Homeward bound... to Villa Cassidy that is!

Mostly this is how our journey goes....

But today our jaunty journey over the mountains is nearly over - only about an hour from home, when as we are going through a tunnel, Billy the Warrior, gives a little hiccup and then soars ahead.  Strange but we are on a stretch of road where a new laneway is being built so there is no chance to stop.....BUT stop we do.  

The engine just dies.  It's a holiday weekend and we break down on a single lane of traffic.  The hard shoulder has been cut off by a safety fence.

Trucks and buses, edge their way past us with a centimetre to spare.  Cars, motor bikes, scooters slow to pass and to shout obscenities at us. Traffic is backed up as far as we can see.

Roger directs traffic around while I try to break down the security fence.  A car suddenly swings in front of us and out jumps Jenna, a young Greek woman.  She's incredible... giving back as good as she gets to the abusive drivers and helping me to push Billy up the hill and through the safety wire.

Incredibly Roger gets through to Colin (our exchange's contact, who had told us to call him if we broke down).  Somehow, Colin organises a tow truck driver (on a holiday weekend!), while Jenna drives us 25 miles to a Pizza restaurant on the edge of town, where we can wait out of the heat of the midday sun.  Luckily the Greeks think nothing of people sitting for 4 hours over a salad and glass of water.

Colin and tow truck arrive at 4.00!  Yeah. Were we glad to see them?   Colin then drives us to "Bali Beach" to hire a car... but there is nothing available until 9.00pm. So we settle down to another 4 and a half hours of walking and crowd watching.

We're a bit dubious of our car hire fellow - especially when we see him syphon petrol from one car to put into ours!

In the end though he turned out to be a real hoot.  Billy's fuel pump had died and no one could fix it for a few days."No Worries.  I pick the car up from you, when you are ready."  We finally arrange to swap cars at Maria's Taverna in our village.

"Come sit... drink with us" he says.   The Raki flows, as did the food and laughter.  He's a great story teller and more and more people join us.  Luckily I drank water and so we got home safely!

Here's to Colin & Dawn for rescuing us and Francis and Rosa for funding a replacement hire car... What would we have done without you?