My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

19^th and 20^th July

Ancona to Patras

So we’re now out in the Adriatic, hav­ing staked out our spot on the deck beside a young Swiss couple trav­el­ling over­land to Istanbul and a French fam­ily with 2 young kids. The Swiss couple are trav­el­ling with a large lily – a birth­day present from him to her! They give us Swiss chocol­ate as they dis­em­bark at Igumenitsa for being good neighbours.

It’s very windy out here – the Turkish fam­ily oppos­ite nearly lost their inflat­able mat­tress. We’re char­ging about put­ting bags and ruck­sacs on people’s camp­ing mats which have been left sup­posedly safe and are in danger of tak­ing off!

We have an excel­lent sleep out on deck, next to the “Dog’s Village”. I haven’t a clue what this is, until we remem­ber that there are no restric­tions on tak­ing your dog on hol­i­day here. But pets aren’t allowed in the cab­ins, so they stay in cages in the “dog village”.

We have a dip in the boat’s salt water pool – like a lux­ury liner.

As we wake, the Albanian coast comes into view, and we dock at Corfu, and then Igumenitsa. The sur­round­ing hills and small islands are not unlike the Hebrides, but with a Medditerranean cli­mate and vegetation.