A magnificent view, hammock paradise and a storm (January 2023)

After taking the ferry, I drove up a hill and from there I was treated to one of the most stunning views I’ve ever seen! It was truly marvelous and as the sun began to set, the colors changed by the minute. From the hill, I could see the Turtle Beach, the vast river delta with its reeds and lake-like waters, the rolling hills, and the large lake and mountains in the distance. It was a breathtaking sight!

When I arrived at my new home on that hill, I was pleased to see Isa and Arne were there too. We parked our vehicles next to each other, and the following day another couple of travelers joined us. They were traveling in their UAZ Buchanka, named Olga. I have a fondness for these charming Russian off-road vans. When I had been researching and comparing vehicles to live in, I came across the Buchankas and thought they would be a good option due to their reasonable price tag. However, after learning about the maintenance and repair demands, I gained a great deal of respect for these cute vehicles. It seemed that the internet was correct about their demanding nature. Especially Martin had an strong relationship with Olga and had become her designated mechanic. Although they had bought Olga as a new car, I got the impression that they had already gone through the process of fixing every part of her at least once.

The others eventually left and I spent another day taking in the beautiful view. One day, an elderly local man came by. He couldn’t speak English or German and communicating through Google Translate was not very effective, so we communicated through gestures and facial expressions. It was fun. I figured out that his old-fashioned phone needed to be charged, so I plugged it into Rosinante. We chatted and had tea and nuts. It turned out that the man had accidentally turned on the airplane mode of his phone and didn’t know how to turn it off. It was like a puzzle game. I used Google Translate’s photo mode to translate the phone’s interface and after getting lost in its complicated menu structure for a couple of times, his phone was back online and he got about 50 new sms.

I then went on a beautiful hike at Butterfly Valley. After that, I visited a remote and secluded cove. The place was stunning during sunsets, truly magical. With the presence of trees and many rocks and stones, it was the perfect spot for relaxing in my beloved hammock.

A few days later, I continued on my journey towards Cyprus and stumbled upon a vast sandy beach that stretched for kilometers. During a leisurely walk, I met Danny and his gorgeous dog. The following day, we had a long and in-depth conversation about love, humanity, life and the universe. It was enjoyable, intriguing, and a little crazy. I noticed that conversations tend to become a bit crazy when delving into topics like universal energies and the indescribable.

Danny added me to a Telegram group where people gathered to exchange information about traveling from Turkey to India. I found it fascinating that some of this information seemed impossible to find through a simple Google search. The further east I would come, the more uncertain things like border crossings and visa regulations would be. These things seemed to depend on constantly changing factors like political situations, making up-to-date individual experiences increasingly important.

Rosinante was parked at a beautiful spot on that vast sandy beach, slightly elevated with a good view of the wide, wide beach. One day, with the arrival of a massive thunderstorm everything changed. It brought wind gusts of 80 km/h, rain, hail, and a rough sea to the beach, more and more reducing the once wide beach. Living in Rosinante during the storm felt like being on a spaceship in the midst of a solar storm once again.

Getting lost while hiking near Kyparissi

It’s the end of April 2022 and I’m driving Rosinante on the last nipple of the Peleponnese in Greece. A nice German couple, I met at the dream cove and the Hippie Camp, told me, that the area around Kyparissi is really nice for hiking and so I picked that area as my next home.

After I arrived in the little town, I’m quickly realizing, that not all of the people here seem to be very camper friendly. At the parking of the beach is a sign that informs about the fact that camping is not allowed and will be fined. It’s the first time that I’m seeing a sign like this in Greece. I’m deciding to drive Rosinante up a very steep and pretty heavy offroad track to reach a spot, that I got recommended by a friendly farmer. The spot is super nice and quiet. In the evening it’s covered with clouds and the next morning there is pure sunlight.

I’m driving Rosinante to the place where I want to start my hike through another olive farm. The hike starts super beautiful and after my little hike at the Geopark, I’m hyped at this one. At the first little chapel, I take a pause to meditate. These chapels are so nice to meditate in them.

I continue my hike, pick some wild thyme and after some time, when the sun started burning on my head, I’m realizing that I forgot my hat at the chapel. Having forgotten my hat doesn’t make me crazy and so I take it as it is and do some trail running back to the chapel. Once I got my hat, I trail run back to where I’ve been before again.

After two hours, I’ve reached the other side of the mountain and the hiking track is getting more and more difficult to follow. The markers are getting fewer and soon I can’t find any of them anymore. This hiking path is in none of my apps and I’m happy of taking a photo of a map showing the hiking paths in this area, yesterday. The terrain gets more and more difficult and soon I’m starting to feel very lost. I decide to take the effort of climbing up a hill with lots of scrubs, stones, and cliffs. I’m crawling most of the time because either the scrubs are too dense and tight or the rocks are too dangerously slippy and steep to just walk them. Standing on top of one hill, I get an overview but I’m thinking about aborting my hike and going back because the terrain has been so difficult to go through and there will be much more of this to go through. I’ve no good clue where the normal path is. For a short moment even going back feels to be very difficult. I take some time to compare the photo of the map with two of my hiking apps. I’m getting more and more confident that I got a good direction and a plan to find the path again if there still is one. I’m fighting my way back from the hill and enter a small valley. The terrain changes and gets easier. And there, after crawling through the last scrub and after two hours of searching, I see the bright red of one of the markers indicating the hiking path. I’m happy and relieved and continue my way feeling a lot lighter and lighthearted.

The hike leads me through different sceneries and I love them all. Hyped about the beauty I decided to advance my hike and after seven hours I see Rosinante down where I left here. Although the hike has awesome, I still feel happy to see her again. The straight path shown on the map I took a photo of, leads to a big cliff and I’m searching for the way I’m supposed to take around it. I can’t find it and so I take the longer way long way and reach Rosinante after another hour.