I spent the night in a campground in the small coastal town of Agios Ioannis, a village with an abundance of family-run restaurants, bars, and shops. With warm temperatures and a light breeze, it was a perfect night to spend in my hammock! My hammock packs into my sleeping bag stuff-sack, smaller than a grapefruit. I find the easiest way to set up a hammock is by using ratchet straps (which I never go without on a motorcycle trip)! Depending on the length of the straps, it allows you to be far less picky about finding trees that are “perfectly spaced” for hammocks.

I woke up in my hammock to perfect blue sky weather and had to say goodbye to this heaven-like village. I climbed the steep mountains above the city of Volos. These mountains offer a spectacular view of the valley below and are worth stopping for a while to take in the view.

I headed southwest out of Volos to explore the mountains that stretch between Lamia and Patras. This is where my jaw hit the floor.

Since my travels are rarely planned with turn-by-turn details, I often improvise by exploring off-shoots that appear to connect to other small roads. Some of the best riding I’ve experienced on this trip comes from a spontaneous style of planning and unexpected detours towards anything that appears pretty!

I spent the night in the mountains north of Itea, where the galaxy’s stars put on a show.

The Milky Way stretches over the small village of Delphi.

Next on the agenda was the Peloponnese Peninsula, home of the original Olympics and the cities of Tripoli and Sparta. I was told beforehand that this region would be pretty, and boy, I was not disappointed. Making my way over to the Peloponnese via Patras, I recrossed my tracks from my first day in Greece. Again, with no plan and no predetermined routing, I aimed my handlebars towards steep, rugged terrain, knowing that narrow mountain roads would be abundant. With only a vague general destination programmed into the GPS, the navigation system will continue to “reroute and auto-correct” as you allow yourself to become lost on mountain roads.

I hit the bottom of the peninsula, the second-southernmost point of mainland Europe (Tarifa, Spain is #1) before tracing the east coast north again. This “turn-around” at the bottom of Greece was a big moment for me as I knew that it now symbolized a north-bound journey for me for the next 2 months. Ultimately, I had Norway in my sights. On any journey, it’s always a bittersweet feeling when you reach a turn-around point, wherever that may be. I stayed the night in the city of Nafplion, treated by an unforgettable sunset.

Right at sunrise, I loaded the motorcycle up and headed to the island of Corfu off the northern coast. I would again force myself to use only backroads on this leg. It took almost 8 hours to reach Igoumenitsa, where the two-hour ferry would take me and my motorcycle to Corfu.

It was in Corfu that I would spend almost an entire week, at the Pink Palace Hostel, resting an injured foot from a 50cc scooter accident. Often times, during these adventures, life can throw us curve balls. During a routine maintenance overview of my bike, I had learned that one of my front calipers must have gotten “sticky” and was only using one piston to apply brakes. This caused one brake pad on the right front rotor to wear out prematurely, to the point that it was almost metal on metal! Luckily, there was a scooter rental shop right near my hostel.

So for $15, I had myself a lean, mean 50cc machine to chase down brake pads on this small island! “It’s just a 50cc scooter,” I, of course, told myself. “I’m a big, bad ADV rider… I can handle a 50cc scooter,” so I thought.

Off I went, on a hot Greek day, in just jeans, a T-Shirt, and sneakers to ride the island on my new scoot. It was only 5 minutes into the ride that a car backed out of a driveway right in front of me. Hard braking led to an all-out sideways slide on this 110kg toy! I went down, and so did the scooter. It was the next day, after hobbling to catch a cab, two busses, and a 1/4 mile walk to the local medical clinic that I learned that I had fractured a metatarsal bone in my right foot. There was also a pretty deep laceration from where the pavement ground through my sneaker and into the ball of my foot. Lots of lessons were learned that day but ATGATT (All the gear, all the time) was the biggest one!

With an inability to sit still for too long and a bad case of restlessness, I lasted only 6 days of the recommended 15 day “rest” period. I had an entire continent to explore, so I wrapped my foot tightly in a bandage, stuffed it into my Sidi Goretex boots, strapped a crutch to the top of my pannier and headed to catch the ferry off the island!

I was northbound to explore the Balkans, and eventually the rest of Europe, all the way to Nordkapp, Norway.

My “down-time” in Corfu allowed for some low-key exploration of the island and a week of making lasting friendships.

By the time I left Greece, I had racked up well over 2500km of travel. Still, I feel like I haven’t scratched the surface in this country. Greece is a magical place that’s only made so special by the people that call it home. Thank you to every person that I met along the way during my time here. I will never forget this experience, and I hope to be back soon. No scooters involved next time, though!