Geia sou From Thassos Island, Greece!

We've moved on from Istanbul now and crossed the border into Greece. The crossing went smoothly except for Hans Spranger unknowlingly dropping his passport at the first of five checkpoints. Luckily his brother Jan found it in a puddle and we were on our way again in the pouring rain.

Yes, its been pouring with rain about one day on and one day off and raining unfortunately on scheduled driving days. John Neild being the worst off on his Harley Davidson and resulting in the jeeps and others finding a motel for the night.

Finding our way out of Istanbul was a nightmare for everyone (except Lang). Unfortunately our UHF wasn't transmitting but we could hear the nasally Aussie accents making comments like "I saw Sam Cutejar going past at great rate of knots," and "We're on a huge round-a-bout and everyone's scattered in different directions," throughout the 350 kms journey.

It's amazing we didn't catch up with them but kept in radio contact all day.

We took a coastal route and found ourselves cautioned over and surrounded by an armed military patrol. They didn't know what to do with us, so I suggested they check our passports which they did, and then posed for a photo shoot. The Cutejars were also pulled over by another patrol - called Jandarmes.

Somehow we arrived at the scheduled campsite at 9.00 pm when all our lights failed. Within minutes the UHF crackled into life and instantly the Ward mob pulled up behind us. The ferryman came to investigate and recognised us as the "Normandy Convoy" and escorted the seven vehicle convoy 5 kms up the road to the "Hotel Kum" with us in the middle of the pack with no lights, because the other camping ground didn't open until mid-May! We'd helped a Kiwi couple out by picking up their friends and baggage at Istanbul airport. We got separated on our way out and didn't see them again until midnight when they turned up to collect their bags to stay in the Hotel Kum at Gallipolli.

The next day, in fabulous sunshine we explored all around Gallipolli peninsular which is largely a one way circuit allowing better access for small groups rather than for a convoy, with parking off a problem.

We carried with us decals depicting the route to be travelled and applied them to the truck whilst camping at Gallipolli, which attracted huge interest with photo shoots and questions.

All vehicles assembled at Anzac Cove the next morning for a photo shoot before leaving for the Greek border. Scaffolding and seating was being dismantled from the Anzac Dawn Service, so we couldn't pose directly in front of the memorial.

Once again most of us had the same difficulty finding our way to the campsite at Alexandroupolis (except Lang) , many members forced to retreat to motels for the night due to bucketing rain.

The next day we were faced with another day of navigational chaos, however, Lang decided to escort us all via the motorway this way avoiding the mess we had getting out of Istanbul and into Androupolis.

The illness I had suffered from our arrival meant that we had to break from the group to seek out the emergency centre in Kavala, afterwards taking a different ferry ride for the one and a half hour journey to Thassos Island to join the others.

No major breakdowns apart from the McKinney NZ Dodge 1/2 ton almost losing a wheel coming loose, Lisa's jeep having to be pushed off the Istanbul ferry, Ken Bathurst having to replace a distributor, our headlight fuse holder melting, and due to the pouring rain several of us had clutch thrust bearings dry out which we fixed with the long spout WD40 - quick fix.

Unfortunately we also had to be pushed off the ferry due to the fridge flattening the battery
while at the hospital for four hours.

Today we hired a noddy bike and lapped this beautiful Greek Island called Thassos in style, reaching 70 kph at 8000 revs downhill, tailwind. Scarry stuff!