A Procession through Preveza

PREVEZA.

A disturbed night, the tide came in and sounded perilously close to the van. I had visions of us sailing off into the Ionian Sea. I needn't have worried we were a long way off.

Up at 8:00 for a first run on Greek soil. Ran along the road and returned along the beach. It's a shingle one making the running difficult.

One the road by 10:30, looking for Nicopolis an early Christian settlement. Of course, it's closed but we are able to walk around the outskirts and get a feel for the size of it.

We decide to take a look at Vonitsa. The sat av suggests 80 miles and 3 hours. Our look at the map says 15 miles. The answer is a toll road under the sea. 3 euro save 2 hours of driving. Vonitsa is a lovely harbour village buzzing with life.

As we set off, the van is making a strange grinding noise. All sorts of problems pop into our heads. A quick look under the van shows we're dragging the step along. Filling up at the water tap, a Danish family approach asking if we know of a place to camp. They have spent the last month cycling from Denmark and haven been through Bosnia and Albania. There next stops are Turkey and Iran. We decide that we can include a trip to Mostly in Bosnia on our way.

Dinner at a taberna we used for coffee earlier. A free dish of musels and rice, more mussels (we didn't know about the free dish), feta cheese, pork and chips (meet very dry), king prawns and spaghetti (excellent), plus half a litre of wine, all for 40 euro.

The Greeks we met have sent us an email. Do we fancy boat trip from

Leskada tomorrow? Initially we reject it because we've just settled in Pervez. However, we meet at the church tower and change our minds.

The procession is typically Mediterranean, we meet at 9pm, people come, talk and go, a loudspeaker is blasting out prayers and the walk starts at 10pm. Much was made of the band but it only consisted of a dozen players. We follow the crowds to the harbour, getting jostled by competing processions along the way and stand listening to more prayers. In the end, we gave up and went back to the van.