Greece
So 29 hours on a ferry, long before Superfast and as I have no pictures have little to report except I learned from a Dutchman how to drink Campari Soda. I also learned how delicious Nescafe Frappe is in hot weather. So the ferry arrived in Patras after a quite hazy crossing. The apparently normal attack by the agents as you drive off the ship to relieve you of money for your clearance, plus a parking fee.
We were soon leaving the port following Ken through the back streets onto the main road. There was no rush as we were not going to make Piraeus before the customs closed. We drove along learning the tricks of the trade, trucks drive on the hard shoulder when you are being overtaken or meeting other lorries, the Greeks apparently were not very good drivers as every bend had dozens of illuminated shrines in the trees and bushes depicting where their dead relatives landed, many of these marked by an old woman in a black veil and dirty grey stockings.
We went over the Corinth canal and looked down on the tiny ships below when Andy noticed Ken had a slack tyre. I flashed him and we stopped at a small bar. I mentioned ken was 22 stone and it was hot. Andy and i were younger and fitter so we sent him in to buy Amstel and we changed his wheel, that was the plan anyway. His tyre was punctured so I lent him my spare and we had a beer and headed to Piraeus. The plan was that he would get the tyre fixed in Athens in the morning but we got separated. He had my spare wheel I had his rim with a flat tyre. The reason we got seperated was that I had to drive to my agents office and meet the boss, when i got there near the milk factory there was another English driver parked up. Carl Ryan from Bolton was another subbie to George and we stayed with him parked with a lot of Russian trucks, we found we had something in common as Carl knew some people we did from the tanker world, day turned to night and in the morning the agents runner took our papers into the customs. Carl was doing “delivery on wheels” while I would be tipping in hazardous customs, we arranged to meet up later at Peters Keratsini.
Ken had gone into customs when we got back, he hadn’t had the tyre repaired because it was bolted to my chassis 
As for the unloading it was done quickly and I was empty when Carl arrived back, these Greeks did most of the work even helping to put my trailer back together. Andy meanwhile laid on the cab roof sunbathing 
Carl said we would ring the office in the morning and I learned that Greece is three hours time difference to the UK. He showed us the local streets and a market near the truck park and several British drivers appeared overnight. We had survived the first job, not gone over budget and had a full tank of Greek fuel. I also had a belly tank on my ex Dow Freight trailer which I didn’t use on the way down, green or barmy I still think about it. Carl was running up to Yugoslavia to load and Andy and i had to ring again on Monday as there maybe a load of Copper to load. Monday came, the Copper didn’t come off so George told me to drive to Evzoni and he would send me a Fax.
How far is Evzoni Andy? I dont know yet, but there is some sea here I want to go swimming in, it looks warm. So we stopped on a wide road near a beach, went swimming and finally arrived in the BP at Evzoni about midnight, again quite a few trucks and some we knew. We met Mr McGoo who we both knew from his time working in the UK on tankers. The plates broke and the beer flowed again. I arranged to get the lorry greased and washed in the morning and decided to take advantage of some cheap squirt in the belly. I also had Kens tyre repaired and as it was on a decent black rim it became mine. Because I had the old Dow trailer, many people took us for old pros, when we were really as green as Marks and Spencer.