Well, what could be more exciting than visiting a foreign country with your stealth camper van? Well, taking another person with you, you have never met before. That is pretty much exactly what I did when I met up with my sister and her boyfriend again to travel once again through Greece. I’d like you to join this adventure as well so here is, where the story starts.
How everything started
Well, this is quite funny since it was a matter of weeks, the decision itself, a matter of seconds. It was during a lovely evening back in the time I went with my sister and her boyfriend on the trip to Greece. We basically made camp and my sister, who prepares food like a goddess, cooked dinner for us. Her boyfriend got a phone call from Melanie, a friend of him and they talked on the phone when she mentioned that she would like to do such a thing as well. I cannot recall the whole conversation but it went like: Yes, my brother still has space in his van, if you ask him, maybe you can join us for a few weeks. I: Yeah, I’m okay with it. Done!
Long story short, she picked a flight to Thessaloniki, and I met up with her at the airport one day after the second van came back to the mainland from their surfing trip on the Greek island. From there, I proceeded further on to meet them both so we could enjoy the journey with the four of us.
More additional passengers
The moment we met up with the two of them, they were already four. Readers of the Blog will know by now, that my sister had adopted two puppies. Brother and sister, three months old, right from the street of the local fishing harbor. It turned out the two of them just wanted to keep one dog so the fact, that Melanie fell instantly for the little girl played into their hands like nothing else. From this time on, the three of us would travel together and explore the Greek mainland together.
From the place we met, which was Methone, we made a short trip to the beach of Paralia once more and then headed through northern Greece towards the western coastline which is directly at the Ionian sea. On the way there, we made a stop at Meteora again, visiting the place once again. Nothing new for me of course but the three of them had never seen the area before. On the way there we stopped at a toy/household store and bought a bunch of stuff for the puppies to make it more comfortable for them.
The temperature drops and other nasty things
At the time, the weather started to get a little bit more grey and cold, and even the guy from the Netherlands we met, despite his monstrosity of a converted camper/survival truck stated, he wants to head off to a sunnier place.
For me, it went straight forward to catching a cold. But since we traveled in a group I was taken care of in the best possible manner. We used the time to get our things back in order, our clothes washed and started training the dogs. When the others went to look at Meteora, I stayed in the van and rested. I know, this may sound a little bit boring, but I don’t want to leave out the reality of Van-life since this is also a part of it. In fact, I don’t like the “everything is wonderful, we had no downs, just ups – kind of people.” I admire a positive mindset, don’t get me wrong on that part. But telling only about the positive things on such a trip is either a lie or just from the perspective of a person with loads of money.
How come, you have this kind of view, Chris? Glad you asked!
Well, my personal experience. I have seen a lot of converted camper vans and repurposed vehicles over the time, and almost everybody has some issues. Staying warm at night is one point, problems with the car another. On the other hand, I’ve seen some big high-tech and dedicated campers as well. Naturally, you will not repair your camper on the road or freeze at night when your new 60k Euro vehicle is plugged into a large current socket at a campsite all the time.
The issues I had with my Van at the time included the forced Oil change twice (once without a filter and the second time with a new one) as well as a drop in cooling liquid which I had to fill up again. The van of Sonja and Tom had a far more critical issue with a hydraulic line for the servo-pump. Due to vibration and off-road driving, it got worn down on the spot where it touched the exhaust from time to time, so the car lost oil at a dramatic rate. This is, of course, a high-pressure line and tape will not fix it. Tom set the thing temporarily since ordering a spare part would literally take ages. So we drove on, and the two of them had to fill up the oil and readjust the temporary fix multiple times.
The solution for the issue was mainly to find a scrapyard which had a similar vehicle and unmount the part which they did during our stay on the camping ground. And boys and girls, as they asked the owner what they owed him for the part he just said it’s for free. Still Greece. Naturally, the two of them handed the guys there some money for either coffee or raki.
As you can imagine the times we visited a camping site are rare, but sometimes it gives you some time to figure out resolutions for issues, readjust the van for different circumstances and rest your body and mind.
EU - Adventure 