Hi,
I should have updated sooner, was just getting confused by how quiet 'over there' was till I finally got around to looking on here!
Araidne and Corvine are, as Andy Pandy says, having a fab time. They've been away 5 weeks, having a great time and getting fitter by the day I think.
After some last minute panic about potentially needing bike bags for Air Malta (which turned out to be false) they got to Sicily, which was aparently gorgeous, but huge chunks of it were shut...so finding camp sites and even hotels was hard. So they did a shorter loop than planned (Syracuse, Noto, Taormina) and headed over mainland Italy. Then the route was along the south coast of Calabria, into Basilicata, visiting Alberobello, and Matera.
Then over to Greece - a ferry from Bari to Patras where they got a swanky cabin upgrade......with a double bed and big windows looking out to sea....
In Greece they've been riding anti clockwise round the Peleponnese. Kyparissia, Kalamati, Aeropoli, and on Sat after a few days in mountains they climbed to Kosmas, at the top of Mt Parnonas which is almost as high as Ben Nevis. I dont think I'm going to try cycling up Redstone Rigg with them when they're back - it'll be just too embarassing!
They do seem to be having a brilliant time, and thankfully Corvine seems to be liking camping in Europe a lot more than he did in Scotland!
Now I cant wait till I'm 40 in a couple of years so I can have an ever bigger mid life crisis