our ferry. He parked up and waited with us. Another bloke turned up, also travelling from Crete. This guy was Irish, he'd live a while in Australia, America and Greece as well as 6 or 7 other countries if he was to be believed. He currently lived in England but he was buying a house in Crete. He certainly kept us entertained with his many tall tales - which were all true according to him! For example he said Sting was his neighbour in England and came to see him every year, but he couldn't this year as he was at the Oscars! Sting was a little put out, apparently, when this bloke refused a puppy from one of Stings dogs!
We got on the Ferry and had a quiet night. We had a few beers but nothing excessive and called it a night. It was so nice to have our own cabin!