Wednesday 21st March 2018
We headed to Dover, deciding to spend the night in a campsite around the corner from the ferry port, as we needed an early start. It felt amazing to finally be on our way back to Greece.

The first leg - the channel - Dover to Dunkirk .
The trip was pretty uneventful but extremely quick compared to crossing in Patience or our previous boat Platypus. Our only dilemma was not even boat related, but "How and where do we put these blooming headlight stickers on the motorhome, (now renamed 'Da Bus') so that we don't dazzle the oncoming drivers or get a fine ? Our RYA Day Skippers course , surprisingly enough didn't cover that.

The next leg - the road trip to Venice.
We chose the route with fewest tolls, travelling through France, Belgium, the Netherlands eventually arriving at a nice but very wet campsite in Germany, just south of Bonn. Not the best , but somewhere safe to stop and recharge our batteries.

The following day, more motorway driving through Germany to our next stop over, just South of Munich. The campsite was just off the motorway set in a wooded area next to a lake. Again the weather wasn't brilliant, but the pub on the side of the lake was charming. It was decorated beautifully for Easter, as the Germans always do, so Ricky and I sat amongst the Sping flowers and Easter ornaments and ate our supper before having an early night.

As we headed towards the Brenner Pass the scenery was stunning. We even had a sprinkling of snow and at one point, as you can see in the blog photo, skiers on a ski lift actually passed in front of us on their way up the mountain. Bizarre! This brief drive through Austria has made me determined to visit properly so ... Anyone up for 'The Sound of Music Tour?'

We finally arrived in Venice and camped under a tree on the campsite at the port. On the way back to uk we hope to visit Venice for a couple of days , but this time it was just a stop over before the Ferry to Greece tomorrow - yay!

The next leg - the ferry to Igoumister in Greece.
In a word- Awful. For fear of sounding like a spoilt brat, it was functional , but no trimmings. We hadn't booked a cabin, but 4 hours into a 30 plus hour crossing, realising that we were going to have to spend the trip in what felt like a truckers rest room, I caved in and we paid for one. Lesson learnt !

The last leg - the drive to Aktio Boatyard and Patience !!!!
I was so so excited , and to top it all, having left Patience for 10 months, (including one of the wettest winters in Prevasa) we found her just as we had left her. No leaks, no mould, not even a neglected musty boat smell.

It was good to be back.