Max went for his first boat ride!

Monday was a day to get some chores done. First up was to fill with fresh water. The park4night app is really useful for things like this because other van and motorhome campers have listed some possible water fill and propane fill stops.

There was a gas station along our route that had a water fill point, and it was easy access and we were quickly in and out of there. Propane might be a different story though.

There is a lot of propane available at gas stations, but it is designed for propane fueled vehicles. And there are varying laws around Europe that this gas can't be put into portable bottles and the laws are enforced to various standards and even various gas stations. I had read that Greece (and Italy) are fairly strict in this regard. But one of the reasons we bought the newer expensive propane tanks is that they have an automatic fill stop valve that shuts off when the tank is 80% full, which is the standard. Most tanks need to be filled by weight in order to meet that standard, but not these ones.

We had a nice blue sky morning.

The road followed the coastline.

Scenery along the way.

You can almost see the four towers of the bridge in the distance on the left.

We are heading for that bridge.

We stopped at an AB grocery store to pick up a few things, and on the way there we drove by a gas station that had propane for €0.99  a liter. Most of the places we have seen in Greece are just over €1.00 per liter. And, the pump looked like easy access for Max.

So we did some grocery shopping and then stopped at that gas station. A young guy came over and he spoke decent English. I showed him the tank, and he was quite prepared to put some in, but said he could only put in €15 worth. I explained about the automatic fill stop, and he happily topped it right up. So that was easier than expected. 

I decided to fill the fuel tank as well. The price was €1.42 ($2.07 CAD) per liter. That's $6.05 USD per gallon. It's actually about the cheapest I've seen it in Greece. When we are headed for Turkey next month we want to make sure we arrive there with a nearly empty tank. It is far cheaper in Turkey.

And then it was off to the bridge. 

We stopped on the north side to have some lunch, and I got out and took a few photos.

The old fortress and the new bridge.

The bridge isn't actually that new. It opened in 2004. 

It's 2.8 kms (1.75 miles) long.

The pebbly shoreline in this area is covered with bamboo that has washed up.

The only problem with crossing the bridge is that it's very expensive! For Max, it would have cost €20.30 ($29.60 CAD, $22.90 USD) for the one way crossing.

Fortunately, there are still ferries that run. For Max, the ferry costs a much more reasonable €11 ($16 CAD, $12.50 USD).

So, Max went for his first boat ride!

We just missed one ferry, so we were the first vehicle getting on this one.

Max on the ferry.

Do you notice though that we are going backwards?

Taking the ferry is the best way to get views of the impressive bridge.

There are quite a few different ferries that cross here.

It was a bit of a strange ferry crossing. We drove on, and there were maybe 15 cars and one big truck. Still loads of space though. Not even close to full. 

When the ferry left the dock, it turned around so that we did the crossing backwards. Just after the half way point, one of the workers motions to me that we have to turn around Max. We had been in the front (or the back?) and hadn't noticed that almost all of the other cars had already turned around and were now facing in the opposite direction.

Okay. Strange.

So I fired up Max and did a three point turn so that we were facing in the other direction. While the boat was still moving, I drove Max up to the other end where all of the other cars were already lined up to exit. 

The big truck was too big to do this, so I guess he had to back out. It was all very odd.

By the time we got off the ferry it was after 2:30pm. We decided that it was too late to go to the laundromat, and there was a good overnight spot right near the base of the south side of the bridge. So we headed there and just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Sunset at 5:15pm.

Max enjoying the sunset.

View of the bridge from where we are parked.

Now that we are on the Peloponnese peninsula, temperatures aren't so cold at night. For the first time in a while we didn't need to put the furnace on to take the chill off first thing this morning. Still only calling for a high of 13C (55F), but it only goes down to 8C (47F) and night so it's comfortable for sleeping. 

We're not really interested in seeing the city of Patras, so we are off to do laundry, and then head further south along the coast.

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