Plocken Pass - Italy - ferry - Igmounenista

Tues 5th May 

That really is a lovely campsite - small, nothing special in the way of facilities. but quite the friendliest welcome and cheeriest wave goodbye. Hopefully we can go there on the way home - "Camping Ponderosa" (OK Hoss?)

Ponderosa is in a valley between the Grossglockner and the Plocken pass - the Italian border is on the summit and a few years ago we spent a night on the Italian side of the border. The road surface on the Austrian side is, surprisingly, pretty awful, but (surprisingly) pretty good on the Italian side. The descent, although not that steep, has some very tight hairpins, accompanied by quite low tunnels - I can imagine an HGV stuck fast, blocking the road completely.

The pass was the scene of some seriously bloody fighting in WW1 between the Austrians (then the Austro-Hungarian empire) and the Italians. Whole mountain tops were mined and blown up. There is also a Roman road that still runs along the top of the ridge.

Austrian WW1 cemetery

Plenty of time for the ferry, so we had lunch at a resort called Grado (don't bother!) before heading for Trieste to find our ferry port. There are 2 to chose from - and we chose the wrong one first. We're now in the queue waiting to board - and still 8 1/2 hours before we sail. Actually, when I say "queue" I'm being rather loose with my definition. There is no one around to direct us into lanes, & the check-in office is closed. Some vehicles are going on to Patras, which means they should load first, and we call into Ancona for more vehicles before we get to Greece. Next time we know to get here quite early, when he office is open, so we can check in and clutter off into Trieste for several hours. I was hoping we would get a few hours sleep before we boarded - that's looking increasingly unlikely!

Wed 6th May

In the event, the check in desk opened at midnight, so an hour's sleep before that. We started loading at 2 am. When we got to the front of the queue, and about to board, a young jobsworth noticed our ticket had the name of a different ship (because they had changed the schedule after we bought our ticket) and we were sent back to the check-in desk to get the details changed. We could have done without that at 3 am! An hour later we were in our cabin, and just dropping off as the ferry sailed at 4.30.

We woke (late) to the sound of the foghorn and the sight of thick fog, which cleared by mid morning. Late morning we picked up more campervans, caravans and lorries at Ancona (Italy), and set off once more for Igmounenista. Learning from past experience, we took an electric kettle, adapter, mugs, milk and teabags and bottles of drinking water  as well as snacks, so at least we could have some reasonable tea.

Thurs 7th May

8 am, and we are are stern to in Igmounenista, and waiting to disembark. Weather is lovely, but fresh. (the freshness didn't last - by 11 am it was 27 degrees). Took the (new) motorway to Ioannina. Lovely new surface, and hardly any traffic - I can remember when the M1 was like that! There was a toll at one point, just 2E40 (E = euro - I don't have a symbol)

The campsite is quite small, slightly unkempt, and expensive, but is right beside the lake, and about 1 Km walk from the old Byzantine castle (later Ottoman) where Ali Pasha is buried.

Ali Pasha's mosque, at Ioannina

Ali Pasha's mosque

Now at 1214 miles.

Fri 8th May

The plan had been to move on today, but it is really very pleasant, so we have decided to stay another day. I chilled  on site, watching the election results come in - a big surprise that the Tories won, and good news that the odious Ed Balls lost his seat - but he will still have a  Commons presence in the shape of his wife Yvette Cooper. Meanwhile Rosemary went back into the Byzantine/Ottoman castle to do some sketching.

Family of grebes, Ioannina

To Ioannina