Saturday 09.04.2011 - After a map recon we decided to follow the coast north as it looked like it paralleled the ocean for a good deal and also took in some interesting mountain roads – good stuff - twistys and turneys - a biker's delight! The scenery on the road was just magnificent! We ran out of superlatives to describe it. We travelled east from Gythio to a small village called Acropoli and then followed the coast north to a large town called Kalamata. From there is was northbound to Pyrgos, As they say, a picture tells a thousand words so we have included a selection of photos Kerrie managed to take from the back seat of the bike (in between telling Greg what to do of course!). We had a coffee break in a small hill side village where we couldn’t buy coffee – bummer! We settled for orange juice instead. There were two old women who looked like they were shelling peas, only they weren’t. Anyway, they paid us scant respect, barely acknowledging our presence as they continued on with their chore for the day and left us to ourselves.

By mid afternoon we reached Pyrgos which is a rather unattractive and grubby town and settled on the Pantheon Hotel, just a hop, step and jump from the main town centre. On checking in there was an older guy (even older then us!) sitting in the foyer listening to a radio playing Greek folk music. He was smartly dressed wearing a coat and tie. On close inspection, his eyes were glazed and he appeared as if he were blind. He badly wanted to speak with us and started up a conversation with Greg in his broken English. He said his mother and three brothers now lived in Melbourne and owned a restaurant. His mother must be ancient if she is still alive because our now newly acquired best friend appeared well into his 70s.

During our walking tour of the town we found a blue Suzuki GSXR 1000cc all decked out in the light blue Riszla Suzuki MotoGP colours with "Hopper" stickers on each side of the bubble. For the uninitiated, “Hopper” is John HOPKINS, an American rider who rode MotoGP a few years back before losing his ride when he switched to Kawasaki before they pulled the plug on racing. Hopper had a '”guest ride” for the last MotoGP at Jerez, replacing Alvero BAUTISTA on the Riszla Suzuki who was out injured. Anyway, two young guys walked over as we were admiring this powerful steed and Greg engaged them in conversation, something like, “Hopper is good, but Casey STONER is better.” The owner of the Suzuki spoke little English but his mate spoke excellent English and said the rider/owner was “the local myth” when it came to riding and doing wheelies. We took “myth” to mean “legend.” Greg pulled out the camera to take the “myths” photo with his bike only to discover the battery was back in the hotel room recharging – b*****!

Later on returning to our hotel from our walk & dinner, we found the old blind man still in the foyer listening to his radio. He recognized Greg’s voice when Greg said “Hello” and then he replied “Room 204?” When he got an affirmative from Greg he got up, walked about 6 paces to behind the counter and touch/felt for our room key in its own pigeon hole before handing it to us. A nice old guy. Before bed we did a google search on ferries from Greece to Italy and decided tomorrow to catch the ferry departing from Patra at 4.30 pm and arriving at Brindisi, Italy at 7.00 am the next morning.