Manchester airport was surprisingly busy at 04:30am and the new ‘developments’ to Terminal 2 caused us to do several laps of the airport before finally reaching the un-signposted car par that we had booked into to ‘save time’! It was just as chaotic inside, with people queuing for the ‘fast track’ while the regular security gates appeared empty! Eventually, we were on board and away… I had eyes closed soon after take off, but did enjoy seeing the snow capped mountain tops of Albania as we flew past.

A shared audiobook passed the time, followed by a funny Christmas movie while slipping in and out of sleep.

And then the sprawling city of Athens appeared below us…

The international airport at Athens is enormous, which is a shame, for travellers who’ve just spent two weeks loosing all strength and energy overcoming a strong dose of Cryptosporidium. The advertised ‘five minutes walk’ to baggage reclaim, took all Clare’s efforts, especially where the travellators were not working. Slowly but surely, we found the bags and then our rented Renault Clio. The guidebook had suggested the climbing area we were heading to was just a couple of hours from Athens, but it was nearer four for us. We were in no rush though, and picked up a few supplies along the way and stopped to give the sunset some appreciation.

It felt like we’d not seen the sun set in a long time!

Eventually, the busy city roads gave way to country lanes and the final winding hour over a hill top saw us only pass two other cars and one farmer! Happily, we located apartment and collapsed inside, where our host had left a table full of food, drink and wine for us, alongside an enormous homemade cake!

We managed a very short post dinner walk down the street and back before drifting into a solid ten hour sleep…

We had arrived…