Day 102

The clouds are milky blue with crowns of sunlit white, from the horizon of undulating hillocks, they look like a solid structure that you can simply climb onto.

Currently, we travel south towards Athens to avoid the cold snap crossing Europe. Green pastures and cultivated farmlands sweep by in neatly partitioned blocks. Then I notice something else sweeping by. My slow human eyes can only process 1 frame and it’s a picture of a small rodent held in a glass cage. I’m confused, what was this strange thing, a squirrel, a rat? Why was it by the side of the road in a cage? Further down the road, I pull over and over comms, I ask…

But then Kostas pulls up!

I hear Wiggy’s elated voice, he’s excited to spot his second Africa Twin in Greece. I wave at the guy and he does a U-turn and pulls into the road we’re stopped in.

“Everyone in Greece is called Kostas.” Kostas jokes when we mention another Africa Twin connection sharing the same name. Kostas lives in the next town up and offers to buy us coffee. The cool thing is, he bought his Africa Twin only yesterday!

“I no longer will marry, I am married to my moto. Until I die, I will be with this bike.” Kostas loves his Queenie so much. We talk for well over an hour about the bikes.

A few interesting things about Kostas; he used to ride Enduro as a young man, he recently tried the CRF300, but quickly changed his mind, “I’m 57, my old bones.” He used to work in the navy and was a skipper on a voyage to the Caribbean. But he decided he wanted a simpler life, so now lives on a 45ft sailboat and works 6 months of the year as a diving instructor and skipper. He also spends time in his home town to look after his elderly father and spends time in Germany for his diving school. We plan to visit him on the Greek Island where he does diving lessons.

“Cool, awesome,” he says. Before departing, we take photos of our three bikes lined up, smile and pose in front of them. He’s a beautiful human, and so far I get the impression that many other Greeks share his beautiful hospitality and openness.