From the European luxuries to the Balkan fields

Saturday August 24, Welcome back to Greece (226 km)
Although we didn’t have many kilometers to drive today, everyone wanted to leave early in order to reach as quickly as possible at the thermal springs of Pozar in order to relax. But when man makes plans, God laughs…

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So we head south from Ohrid and soon we are in the Galicica National Park.

Epic race…

We make a stop to see lake Ohrid from above.

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And head down towards the big Prespa Lake, in order to move in Albania for a few km and then into Greece.

We enjoy the twisty route inside the park, until Stratos passes above a piece of wood that makes a hole at his back tyre. We stop immediately to check and looking at his tyre we see a hole so big, that I could easily put three fingers inside… We have no other option but to remove his back wheel and search for a tyre repair shop. My GPS says the nearest one is at Bitola, 50 km ahead or at Ohrid, 50 km back…

A local guy who was passing by with his family, sees us removing the wheel and stops. He didn’t speak any English, but his son did and with his help we explained the problem. He informed us that at Resen, a city nearby, there is also a tyre repair shop.

He make a phone call in order to be sure that the store is open and he insists to carry the wheel in his car. We kindly refused because we didn’t want to spoil his family vacations and it was easy for us to tie the tyre with straps on another motorcycle. And so we did…
Soon we arrived at the shop and the technician started the ..magic. First he took a big piece of plastic and put it in the hole with glue and then heated it up. Then he took a long stretch of elastic and stuck it -again by heating it- to the inner side of the tyre, above and around the hole. When he had finished he said to us “no guarantee”, grabbed a 20€ bill for his work and disappeared on an Aprilia SR 50 in the colours of Max Biaggi…

Back to the motorcycle, we put the tyre back with the precious help of some members of Greek V-Strom Club of Ioannina, who where passing by and stopped when they saw us. We must be careful from now on, because the tyre had a big bump at the point where the hole was. We are out of schedule and we cannot lose any more time, so we decide to move on towards Bitola from the north side of the big Prespa lake.

Last stop to fill up our bikes at a gas station just outside Bitola (because it’s a lot cheaper than Greece), where we meet lots of bikers. As we learned, they had their annual meeting.

We cross Bitola and approach the Greek borders. The signs in the shops are also in Greek. Hairdressing, laundry, groceries, etc… It’s a cheaper country with easy border crossing, that’s why…

Typical check and soon we find ourselves in homeland.

A beautiful mountain road leads us to our destination for the day, the village of Loutraki.

The sky is black above us, ready to rain. Just 2 km before the city a heavy rain starts. We are wearing summer equipment and until we reach our hotel we are wet to the bone.

The luxury hotel Melies however, makes us quickly forget the current trouble. We leave our stuff and by taxi (because of the really heavy rain) we move to the thermal springs of Pozar. A perfect relaxation after 15 days on the road.

The hot springs of Loutraki or Pozar gush from an altitude of 360-390 meters and the water temperature reaches 37o C. The thermal waters are the result of a natural process in which rainwater penetrates deep into the ground where its temperature raises. Then it climbs up higher, rich in minerals and beneficial ingredients. The word Pozar is interpreted as “under fire” and it is clear that is related with the above procedure.

After several hours in the internal and external pools, we head back to town for Greek food (we have missed it). We choose tavern Karatzovitisa within walking distance from the hotel, and our order made our table look like a meat market…