In which Sid and Doris enjoy the English expat life and meet a long distance cyclist at Barry Hoban’s bar
Last night there was a terrific storm. The wind thrashed the branches of the trees, big raindrops hammered down. The thunder and lightning was very, very frightening (Galileo, Figaro, magnifico etc). Big noise. To add to the drama the village power went down too. We are very glad we have postponed leaving until Friday when the weather may be cooler than we have had lately.
It was still raining on and off when we went round to the Alpha cafe for the full English breakfast. Sid and Doris are introduced (by those who know us from the Blue Sky Bar) as the people who have cycled here. And an Alpha regular tells us that a Brit who cycled from Amsterdam might be around. And in walks David Scott, retired fireman from Carlisle now resident here, who came down an Adriatic route through Albania with his best-man-Stewart. Epic work, and he’s done it more than once.
As if this is not enough, the cafe is Barry Hoban’s usual haunt. He is the ’70s British cyclist who won the most Tour de France stages until Mark Cavendish took that record for a Briton thirty years later. Hoban won eight stages and finished the TdF eleven times. He’s hard, and we’re told that at 80 years old he’s still riding. (We go lurk on the cafe later to hobnob with the bike stars, but the mob has dispersed.)
Chatting about our route plans David tells us there is another ferry from Lesbos to Piraeus, this one from Sigri. At first this seems like good news as Sigri may be nearer to here and the road nicer. Research finds that it does exist but the route to the port involves more climb and the boat does not go when we want, so the Mytelini to Piraeus overnight plan stands. Then quickly onto another boat away from Athens, which we think will be no more fun on a bike than Istanbul. Sid and Doris were also a bit tempted by David’s own route through the eastern Adriatic countries including Montenegro and Albania, until we realised that once again we’d have to pick our route via towns that actually had hotels. No, let’s stick with Plan 2(a)ii.
Preparations for our ride over the island are intense: a training walk along the front, weight lifting our ice creams. We are probably not alone in looking at the houses and plots for sale and thinking ‘What if we lived here, it is sunny, we could have a boat in the marina, friends would like to come …. what would we do in the third week?’ Well, it makes more sense than Elhovo in Bulgaria with its British expats. Even so.
Our small games go on. The vehicle of the day is a sun bleached blue, shaft drive 50cc Yamaha step though that looks as if it has been used to anchor lobster pots. ‘Load of the day’ goes to a baby Nissan Datsun pickup with the rear springs flattened by watermelons. Doris’s view, he may have over ordered.
We finally feel confident enough in our Epic Journey to document it on the back of the Ortliebs, although we are not tempting fate by putting any future countries.
England are playing Australia in the cricket World Cup. Our host is Australian, the bar TV is up loud. If you judge from the noise, support for England and Australia are about equal and our host is on his own.
Later we will join them for the barbie which Tony’s dad, George, is about to light using a technique which in true boy scout style only involves a single match… to light the blowtorch.
Sid finished by acquiring a very nice #virtualsouvenir bar-mat from Harvey’s brewery in Lewes (yes it is in the UK and not Greece). Who needs a coaster when you could unroll this triumphantly along your coffee table?
