Day 21 - 22 (3 September): MACEDONIA. Unfortunately we only spent a couple of days in Maccedonia but enjoyed it very much. We camped on the banks of Lake Ohrid (which wasn't orrid at all) and visited the Sveti Naum monastery (a beautiful 7th century church with incredible frescoes and icons adorning every wall). We loved the town of Ohrid and spent a morning walking around the cobbled streets to lovely old churches and a great amphitheatre overlooking the sea. It was a shame we couldn't stay longer especially since buying insurance for Maccedonia is very expensive (60 Euros) but we have to press on to get to Istanbul.

Day 22 - 24: GREECE. After a hilarious border crossing with chain smoking policemen who only seemed to want to look at our passports to laugh at our photos...we continued to Thessaloniki then made our way to the Kalkidiki region on the coast. We are reading Willian Dalrymple's "From the Holy Mountain" which follows his Byzantine journey from Mount Athos through Turkey, Syria, Jordan to Egypt so we thought it would be interesting to see the Holy Mountain. However, no females (human or animal!) are allowed on Mount Athos - a law which dates back to a decree banning the monks from having their wicked way with the shepherdesses in the 4th century! So the only way to see the monasteries where 2000 monks still live - some in monasteries guarding ancient manuscripts and others as hermits, is to catch a boat from Oulanoupouli.

We camped just outside the town and enjoyed the boat trip, viewing the jumbled architechture of the monasteries and the spectacular backdrop of the mountains. This really is a surreal place and we enjoyed our visit. We're enjoying the food - kebabs, taramasalata, greek salads and humus - yum! A quick overnight stop at Alexandroupoli, where we camped right on the beach: washes our clothes, cooked sardines then went to sleep to a symphony of miaowing stray cats. Next stop Turkey!