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Day 19: Long drive today, all the way to the Pelopponeese, starting in Meteora and finishing in Napflio. Despite the usual hype about the relative dangers of roads in foreign countries, driving was relatively easy once we adapted to the local rules of the road. Speed limits were only loosely observed. 50 usually meant 70, 90 meant 100 and 120 appeared to allow people to drive as fast as they wished. Naturally, we erred on the safe side except where we were holding up a line of aggrieved locals behind us who were accustomed to travelling at a different speed to the one that was marked.

The main rule was that overtaking is allowed irrespective of the road markings, and that to facilitate this most Greeks who are not in the process of overtaking drive astride the shoulder of the road, on the right hand side, effectively creating an additional lane. Very thoughtful!

In more than 500km of driving, we only saw one police officer, who appeared to have pulled over an extremely unlucky local. The remonstrations had already begun.