This morning we were not in a rush as Patra was only 50 km away and we did not have to be there until around 3:00pm. This could have made for a relxing morning but it didnt, we decided to do some cleaning of the inside of our mobile house.

Once underway we got to the new Port of Patra in about an hour and after a few miss-steps we found our way into the port and parked with all the other waiting vehicles; mostly trucks.

While exploring the area trying to find out where we should check-in we were approached by a truck driver who gave us some advice about "Pakistanis" that we did not understand so promptly forgot.

Sometime later after checking-in and discovering that boarding would not start for some hours, we were sitting in the camper watching the comings and goings when we noticed a couple of guys hiding in the long grass on one side of the port area - as you can tell they were not doing a great job of hiding if we could see them, but apparently good enough that the Greek Coast Guard officers patrolling the area could not see them.

After a while we noticed the same two guys run across the parking area and climb the fence into the secured area next to the moored ships (very secure). A little while later I discovered from one of the waiting drivers (who could speak English) that the original warning related to Pakistanis was to do with illegal immigrants trying to gain access to a departing vessel by hiding on the undercarriage of ones vehicle. The advice was that we should inspect our vehicle.

Not surprisingly when boarding started and we entered the secured part of the port the officers that admitted us did a pretty thorough inspection of the underside of our truck.

Our ferry was a newish vessel, commissioned in 2010, very large and almost empty. Our cabin was small but adequate, clean and everything worked.

We quickly settled in for our 24 hours or thereabouts on the high seas to Ancona, Italy.