Day 8: Tuesday, 17 May 1983

Start: Olive grove along the road, Messopotamo, Greece

End: Campground, Corfu, Greece

When the sun came up we realized the spot we had picked in the dark was very public and visible in daylight and right at the edge of the road -- I guess the ouzo made it look better last night -- so we were pedaling by 6:15. Immediately up a big mountain, definitely the biggest so far. Much easier in the cool morning than at midday.

We stopped for breakfast in Morfio and met David Watson, an Aussie. He had just spent seven months in London and then flown to Corfu where he assembled his bike and started south for Athens, then planning to ride back to London.

Mike and I rolled north over two more mountains and pulled into Igoumenitsa by 11:00. This town, seemingly the biggest since leaving Athens, is the terminus for the ferries to Italy, to Dubrovnik -- a city Mike wants to visit -- and to Corfu -- which we both want to visit. Here we learned that the Dubrovnik ferry only runs once a week, on Tuesday. That's today. So we found a comfortable outdoor cafe to hang out and make decisions. While we were at it, on a stack of blank postal cards destined to be mailed to friends and family, I drew funny cartoon pictures of bicyclists struggling up mountains, being chased by lightning bolts, and dodging giant bottles of ouzo and beer. The proprietor of the cafe seemed to enjoy the artwork.

Meanwhile Mike and I tried to hash out the options. 

We could skip Corfu, catch the ferry to Dubrovnik right now, and from there cross to Italy. Or we could skip today's ferry to Dubrovnik, go to Corfu, and take the boat to Dubrovnik next Tuesday, which would mean a week on Corfu. Other scenarios kept coming up, and I scribbled to keep them all straight.

The decision-making process wasn't easy. We've been carrying a little tension since we left Athens and we didn't see exactly eye-to-eye on our choices here, but neither of us wanted to push the other into something. Eventually we decided to skip Yugoslavia altogether. We'll cross to Corfu today, back to Igoumenitsa on Friday and catch the ferry to Italy. This seems like mutual compromise, but I'm not really sure how Mike feels about it.

The boat to Corfu costs 100 drachma, and we find the island a totally different experience than the mainland. I'm reminded of Nantucket, with the place mostly geared up for tourists and much more expensive than what we've become accustomed to. We find a campground teeming with the first wave of backpacking nomads from the northern and western parts of the continent migrating south and east as the weather warms up. Mike and I share a campsite. We hang out with some Danes for awhile, then each retreats to his own tent. 

I spend the rest of the evening looking over road maps of northern and western Europe.

Conditions 

Distance: 51 km and a ferry ride 

Weather: Hot 

Road: Much improved 

Traffic: Light 

Terrain: Getting mountainous 

Mechanical: Grimy and gritty, but all is well 

Physical: Much improved