Durres to Kalabaka, Greece – This was the best ride of the trip so far. I was expecting the Albanian part to be stop start chaos but it was not. Possibly because I decided to leave at 08:00 instead of 09:00, normally rush hour ends at 09:00 but in this area it only starts at 09:00 hahaha. Straight onto a 4 lane road with a few traffic lights for about 100km, then onto a broad 2 lane road SH4 with little traffic and easy overtaking as people moved over to let me past, great ride through the mountains. Stopped to fill up and the guy said no card so rode on to the next station. Arrived at the Albanian border at 1145, 3 cars ahead of me the guy looked at my passport and bike papers and waved me through 10 min, next the Greek border and the road narrowed all three lanes full no place to squeeze through, queue barely moving. Took helmet off and then put it back on due to the hot sun, opened jacket up, then some guys started to help me get through the queue asking cars to move over a bit to let me squeeze through, front wheel got stuck in a gutter and they lifted it out, finally got to a point where there was a lane for spraying cars no longer used and went down that to the front. The immigration guys were checking everyone in each car, asking people to get out and show themselves at the booth, taking ages, only took me 2 minutes, stamped my passport. Next Customs and had to show passport and bike papers zipped up jacket and rode off, took 45 minutes all up. If I had waited in the queue it would have taken 3 hours, noticed the time jumped ahead one hour, Greece is GMT +3. Another good broad 2 lane road through the mountains great ride all the way to Ioannina then had to go around the city and a few traffic lights. After that a freeway paid two tolls €1.30 and €1.10, many tunnels one after another until I turned off onto a narrow winding road in poor condition for the last 50km, 35c now, arrived at 1400 or 1500 local time. A memorable ride.

Kalabaka – I came here to see the monasteries perched on top of huge rock pillars, astonishing. I went on a 4 hour tour that cost 15 euro to visit 4 monasteries. Access to the monasteries is via steep steps which I could not manage so I only visited the one which did not have any steps. Also 4 hours is not enough due to the queues of people waiting to enter. There were hundreds of tour busses and cars parked along the road.

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