We set off at 8 this morning to enter Greece, apparently not through the nearest one to us, but further south where the road to continue south will be better. Not knowing how long the actual crossing will take, we stopped for washrooms and an opportunity to spend any Turkish Lira we had left. When we reached the border we had to get off the Turkish bus and cross on foot. We had the formality of leaving Turkey, and then walked to the next building which was Customs to enter Greece. Everything went quite well, of course it takes a little while to check twelve people. At the last stage (where our Greek bus and driver was supposed to meet us) we were not allowed to cross on foot we had to wait until the bus came. Our tour manager couldn’t reach the driver by phone and we waited about twenty minutes. Our leader ended up using a truck drivers phone and eventually got in touch. Apparently, there had been some sort of incident earlier and they were being a bit awkward. Anyway, it sorted itself out and we crossed - stopping for WC and coffee soon after.
On the road again, we headed for the Dadia National Forest, which has old growth Balkan Oak and Pine. We stopped in a little village and walked down a narrow road to a restaurant, bigger than I expected, and had lunch. After that we continued on to the Forest information centre and watched a movie on the birds in the area - it is a breeding area for some of the rarest birds of prey in all of Europe. After that we checked into our hotel, which is located right next door. It is rustic lodge type accommodation and apart from one guy, we were the only guests. We went on a walk through the forest for about an hour, then we drove to a petrified forest and had a visit and walk there too - no problem getting my 10,000+ steps today! We had dinner at the lodge, the lady owner cooked a lovely tree course meal for us. After the fresh air and exercise we should sleep tonight.
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