Our basic plan was to travel from Athens to Vienna, crossing Croatia and Slovenia by bicycle, ferry and train. We both managed to arrange for a seven week absence from work. It was short notice and initially we only booked the return flights Johannesburg to Athens with a connection from Vienna on return. Due to some Visa requirements we were forced to add confirmed hostel bookings for the first two nights in Greece and Croatia. The itinenary was flexible and with lots of camping planned, it's affordable and just the way we like it.
We boxed our bikes and packed our Ortlieb panniers and with some effort we managed to weigh in at 21kg's ea (bike included) at OR Thambo. Our hand luggage contained all our clothing - which is not a lot.
In Athens we booked into our Backpackers lodge which had stunning views of the Acropolis from the top deck where the bar is located.
The city reminded us of a mix between Amsterdam and Maputu ( Mozambique) , somewhat run down but with character and a very lively atmosphere, not your typical northen European clean organised type of city. Witnessing sights such as the famous Acropolis is amazing, despite having seen them featured on many books/photos and postcards. 
The arceological ecavations in the city ( right next to a restaurant in the case above ) adds to the historical feel of Athens.
Our flight from Athens to the island of Kephelonia departed at 03H00 and we had to catch the 00:30 bus from the city to be in time at the airport. We arrived at Argostoli in Kephelonia around 05H00 slightly tired and not too keen for long distance cycling. The unpacking of the bikes went smoothly and the bikes were in perfect condition despite the boxes which showed some evidence of being heavy handed. The roads were quite narrow but we found the drivers curtious and most of the bends in the roads had a mirror type posts in order to see oncoming traffic.
Soon we arrived in Argostoli where we started to scout for a camp site. It was still in the beginning of the tourist season and we were the only campers at the local camp site. The site was sort of OK but equipped with squat type toilets.
We were slightly worried that this may be the case with all the camp sites throughout the island. Fortunately this was not the case. We met two very jovial Greek girls at the local restuarant which were preparing to open the following day. When we told them we are from SA - Joburg, they insisted that we spend some time with them to update them on the current happenings in Joburg. It turned out that they lived and worked in Hillbrow Joburg many years back. They had fond memories of SA and the whole chat was quite a nostaligic experience for them. They told us that living on the seemingly idylic Kephelonia can be quite hard due to the short tourist season during which time enough money must be made for the entire year.
The next morning we set off to the town of Sami, just about 45 km but with a quite a climb as indicated on our map. The acent was around 650m and after 3 hrs on the road, our water ran out and we had to make a detour to a small village. The village was actually close but unfortunaley about 200-300m down a pass. Needless to say but this freewheel to the village, which is normally the highlight after a serious climb, was just filled with images of sweat and tears going back up.
The village , the water and some coke for a tired body
The road over the mountain between Argostoli and Sami
After slogging back up the mountain we realised that we were very close to the top of the mountain (where we turned off to the village) and we could have continued without water since it was now downhill all the way to Sami.
At this stage its probably worthy to note that we are not serious cyclists. In fact, we were not very fit at all, but we find cycling a very rewarding and also cheap way of travel with no paperwork / licencing issues when crossing country borders.
And what a downhill , we clocked around 65-70 km/h and arrived in Sami within 20 minutes. The euphoric feeling of achievement was enhanced by the stunning Sami camping site. We pitched tent and promptly downed a few of the local Mythos beers. The campsite even had a small cellar where we could top up on an excellent blend of Red and White wine. Our first day of real cycling in Greece went well and we celebrated in style - Life is Good!!!
Camp site in Sami - Kephelonia.
We liked staying in Sami, nice place, small town but also convenient for excursions to other towns and also other nearby Islands. So we stayed for ...ah ....a week.
The famous beach of Myrtos also featured in the movie " Captain Correlli's Mandolin". This little day excursion from Sami caused for some serious discussions before decending down to the beach. Knowing that we will have to do the climb back up the mountain after enjoying a lunch and some beers at the beach caused us to do everthing in moderation - probably also a good thing
Typical small family restaurant in the village near Myrtos. The father was the chef, mother the manager and their daughter the waitress.
The next few days were spent bumming on the beautiful beaches and taking a ferry and visiting the nearby island of Ithaka. The ferries are perfect for day excursions, leaving early in the morning and returning late in the afternoon. The ferries are referred to in Greek as something resembling a "pantoffel" or "slipper shoe" due to their flat bottom shape. This makes them ideal for short distances with a large easy parking parking deck for cars, scooters and bicycles. Ithaka was also very hilly ( and hot ) and we soon decided to opt for scooters instead of bicycles to explore the island. Scooter rental is a simple process and relatively cheap ( 15-20 Euro).
The bottom parking deck of the ferries
Leaving the town of Sami for the island of Ithaka
The stunning views of Ithaka from the circular inland route.
One of the many beautiful beaches
On the top deck of the ferry from Greece to Bari in Italy.
Too soon we had had to start making our way to Croatia. When we did the initial planning for the trip, Greece was not on our list of countries to visit, simply due to the fact that Greece would be to commercialised ( we thought ) and we rarther wanted to visit less tourist trodden paces like Croatia and Slovenia. It turned out that Kephalonia and Ithaka still had an authentic Greek atmosphrere and we enjoyed the people as much as the scenenary. Maybe other islands like Crete and Mykenos are too touristy , we dont know, but in hind sight these Islands were perfect for us budget travellers.
There were no direct ferries from Greece to Croatia and we had to do a 1 day stop over in Italy. This would be our first overnight ferry trip and we opted to sleep on the deck which was much cheaper than the cabins. These long distance ferries are well equipped with a restaurant, bar, some even with a small casino. The outside top deck has plenty seats with a convenient bar, which makes for a perfect sundowner venue - why sail on an expensive cruise liner!
Since we had schengen visas for the EU countries, the entry into Italy was simple and we immediately started exploring the city of Bari. The city is more of a commercial port but had a very nice old town area where we spend most of the day walking the narrow cobble stone alleys.
Bari - Port city in Italy
Later that afternoon we boarded a ferry again for the trip across the Adriatic sea to Dubrovnic in Croatia. The landscape around Dubrovnic in Croatia is similar to Greece ( very hilly ) but much greener and the turcoise colour of the sea is just spectacular. At the port in Dubrovnic two massive cruise liner were docked. Our ferry seemed small in comparison and a day later we would encounter the hordes of tourists at all the old town sights.
Note the cruise liner in the background
Old Town - Dubrovnic
Dubrovnic is a beautiful city but we found it quite hectic with thousands of tourists lining the streets and the traffic is a nightmare. The old town is truly well preserved and well worth a visit ( try to avoid the time of visiting cruise liners )We found a mountain bike trail close to our hotel and there were some amazing views from these hills. There should be more remote trails around the area , but we decided to rarther head to the quiet island of Mljet. In fact , due to ferry schedules we had to leave a day earlier and thereby lost out on a comfortable hotel bed
( The plan was to do island hopping from Mljet to Korcula to Hvar and so on up the north of Croatia and then cycle on into Slovenia and Austria. The main coastal road seemed to be carring too much traffic. The islands are all long narrow strips of land strething North / South, so by arriving in the south we could cycle up to the northern point and take a ferry to the next island. - ( at least that was the plan )
On Mljet we soon realised that we are in for some serious cycling due to the undulating landscape. ( We also knew the next island ,Korcula ,would be even worse ) This did however make for some amazing views which appeared around almost every turn in the road. To make things worse most of the campsites are on the coast ( a major decend from the main road which is more centrally inland located ). Freewheeling down just to be told that the camp site is closed made for interesting swearing words to be uttered by both of us while slogging back up with our laden bicycles. We soon learnt to make 100% sure the site is open and ready for business
We camped the night at a campsite just outside a very small sleepish town.The town seemed deserted and we only saw a few of the local men sitting outside a small tavern / bar. They just stared at us as we stopped to buy some drinks at the nearby shop. The shop had no food, the bread may be ordered and will then be ready for collection tomorrow, we were told in broken english. We declined the offer, in our own broken english.
We always try to learn at least the basics of the local lingo, but with the short stays and the many different countries we were visiting this was just impossible. The croation languange is almost as difficult as Greek, with regular 3 and as much as 5 consonants next to each other in one word eg.- Thursday is "cetvrtak Like other countries most of the youngsters can however speak English. Although the lack of proper communication makes for a good laugh now and then, it becomes frustrating because you can seldom have a meaningful discussion beyond " please - where is the nearest campsite / shop.
At the camp site we met an interesting swiss couple who has been cycling from Istanbul in Turkey and were heading back to Bern in Switzerland. They were travelling with additional front panniers and noted that we were travelling quite light. Considering the distances they did - 65-80km /day they were obviously in much better shape than us.
For the first time in our holiday we had to prepare our instant noodle packs for dinner.
The next day we cycled to the northern tip of the island with the plan to catch the ferry to the next island - Korcula. We arrived and was informed that there was no ferry due to rough seas. During some discussions with the locals regarding the possibility of catching a lift on one of the other boats and explaining that we had to cycle all the back to the southern point of this hilly island, one local replied " yes, its all upstairs - no place for a bicycle ". This became a much used phrase between the two of us as we battled the mountains for the next 6 weeks to Austria.
The small town on the Island of Mljet
We found a nice B&B ( 10 Euro / R100 for the room ) and decided to stay the night and then cycle back to the southern ferry point the next day. Croatia is relatively inexpensive and we treated ourselves to a restaurant dinner. Due to a thunderstorm all the diners ( 8 ) at the restaurant were forced to share a table inside the owners kitchen where the owner immediately served us with some strong local potions to appologise for the inconvenience.The group consisted of a russian couple, irish couple, slovenian with a british girlfriend and us two south africans and with the help of the Croation potion we were soon discussing everthing from african politics to the past war in the balkans. We had a good time.
The next day
