Greece on Wheels

The Start: Zacharo

Its been three months since my Greek adventure began and man has it gone by fast. So much has happened, that it seems like it has been three years, so ill try to sum it up as much as I can.
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The first few weeks saw me chilling at a secluded beach called Zacharo where other vanlifers came to join as they passed through. We started a group called Greece on Wheels, and from there, we organized our first group meet up (pre lockdown)- a vanlife beach Halloween/Full Moon party which was such a fantastic evening, even if the hangover nearly killed me the next day.

Many of us came from all parts of Europe, there were Germans, Finnish, Scottish, Dutch, Austrian, Irish, Swedish and Polish and Hungarian, and later on we would have Slovak. We all had one major thing in common, and that was vanlife. To us, the road was our home and we absolutely loved to talk about our past travels and future plans, around the bonfire.

After Zacharo, in convoy we left to Elea Beach, a renowned hippy beach complete with forest showers and an endless stretch of beach to park at and be isolated. We had heard this was were everyone went during the first Greek lockdown in March so we felt safe to settle here in case another lockdown was on the horizon, and low and behold it was.

Onward to Elea

Greek lockdown came into effect and a couple of people left the group to go home where they felt safer while the rest of us jumped for joy that we were 'locked down' on this paradise beach with great weather, a great group of people and a daily drive by bakery. What's not to love we thought?

As the weeks went on we spent the days sunbathing and drinking beer during the day and sitting by the fire and drinking beer at night, we basically consumed a lot of beer during those weeks, and we had no regrets. A few of us had van trouble, which kept us busy trying to fix and figure things out, while others worked from their vans, gave exercise classes on the beach or took us out on boat trips. We looked forward to 10am to get fresh pastries and bread and 5pm for the best sunsets when we could open our evening beers, as well as the weekly market to get our cheap veggies. In order for us to do this, we needed to fill out an 'essential travel' form which we had to carry with us- only one of our group was ever checked up to this day. The days were blissful, sunny, and fun and we were thoroughly enjoying each other's company.

We chatted about our journey to Greece, where we wished to go after the pandemic, our vans and van builds of course, and pretty much everything van related. Some of us even found out we had met before on previous travels without even knowing. The world sure is small!

As the weeks continued on and lockdown became a thing to get used to, with it being extended time and time again, tensions were high and feet were itchy and many of us wanted to spend time at other spots around the Peloponnese. Within a short time, some had had opted for the long drive home, some had moved back to the old beach Zacharo and some had moved further south in the Peloponnese to discover more and stimulate the mind. With only three of us left at our 'Greece on Wheels' camp, we too decided to make a decision to move on too.

Adventure Mode

With no 'plan' as such in our minds, we drove from place to place slowly discovering the incredible landscape of the Peloponnese, an area i had previously known nothing about, and a place i would later discover was steeped in history and breathtaking views. With 4 peninsulas to discover, I had no idea, we would go on to discover so much amazing scenery, celebrate Christmas on a beautiful beach and new years overlooking a magical small island called Monemvasia. We were lucky, and we reminded ourselves daily of this.

As we continue on the journey in smaller separated groups now, we make time to meet up, share our favourite spots and check in on each other, with the intention to perhaps stay somewhere warm for the rest of winter.
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My time in Greece so far has surpassed my expectations, not that I really had any to begin with, but I have to admit, us vanlifers really are in the perfect place to feel safe, discover beautiful places and wait it out until winter and this pandemic are well and truly over.

​Thank you Greece for taking care if us!