We left the ruins and drove to the new town of Delfi to stock up on food, but we couldn't locate a single supermarket. Plus every street seemed to be on a steep incline, making it almost impossible to park anywhere. We decided to try our luck further down the mountain, the scenery out of the window keeping us mesmerised for the entire trip. A flat, green valley dotted with olive trees lay before us, surrounded by imposing mountains on three sides and a huge bay at the far end. We found a town (and a supermarket) down near this bay, although instead of buying vegetables we somehow ended up eating oven-baked spanakopita for dinner. Not one of our healthiest dinners, but it probably wasn't our unhealthiest either. We found a car park right near the water, however the lack of any breeze left us sweating it up in the hot and humid van all night. 

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Danny can't go past a beach without having a swim, so as soon as he woke up the next morning he jumped straight in the water to cool off. The cool feelings didn't last long though. We spent the next five hours driving to Ioannina, hugging the spectacular coastline for half of the journey. Mountains jutted straight up out of the water, making each turn in the road postcard perfect. We saw another bushfire in the distance while we were driving, with planes dumping water on it in regular intervals. When we arrived in Ioannina we learnt that the planes were filling up with water from the lake right here in town, meaning the fires must be close by. 

 

In Ioannina we wanted to explore the old town, located inside the city walls. It was full of narrow, cobbled laneways that would not accommodate a car of our size. Instead we parked outside the walls, found a cafe on the lake and sat in the shade with a drink. We love any amount of time out of the sun and the car, so we lingered in this prime location for quite a while. The lake was blue and still but we weren't allowed to swim in it, much to Danny's disappointment.

 

When we eventually left the pleasant cafe conditions we wandered through the old town to the citadel, which contained a museum, a mosque and not much else. It was a little underwhelming. The only reason we spent any time here was to watch the planes fill up with water from the lake.

 

After making our way back to the van we drove to the caravan park, happily right on the water. Dozens of rowers were out on the lake, obviously keeping clear of the planes nearby. Danny braved the internal temperatures in the van and cooked risotto for dinner, before attempting to make popcorn for dessert. For some reason this batch of popping corn just won't pop, so we ended up throwing the whole bag away. We sat outside in the coolish air most of the night, but of course our van was still sauna-like when we went to bed.