A Response to a Reaction by Ian Shires to our Report on the Deterioration of Camping Finikes

Barry and Margaret Williamson

24 March 2015

Our Report on Camping Finikes can be found at:

http://www.magbaztravels.com/content/view/1650/375/ 

Ian Shires is staying at Camping Finikes and he makes the following comments in his blog, well down a long article at:

http://bessyonthemove.weebly.com/greece-2015.html

This is a verbatim copy of Ian's writing:

“Sadly the couple from one motorhome took it upon themselves to publicly criticize the camp and it's owner in a very vicious and malicious way.

They said that for the money the camper gets a small muddy parking spot and the use of unheated and unhygienic toilets and showers. “The first shower we were assigned had a resident snail and a pile of its droppings.” They went on to say that door catches were not working, kitchens were dirty, a freezer caught fire, fresh eggs cost €2.40 for 6, the bar is not open for socializing. We could go on... they did.

To misquote Shakespeare, “Methinks they doth protest too much”

To prove we are also well educated, the real quotation from Hamlet Act 3, scene 2 is: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

We feel compelled to balance those comments from our own experience.

First of all the camp is a Summer campsite. That is why the floors are tiled and there are windows in the showers. It is also why the kitchens have no doors. Yes a freezer did catch fire... just as any other electrical equipment could. Everyone was generously compensated and the following day a new freezer was installed.

In the local shop, free-range eggs are on sale at €0.70 each. That makes them about double the price of the camp eggs! Eggs from Poland, or wherever, are of course cheaper... older but cheaper.

One day there was a rather pretty frog in our toilet. We thought this was funny and something to rejoice about. 

In winter people are expected to clean their own toilets and showers. By the way, we have not found another campsite in Europe where you get your own toilet AND shower.

Parts of the camp are muddy when it rains. This is not surprising when you know the amount of rain we have had this winter in Greece. Luckily the gravel roads allow the water to drain and within a day they are dry again.

We have photographic evidence that this campsite has not changed at all since we first came here six years ago.

Why suddenly start criticising it now. And why the malicious implications about the campsite owner. They cannot have any proof about their accusations.

We will leave it here with a comment that other campers have read their remarks and are disgusted with their attitude.”

This is our reply:

Rather than being 'the couple from one motorhome', we regret that Ian didn't give our names and a link to the original 'Report on the Deterioration of Camping Finikes' which is on our own website. His relatively few readers would then have had the opportunity to understand that this Report was written by a couple with 20 years (the anniversary is tomorrow) of experience of continuous travel by motorhome, bicycle, motorbike, van, caravan, train, ship and aeroplane. This includes using campsites in every country of Europe, in Morocco,Tunisia and Turkey, and on three one-year round-the-world journeys. We have also stayed on every campsite in Greece that is open in winter, including extended periods at Camping Finikes in Finikounda where we were its very first winter campers.

'Other campers' at Camping Finikes are said by Ian to have read our 'remarks', but does this include the full report? If so then they, unlike Ian, should have realised that the main burden of our writing was aimed at illegal financial and employment activity at Finikes, not just the symptoms of poor investment. Over half of our Report was focussed on the crackdown by Greece's new government on tax avoidance and the use of 'black labour', rather than concern with a handful of campers exploiting Greece's alarming economic decline by finding a cheap place to stay for the winter, along with cheap diesel and a good exchange rate. Cheap-skaters on the thin ice of a collapsing economy?

Ian does not identify 'other campers' at Camping Finikes by ethnicity or number. We have no such problem: when we stayed at Camping Triton II (near Nafplio), several weeks after leaving Finikounda, no less than 14 campers (10 German and 4 Dutch) told us that they had also camped at Finikes. Some of them were regulars, who intended to stay until April but left because of the conditions we describe in the Report. These conversations at Triton II were informal discussions, initiated by them over a number of interactions in the laundry, kitchen, etc. Speaking in German (except for the Dutch), they were motorhomers and caravanners who did not know our website, had not read our Report, had not heard our opinion. All said that they would not be returning to Finikes. By coincidence, a group of three of their vehicles left Finikes exactly when we did, two days before New Year.

Camping Triton II is everything that Finikes is not. There is a resident owner/manager who speaks both English and German and is always available. The pitches are wide with hardstanding, the roads paved and drained. It is well lit at night, inside and outside. The trees are high enough and well enough doctored to present no problem. Shade is provided in summer (but not in winter!) by removable awnings on a permanent metal framework. Every pitch has a hook-up point (with safety cut-outs) and a tap. The modern toilets and showers are cleaned every day and every door locks; the showers have instant hot water, as do the taps at the kitchen and laundry sinks. The hygienic kitchen contains an industrial sized fridge and a freezer for use by the campers, as well as gas rings for cooking under a range with lights and extractor fan. The laundry has a fast, industrial-size, good quality washing machine and drier.

The cost is €300 for a month or £7.25 a day (less than Camping Finikes) and this includes multi-point free WiFi throughout the camp. There are even further reductions for longer stays.

In defending Finikes, Ian makes no mention of the lack of receipts, the long absences of the Greek owner/manager (in Athens or in Munich) and, most particularly, of the parlous position of the 'English Winter Guardian' (EWG) who is illegally left in change. Did Ian ever speak to the EWG about conditions on the campsite? Was Ian ever even interested in the EWG's experience and opinion? Everything we wrote in our Report about conditions at Finikes followed from the failing interest of the Greek owner in the site, from which he preferred to make money, rather investing in its improvement. In business-speak, this is called a 'cash cow' or 'milking the cows'. Perhaps in Greece this should be changed to 'goats'?

Admittedly, some Greek campsites open in winter do not meet the standards that are expected in western Europe. However, unlike Finikes all the campsites we know do have a resident owner, or a properly appointed and paid manager, to deal with customer payments, issue receipts and take action if there were complaints. The campsites do not have an absentee owner leaving an illegal foreign worker unofficially in charge.

Everything we wrote about the campsite was discussed with the English Winter Guardian; indeed some of the points and experiences came from him.

We must refute a couple of Ian's comments. If he doesn't know another campsite in Europe with individual toilets and showers, it's simply because he doesn't know many campsites. We could point him to sites with such facilities in Germany, Sicily, Spain, Scandinavia … and where campers are not expected to clean the toilets and empty their own bins of used toilet paper. Where do they put this waste at Finikes?

As to the eggs, many campers who saw the disgusting and very restricted 'free range' conditions at Finikes refused to buy them at any price, resulting in a glut that were by no means fresh. But these are mere details, like Ian's assertion that the gravel roads soon dried (they didn't). That doesn't cover the soft pitches – but the water did. Mud, puddles and lack of hygiene were major complaints of the Germans and Dutch who left.

Overall Ian ignores most of the points we made in our Report. For some unknown reason, he simply makes excuses for the poor conditions. This is, of course, the kind of attitude that has led Greece into the crisis it finds itself in today: ignoring the major problems and excusing the minor ones!

Finally, in using the Shakespearian quotation, 'The lady doth protest too much, methinks' (having first corrected himself), Ian becomes the 'me' in the 'methinks' and thereby puts himself in the role of the speaker, Queen Gertrude, the mother of Hamlet. Since the 'lady' in the quote is acting the part of Gertrude in the play-within-a-play, watched by the real Gertrude, Ian may be talking to himself, or at least to an imagery self. Nor does he seem to realise that the meaning of words changes with time. The modern usage of the word 'protest' is clear enough, but in Shakespeare's days it was nearer to the modern usage of 'vow', 'affirm' and 'declare solemnly'.

If we did that 'too much', we take it as a compliment! Can it be that a little education is a dangerous thing?

Here's a picture from Ian's own website showing his closest collaborators planning their next foray into controversy, perhaps this time taking on what they call the 'nicotine police'.