22.10.2023
We woke up at 8h30 this morning because we would like to leave at 9h30. We had a plan during this journey : Arctouros area. Arctouros is a rehabilitation center of wolves, lynx and bears. It was at 1h50 from Kastoria. The alarm was really hard, with Quentin and above all him we were Hangover. Thé shower and toothcleaning enabled me to refresh me. Martha brought us a coffee, we prepared ourself and our bags. The sandwiches were done since Yesterday, thanks Martha to do them Yesterday because I hadn't the motivation to do this morning. We left at 9h30, let's go Arctouros and more precisely we went to Bear conservation refuge to Nympheo. We took a lot of mountain road. Quentin didn't feel well with the road, he was sick, he said "Today I will not drink a beer and I will never drink again vodka", we will see... At 11h, we arrived to Nympheo which is a cute village. It was to the peak to the mountain. We did a small walk in the forest to join the refuge. We began the visit, there was a man who explained the bear conservation, the place, there are 22 bears. He was explaining that all of these bears were before mistreated, they were used as dancing bears. This still exists unfortunately. You should know that humans burn the front paws of bears so that they cannot rest on their front paw and therefore still be upright. I was so sad when I was listening this... There were in a hudge paddock (not enough for a wild Bear) but there were protected so... We went After to the Souvenir shops where we boughts some. We came back to the village to eat our sandwiches, and to give some food to one cat and one dog and we left : Let's go to see the wolves. I drove to go to Wolves and Lynx conservation refuge to Agrapidies. On the road, we were on a downhill, we were going down the mountain, I had my platform shoes on, so I stopped accelerating and I just coasted the car and used the brake pedal when I needed it . With my platform shoes I braked quite hard and on big hits. At one point we smelled smoke, it was strange. We told ourselves it was outside. Then, Quentin could smell a hot tire...Martha told me that it was probably my car that had a problem with the tire. With Quentin we think more of people who burn their tires. Quentin began to doubt and told me to pull over to the side of the road. As he got down, his face completely changed, he started panicking. My front right wheel was emitting smoke. Quentin started calling his father to ask him what to do. So we put the jack on and remove the wheel. However we had not put a plate or stone under the jack so the car lowered despite the jack we managed to block it with the tire. We asked for help and luckily we came across a Greek who does mechanics. He was able to put his jack on, looked at the car. Nothing is damaged, the disc and the pads are not damaged, he explained to me that it was the fact of braking too hard, too long and many times that caused this. This experience took our energy away. He helped us put the wheel back on and we got back on the road. Finally Quentin took over driving and we went to the Wolf and Lynx shelter to clear our minds, cool the car and recharge the batteries.We did the refuge, we were so lucky because it was so warm and we saw a White wolve, baby wolves, one lynx and some greys wolves. At 2h45 we left direction Sindos, we had 1h50 of drive. Sometimes we were smelling outside to see if there was something wrong. It was traumatic for us. At 4h30 we arrived to Sindos and we did a stop to Strofi with Martha to eat a souvlaki. She approuved it ! Then, she would like to buy Trigona, the Thessaloniki's pastry to bring to her sister. We accompanied her to Ktel Makedonia at 5h45 for her bus, she had 6h of bus to Come back to Athina. See you soon. We came back to Drasiagriazoi, our home. We saw all the volunteers and explained our week end. I love my Drasi family, really. We are all differents but complementary. Ella annouced us that she will leave not the 28th but this tuesday. We wish to her joy, love and to take care of her. We will miss her, for sure. We will celebrate with joy and love tomorrow her last day. Giorgos came back from Belgium, he was working, we did a volunteer meeting, it was mooving. After that, between volunteers we spoke about what we have to changed, above all for days off. The communication is important, Then, Chill and Sleep.
English (UK) 
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