Update June 2018, Greece

Lefkas Marina Greece

Update   from 2017  and 2018

It has been a while since my last update so we are way behind with our posts and photos

In June  2017  at different times we sailed around some of the Ionian areas  with  our friends on Gypsielady, Red  Rackham and Fourth Dimension. Later we sailed up to Sarande in Albania to get Hamamas out of the EU and  to restart our  18 month VAT clock.  

In December 2017 we finally made it to Dallas to spend a wonderful Christmas was our daughter and her family. It was great to see how the grandchildren have grown and to get to know them again by spending quality time together. We all went on a small trip into Arkansas to visit time at a diamond mine .After 3 wonderful weeks in the USA we flew to Sydney where we spent 6 weeks or so seeing family and friends, enjoying at least  6 Birthday parties and other outings, helping Tom's sister sort Tom's aunts old house out ready to put on the market and doing the usual round of medical check ups.

Next we flew to Johannesburg and enjoyed a month in Southern Africa. First we spend a week in Kruger National Park (East Coast) photographing way too many animals and meeting some fun folk. From there we relocated to Cape Town for a few days before embarking on a 3 week overland journey along the West Coast. Our journey took us through South Africa.  Namibia,Botswana, including flying into the Okavango  Delta. Along the way we  saw some incredible landscape and visited many game parks before arriving in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

All this was  in an Overland Truck called Cliff (after Cliff Richards). We were not actually camping but staying in some amazing lodges and cabins with private facilities. Overall we traveled 5670 kilometres with 2 great drivers and an amazing hostess. They were from Zimbabwe. Our  8 fellow passengers were  from Germany , Canada and the USA. We had the most fantastic time as we all seemed to "click". So for 4 weeks we had every meal prepared for us. It was quite a shock to return to Hamamas and have to buy, prepare and cook our own meals! I think we  were " anticlimaxed" as it was an incredible journey. 

Since arriving back we having been taking things easy for a bit as we wait for the weather to settle as well as doing maintenance on Hamamas. 

In mid June 2018 we are travelling to Marmaris in Turkey via the bus from Lefkada to Athens, the ferry from Athens to Rhodes and the ferry to Marmaris. We are going to help a good friend bring his yacht across to the Ionian. It should be fun and help us keep up our sailing skills.

When we arrive back  here we will continue our maintenance  on Hamamas as well as plan some land travel later in the year.