Our ferry adventure / purgatory  does eventually end and we are tipped out out at Patras around 9pm Monday evening.

Unbelievably we are 30 mins earlier than scheduled although we think that is because as we cruised into Corfu (a stop we didn’t know we were making anyway!) the  Captain clearly decides at the very last minute (he has already turned the ship around and reversed up to the dock to within 50 feet so it’s clear he HAD planned to stop) that he doesn’t fancy it here after all….cue many disgruntled passengers of many different nationalities. …selfishly suits us though so we keep quiet and watch on.

Once we have navigated our way out of the port (not as easy as you might think it should be) we pedal 2 or 3 miles to the Airotel Smart Hotel Patras. We didn’t want to be faffing about with campsites this time of night or cycling in dark for that matter so a cheap hotel for the night seemed prudent….and as it turns out very wise.

It really is a little gem of a place for the money (60 euro for a twin room). The staff are super helpful and friendly, it’s amazingly bike friendly even allowing us to take out bikes in the lift to our third floor room, it’s all clean and tidy (yes CLEAN!) and perhaps most importantly we have an en suite that doesn’t require full PPE to use and of course we have BEDS…..oh how I have missed a bed…and a pillow…omg…pillows might just be the best thing that have been invented.

Our arrival in Patras does of course mean we are now cycling in our tenth and final country….whatever happens next that definitely feels like a “thing” and all being well we are two days of cycling away from our end target of Athens.

After a great nights sleep (for me at least …Marc apparently not so much!) we indulge in the buffet breakfast (again unlike the ferry we consider this is probably not an attempt to kill us!) we check out and head off around 730.

Today is our last properly big day of cycling and given the temperature already we fully expect it to be pretty tough going …and it is!

We are cycling round the north coast of the ploppys today (I think locally they are known as the Peloponnese but oh well…each to their own) along the old national route 8 (now replaced with a motorway which we effectively track all day) with the Aegean Sea on our left all day and the first 30 miles are …well they are a little bit “meh” to be honest. It’s quite built up, there is litter everywhere, the roads are busy and ridiculously pot holed and the Greek drivers clearly don’t like us as there is a almost constant honking of horns and passing us way to close (or perhaps instead that means they like us?)

We spot a little village with what looks like a beach around 1030 and decide to take a mini detour to see if we can find a coffee and take a break. We are rewarded with a steep drop down (which of course means a steep back up later!) and iced coffees on the beach.

As we push on the scenery starts to soften a little (not much but enough to just about notice) and by the 50 mile point the heat means we are both pretty much “hanging” and in need of a some food. We decide we want a proper lunch today, not just a supermarket brought affair, and we then cruise past a couple of “possibles” dismissing them as “sub-optimal” (which they definitely were).

As we round a corner at about the 56 mile point we spy a promising “beach bar and restaurant” and right from the get go we know we have chosen well. The waitress comes out  to great us and tell us what an amazing choice we have made and she escorts us to the best seats in the house overlooking the beach (I should probably point out we are literally the only people there, but still). What follows is genuinely the best lunch experience we have had the whole trip …the food is amazing, it’s a lovely location, the service is just perfect and the entire staff seem genuinely fascinated with the crazy English who have cycled all the way from London. They take pictures with us and encourage us to give them a Google review (which we do) and before we leave they bring us free ice lollies and top our water bottles with ice and water. It is called the ραστώνη beach bar restaurant and in the event you are ever in the area look it up…you will not be disappointed. As we leave two motorcycles turn up and it’s all I can do to not flag them down and tell them what a great choice they have made but I decide to let them find out for themselves.

We push on towards Kornithos and once again the road and the scenery starts to turn a bit “industrial” and man it is hard going….it is proper, super, mega hot ( like at least eleventy billion degrees). When we finally get within about 5 miles of the campsite we search out a supermarket to stock up on supplies and then around 1730 we arrive just south of the Korinth Canal at Camping Isthmia Beach….and yes there is a beach and so of course we swim…it seems only fitting on our last night!