Quad bike adventure on Aegina
03 September 2012 | All over Aegina
George
OK, so we're going to be In Aegina at least a other day, due to husband seeking out a dentist tomorrow. So, let's do something exciting and hire a quad bike! So after failing to negotiate a discount on the price as I am so rubbish at haggling, we booked a smart blue quad bike for 10am, at 30 euro for the day.
No deposit required, no thank you we don't want a helmet, just a wave of the driving licence was sufficient and we're off. Having been assured there was enough petrol on the tank for at least ten miles, and noting the location of nearest petrol station on our route, we merrily jumped aboard. Having volunteered to be the designated driver, I soon got used to the easy controls - all automatic, no gears, no pedals, just a brake on each handlebar and a small throttle lever for the right thumb.
Some of you may remember I used to live on Aegina for a year, from March 2008, so the roads and villages were familiar to me. I thought we would circumnavigate the island in a clockwise direction, so set off along the north coast, past where I used to live near Livadi, along to Souvala, hoping to stop very soon to fill the tank. We meet a friend of ours driving in the other direction, shaking his fist and pretending to shout obscenities at us, Greek style. We ignore him. First garage - closed. It was Sunday so we forgave them. A persistent flashing sign continues to light up on my little dashboard, indicating petrol tank was now virtually empty. No worries, next garage about 3 miles away. We make it by the skin of our teeth, the engine was lacking sustenance now, and couldn't have lasted much longer, and we free wheel into the forecourt, shudder to a stop and unscrew the petrol cap.
Old Greek man starts shouting at us. It turns out this garage is closed until Avrio - tomorrow! Disaster! Another garage is over 3km away at Mesagros, we'll never make it! A strange woman with no English and wearing black Arabic robes offers to follow us to next garage, but we decline, in case she is a member of an Islamic fundamentalist group who will try to get us to join her sect. At that moment, our same friend who pretended to shout obscenities at us, passes us again and we flag him down. We follow him back to his house 400 yards away and he finds a can of petrol in his shed that he was saving for hedge trimmer. Hooray! We are on our way again ....
First stop of our epic voyage was the Temple of Afaia, reached by some fairly steep uphill roads, when the poor quad bike, not used to carrying such excess weight, complained bitterly and appeared to be on a go slow protest. But we made it. We didn't go into this historic site, merely looked at the view and took a photo through the fence. The sort of tourism I like. Then we were off downhill, and several hairpin bends later we were in Agia Marina, Aegina's equivalent to Southend, with half a mile of tacky souvenir shops, bikes for hire, souvlaki cafes, and a nice beach. But we did find a very nice taverna overlooking the sea, selling very cold beer and an extremely pleasant lunch was enjoyed.......
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