Day 195: Rest day in Kavos

Party town

Well, Kavos is nice and quiet in the mornings. No-one seems to get up before midday, except for a few middle aged couples like us who’ve found themselves here by some chance.

Either Tiger didn’t like his coffee or it was something I said

In the afternoon the favoured sport of a Kavos visitor seems to be going as red as possible in the sun, before heading to the bars around 4pm as the music starts pumping.

We’ve had a nice time chatting with Paige on the beach, under a sunshade, and generally catching up on the life of a travel rep, which does seem like it involves quite long hours - if not a lot of what most of us would recognise as “work”..

We’re going to drop in on a bar or two after dinner, just as things are starting, but Sarina and I will leave the real fun to Paige and Tiger tonight.

Paige takes the McNamaras to a bar

Day 194: Kanali to Kavos

We left our campsite in the woods pretty early. We were surrounded by permanent caravans owned by people who seemed committed to keeping both other people and light out of their vans by building large defences around their. Very odd.

We headed along the coast, up and down hills all the time as we made our way north. Breakfast was with the tradies in a town café and lunch was a Greek cheese pie at the only place selling food for miles. Nice though.

Eventually we made it to Igoumenitsa, where we jumped straight on a ferry to Corfu.

Ferry to Corfu

We’re stopping in Corfu to spend a couple of days with Paige, Sarina’s niece, who’s working in Kavos. She’d sorted us out an apartment by the beach which was just down the road from the ferry.

What an amazing place. The whole town is full of 18 year old Brits on their first holiday without their parents. Paige’s job as a rep is more like a surrogate mum I think. Everyone’s really sweet at the moment - let’s see how they are after a night of drinking.

Day 193: Vasiliki to Kanali

A spot tunnel trouble

First order of business for the day was to get over the ridge of hills down the centre of the island of Lefkas. It was a bit steeper than coming in to Vasiliki but still well within our means. The climb very rudely starts immediately you leave town, so we’d had no warm up, but after an hour and a half of climbing we were descending into Nidri. 

We made our way up the east coast of the island, finally leaving across a very inauspicious bridge that feels more like a pontoon. To get to the mainland.

Then we were confronted with the tunnel.

The Akto - Preveza tunnel goes under the entrance to a large marine lake, and if we were to ride around the outside of the lake it’s over 140km. So, we want to get through this tunnel. However, it’s closed to bicycles and pedestrians.

Bummer, but we had the hen from a local in Vasiliki that there was a bus that took cyclists through, and we confirmed this by Googling that other cyclists had used this service.

We arrived at the toll gate and as expected there were signs saying “No bicycles and pedestrians,” - ok, so where’s the bus. There were no signs but asking a toll collector we were given a timetable. It took us a long time to decipher it, but eventually we worked out the bus should arrive at 13:45. It was about 12:30 at the time, so no biggee.

We settled into a small bus shelter to wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually, and 14:15 we asked the toll collector again and he said he didn’t know, the bus would come. We rang the bus terminal number and got no answer time and time again. I went to check with the toll collector whether we could ride through just this once, but that didn’t seem like a goer.

Then Tiger managed to get an answer from the phone line. A nice lady said the bus would be there at 16:15, no news on what happened to the 13:45.

Mat least that meant we could go and get some lunch without missing the bus, so we headed 500m back up the road to the airport to grab a sandwich.

The airport gave us an idea, so we asked the taxi drivers if anyone knew a taxi van who could take us. No one had any suggestions. However, the airport had free wifi, so we could do a little searching and I came up with a taxi service offering vans. I called and a nice woman said a guy called Harry was on his way with a large Mercedes van.

Loading the Strawberry with Harry

…and soon after we were loaded into the van and heading through the tunnel. Best value 40€ taxi fare ever.

So now we’re heading up the Adriatic coast and had a lovely gnocchi and brie evening meal. Next stop Kavos party town and Sarina’s niece Paige.

Gnocchi on the campsite

Day 192: Rest day in Vasiliki

Sailing like it’s 1999

That was the year I was here last — but nothing much has changed on the water. The morning is a gentle 5 knots and we were able to take Tiger for a pleasant sail in a Laser 2000. Then, in the afternoon “Eric” arrives with 20 knots straight off the cliff, and I blatted around in a Laser until I was quite tired and my hands were bleeding (I should have borrowed some gloves!)

Thanks heaps to Wildwind for letting us take the boats out for a spin.

Captain Tiger at the helm

I’ve still got it :-) Tiger’s just discovered that hiking hurts.

Day 191: Sami to Vasiliki

Sailing flashback 

It’s almost exactly 20 years since I was last in Vasiliki and the place has changed a lot. I was here to help the Wildwind sailing holiday staff get to grips with their monohulls, as they were mostly cat sailors. Now there must be twice as many monohulls here as cats. 

There also have to be four times as many buildings in the town now, stretching all along the beachfront and up into the cliffs at the western end.

It’s still a beautiful place though, and Eric, the wind that blows down the cliff face every afternoon was pumping as we arrived. 

It had need a beautiful journey to get here, up through the hills of the northern part of Kefalonia with the most gorgeous views of bright blue bays, sandy cliffs and white pebbly beaches. 

It was quite a climb to make it over to the other side of the island, but well worth it. 

Then we could relax in Fiskado and wait for the ferry to arrive. 

The ferry took us between the Ionian islands amongst a myriad of cruising yachts until we arrived in Nydri on the island of Lefkas. 

After a nice lunch on the waterfront we had another island to cross to get to Vasiliki, with another big hill in the way. 

We’re very lucky to have turned up at Wildwind in Tuesday as it’s barbecue night, which turns into a bit of a sing-a-long and dance. What used to be one guy on a guitar looks like it’s now a full band. 

Day 190: Patras to Sami

How close can you be to missing a ferry?

Our job for the day was to catch a ferry to Keffalonia, but we had loads of time as it didn’t leave until 1:30pm  so, we had a leisurely morning and finally set off for the port a little after midday. We rode down to the passenger terminal and met some cycle tourists from Italy and had a nice chat. Still plenty of time.

Two Italians who were touring the Peloppenese Peninsula

We couldn’t find any sign of a boat for Keffalonia though and a woman in the ticket office told us - “That boat leaves from the Old Port, 2km up the road. You won’t make it in time by bicycle.”

Aaaargh! We have 12 minutes to get there!

Well, there’s only one boat a day, so we’d better give it a try. 

We hammered up the coastal path - probably a little too fast for comfort. Apparently I wasn’t exactly at my calmest either. 

We saw a ferry still docked, quickly bought tickets and then rode over to the boat. The loading staff were signalling to us to be quick and the ramp was already starting to move as we rode up into the boat. The doors closed behind us and the ferry was off. 

We just made it to the ferry – the staff on the door were signalling to us to hurry up!

It doesn’t get much closer than that. It also shows I don’t appear to have quite lost my “Never to early to be late,” monicker. 

Anyway, we made it and had a pleasant trip to Sami on the Andreas Kalvos. 

Day 189: Akrata to Patras

Another beautiful ride

I’m going to start getting repetitive now as we had another beautiful ride along beside the sea. Smooth road, low traffic (it’s Sunday obviously) fantastic views and a few hills to keep it interesting. We even managed to make it to a hotel in plenty of time before the heavens opened.

We had a nice coffee stop in the town of Egio, where everyone else appeared to be having their family meetups for Fathers’ Day. Spending all this time with Tiger is like Fathers’ Day every day — such a treat before he heads off to Uni and forgets about us for a while.

Then lunch was outside yet another supermarket, one with nice picnic benches and everything.

The Byzantino hotEl

Our hotel today, the Byzantino in Patras, has given us the most extraordinary room. It’s huge, with separate rooms for Tiger and us, with a big screen between them. Then there’s a bench full of cushions running all the way round, but you could only sit on it if you’re about four feet tall. Very curious, but lovely.

Our hotel room, great, but odd

As it’s now tipping down outside, I think we’ll be finding the closest restaurant we can!

Day 188: Corinth to Akrata

Beach life

There’s something better about anything you do in life if you do it on, or even by, a beach. We draw the line at riding on the beach, but our route today along the beachfront road was just gorgeous.

Roding along the beachfront

We had a gentle breeze in our face to keep the temperature bearable and the clear blue water always on our right for a very pleasant day’s riding. It was also pretty much pan flat - which is always nice when you’re carrying all your worldly goods with you.

Morning coffee was yet another espresso freddo — they are really growing on me. I’ve checked out how to make them too, so this one could run and run in those long, hot, sweltering English summers :-)

Espresso freddo tIme

We had another lunch by the water and a nice man sat nearby gave us some apricots to go with it. Very kind.

We reached our campsite to discover that the northern European emigration to the Mediterranean has started. One swallow may not make a summer, but 25 camper vans are a definite sign that the holiday season is kicking off. Luckily our little tents can almost always be squeezed in, and we have a small stony patch under a tree for the night. Let’s hope the Dutch women beat Cameroon and we can be partying the night away!

Home swee home

Migrating camper vans

Day 187: Athens to Corinth

Letter to the Corinthians

We left Athens on a very useful bike path, which avoided the traffic and whisked us down to Piraeus, by the sea. It was the last day of school for children in Athens and we saw many presents for teachers being taken to school.

The bike path out of Athens

One bunch we came across were obviously having a waterfight on the last day and were armed with super-soakers and water bombs. I have to admit to telling them a bit of a lie as we passed, claiming we were unarmed. In my defence, I doubt their English lessons had progressed as far as dealing with combat niceties, but I did get the final schoolboy in the row with a direct hit from my water bottle, an attach he definitely wasn’t expecting.

Heavily armed young miscreants

My unprovoked attack caught on camera in the top left of the frame

After that it was a pleasant ride out to the end of the peninsula to get a ferry across to the Island of Salamina. Using the island to exit Athens meant a couple of ferry rides, but missed out a lot of hills, and had a lot less traffic.

On to one ferry to cross to Salamina…

…then off another ferry to land back on the mainland

After that, we were tracking the motorway along the coast once more, but on the old highway, which has a smooth surface and very little traffic, as well as great views of the coastline.

Lunch was on a beach overlooking the bright blue water

The highway brought us all the way to Corinth, the ancient city of the Corinthians. It’s also the home of the Corinth Canal, a 6km long and 21m wide canal connecting the Corinthian and Saronic Gulf, and providing a shortcut to Athens from the Adriatic. It was originally proposed in ancient times, but it wasn’t successfully built until the end of the 19th Century.

We had the pleasure of being held up by the passing of a cruise liner through the lifting bridge at its northern end. The canal is too narrow for most modern boats, and this ship looked a little large to make it through as it approached. However, it fitted with metres to spare in the end.

The cruise liner makes it’s way up the canal

So, we’re spending the night in Corinth, and had a very good meal in a fish restaurant.

Day 186: Rest day in Athens

Parthenon, tick ✔️ 

Obligatory selfie

We were up reasonably early, but not early enough to beat the heat and climb up on to the Acropolis above Athens. We got to have a good look around the Parthenon, the Temple Erekthion and the Temple Nike Athena. All very impressive and elaborate for the age. It’s amazing there’s anything there at all really after 2,500 years and the restoration works to try to rebuild parts of the buildings are a mammoth task. 

It’s difficult to realise just how old these buildings are - predating everything we saw in India by centuries and more than 500 years before anything we might see from the Romans. 

We’ve come to the conclusion that the way we tour on our bicycles isn’t really a good way to see sights like this. By the time we get to a city like Athens all we want to do is put our feet up. Walking around trying to see all the big tourist spots is just too much effort, and there are so many annoying tourists around. Cycle touring is definitely all about the bits in between - the people you meet in the places in between the tourist stops. That’s what we’re here for. 

Still, it was worth the effort to see the Parthenon, we didn’t bother with any museums or any of the myriad of other sights worth seeing here. 

We have had haircuts too, which is good to get done. 

I’m going to put my feet up now - there’s cycling to do tomorrow. 

Day 185: Rest day in Athens

There’s a lot of old stuff here

In between putting our feet up and resting we did manage a small stroll out for lunch and we took in a lot of old stones on the way there and back.

Our first glimpse of the Parthenon

It a pretty photogenic place

A Roman Agora, an ancient forum i think

Old stones

The love feeding stray cat through the Balkans, hence, there a lot of stray cats

Day 184: Chalkida to Athens

We’ve made it to Athens

After a week of making our way through Greece, we’ve finally made it to the capital — and we’re knackered. It seems a common theme, we get somewhere interesting and we’ve tired ourselves out so much getting there we just want to sit in our hotel room. So, for Athens we’re going to have two rest days, which is hopefully enough to ensure that we actually feel rested afterwards, and get some time to have a look round the city.

The day started with more waterfront riding

We crossed the bridge from the EVIA Island to the mainland

Lunch in an unremarkable square by the sea in Skala Oropou

Then, a big climb over the last remaining range of hills between us and the capital

Then, downhill into Athens

Day 183: Rovies to Chalkida

Big climbs have big descents

Breakfast this morning was a little tricky. There was no-one serving food, but there was a café serving coffee. They were very nice and perfectly happy for us to eat our croissants from the bakery down the road and our cereal from the shop over the way, whilst drinking there very nice “Mrs. Mary” coffee.

Picnicking in the café

The day was all about two climbs over the central spine of the island as we made our way south to the bridge at Chalkida. The first was only around 300m high, and we polished off fairly easily, but the second was at least twice that height and climbed over around 15 km. It was only around 5% for most of the time, but that grinds you down after an hour or so.

The climb started with a gradual slope next to a small river…

It started to ramp up a little as the river went into a ravine…

Then the gradient increased as we entered the big wide switchbacks higher up the climb

We had some support from tree fellers near the top (oh, actually I see there we four of them)

Then pin the ears back and a big long descent, with views of the gulf below

A really nice day’s riding - smooth roads, only a little traffic and beautiful weather (some cloud cover kept it cooler.)

Tomorrow we head into Athens. I’m expecting a lot more traffic, pollution and mayhem. Fingers crossed.

Day 182: Glyfa to Rovies

It doesn’t get much better

We got to have a lie in this morning, until 9am, which is exceptional and very much needed. We’ve ridden seven days in a row and we want to push on to take a rest day in Athens, but we planned a short day for today for a semi-rest. 

After breakfast we settled in to the beachfront café to wait for the ferry. 

Everyone in Greece seems to be drinking “espresso freddo”. It’s like a chilled long black with a little sugar and a crema like an espresso martini on top. I may be converted - it’s pretty nice. 

There was a little confusion over the ferry timetable, which saw two ferries leave whilst we drank our coffee until we finally caught the midday boat. 

Our ferry awaits

Our destination was Euboea, an island just to the east of Athens, full of peaceful fishing and tourist towns. 

We landed in Agiokambos and headed straight to a restaurant with tables on the seafront for salad, grilled sardines and fried squid. Just the most gorgeous lunch. 

A bea fresh fish lunch POLISHED off

With protein levels topped up, we headed across a ridge to descend to the western coast of Euboea, which turned out to be idyllic. One bright blue bay followed another as we wound our way along the waterfront road, climbing and descending at times as we followed the cliffs of the coast. 

Coastal riding at its best

Finally (after only 28km)  we arrived at our campsite and pitched tent right by the water, with a fantastic view over the Euboean Gulf to the Greek mainland. 

An absolutely idyllic camping spot

One downside of our campsite was the complete absence of shops or restaurants, so it was a 4km ride along the seafront to the village of Rovies to have a beer and some pasta later. Even that was an adventure with a ford over a small river and cycling back in the dark to contend with. 

Crossing the ford to get supper

All in all, a rather excellent day. 

The ride home was prEtty cool too

Day 181: Larissa to Glyfa

It’s hot again, and we were forced to ride over 100 km again, which was a big day. However, great riding through the agricultural heartland of Greece, with a quiet old road and olives, wheat and fragrant fields of oregano.

Riding theou the fields

Lavender fields need photograpin

Lunch stop in a small village park

Lounging by the water at the end of the day

Day 180: Neoi Poroi to Larissa

Escape from Olympus 

A huge cloud stack above Mount Olympus — it looks like the Gods were up to something.

Finally we managed to get away from Mount Olympus, down the road south through the Pineios Gorge. It is a spectacular river ravine through a large limestone range of hills and the scene of a rearguard action by the ANZACS in 1941. The road has now been circumvented by a tunnel, which meant it was very quiet for us.

Pineios (or Tempe) Gorge

Once out of the gorge it was pretty plain sailing, tracking the motorway on a parallel road with little traffic and pleasant views.

We were soon in Larissa. It’s a pretty large city with good shopping and bars. It would be nice to hang out for a while, but, as usual, we needed to eat before most other people and were off to bed just when the city was starting to light up.

Day 179: Paralia Panteleimonos to Neoi Poroi

Zeus suggests we have a rest

We’ve spent the last two days in the shadow of Mount Olympus. Yesterday, the rain that caused us to have a little spill was rolling off the mountain our apartment last night was right in the shadow of Olympus. 

Sarina and I have cleaned and patched our wounds and we were all ready for action today.  

Matching plasters

More worrying was a bit more of a problem with Tiger’s derailleur that meant at about 8pm last night, Tiger didn’t have a working bicycle for tomorrow. Happily we finally worked out the vagaries of Shimano Tiagra construction and fixed the spring so it would give sufficient tension to the chain again.

Mount Olympus (shrouded in cloud) towers above Platamon Castle

Tiger on the train track along Plataman Beach

We set off to ride the short distance to Larissa, so as not to ask too much of our slightly damaged bodies, and initially it was going fine. Then, as we approached a narrowing in the hills that led to a pass we were flagged down by some construction workers. The road was closed ahead. Most vehicles could take the motorway through a tunnel, but the old highway was closed whilst they perform some improvements to prevent landslides. We’re not allowed on the motorway, so we were out of luck.

Our only option was to turn round and head back to the beach. Zeus had decided were were spending a day by the beach and however we tried to avoid it, he seemed to have an answer — including hurling rocks down a mountain if necessary.

Road closed ahead

So, feet up by the Aegean it was, and a very relaxed day we had.

Day 178: Methoni to Paralia Panteleimonos

Drizzly beach weather​

Quiet roads, lovely views

After a quiet start to the day we stopped in the small village of Makrigialos fro breakfast. Like the whole of Greece, this seaside town seems to be just about to start its holiday season. Everything is just about ready to go, but nobody is here yet. 

Breakfast opposite the Post Office

As we made our way further down the coast we came across another family on bikes coming the other way. They had three children on bicycles and one in a bike seat – we can only imagine how hard this makes the task. We wish we’d stopped to chat now, but we were hareing down a hill at the time and they were gone by too fast.

As we continued down the coast we found out the some of the tourists had arrived. For the first time we saw the umbrella strewn beaches crowded with beachgoers. I’ve a feeling they were mainly Russian, if the number of fur coat shops around the town was anything to go by.

Beaches, and a bike path (for about 900m)

A spot of rain soon cleared the beaches

Then, with a greasy covering of drizzle on the roads, we had our first big crash on asphalt. We started making a right turn and it felt like we were on ice. The front wheel went away and Sarina and I were suddenly on the ground. Tiger managed to slow a lot having seen us go down, but he still had a bit of a slip, although he was able to stay upright.

Sarina and I are ok, although we both have scrapes on our elbows and Sarina has a small cut on her head.

The dangerous corner. In a second we’re going to be on the ground.

We’re resting up for tonight in a hotel — camping in the drizzle suddenly didn’t seem such a good idea. I’m sure we’ll be find tomorrow.

Day 177: Thessaloniki to Methoni

​A long way round the houses

Some waterfront art

We had a quick poke around Thessaloniki but nothing really got us excited. We took a look at the White Tower and the seafront development, which is very smart but could do with a better maintenance contract. We did a little more shopping (GoPro accessories that had broken) and had a lovely coffee and a relax before setting off. Eventually we had to make a move though. ​

We didn’t pay for a room with a view in Thessaloniki 

Coffee, delaying our departure 

The outskirts of many cities are a little tawdry and our route out of Thessaloniki took us through some very untidy industrial neighbourhoods. Soon enough we were out in the countryside again. Olive groves, wheat fields and rice paddies this time. ​

Not the most scenic lunch spot

We had to go a fair way in the wrong direction today, which was annoying. We could see the bridge that took the motorway over the river, but bicycles were not allowed, so it was a long 30km loop before we could get to the other side of this bridge. Two hours of riding instead of ten minutes across the bridge. Oh well, it’s the journey we’re here for, not any shortcuts, and we’re actually heading away from the UK at the moment to go and see Athens. ​

​We were all pretty tired at the end of today - more feet up time required. We’re in a lovely sleepy little village by the water which seems to be 90% tavernas, so dinner shouldn’t be an issue. 

Day 176: Asprovalta to Thessaloniki

Big city time

After a nice breakfast we said goodbye to our hosts in Asprovalta and headed off up the coast. Our guest house mainly catered to German tourists and a large party of bloke were also at breakfast - a group called the Reisegruppe Heiterkeit, by my reckoning the “Hilarity Travel Group”, and they did seem to be having a lot of fun. The had a good line in matching t-shirts and shorts too, very smart.

The Pension Delfin, our very pleasant guest house in Asprovalta

We’d cycled about ten kilometres up the road when one of us realised they’d left their board shorts in the bathroom of the hotel. Oops. When you have so little luggage with you, losing one item of clothing is a major issue, so we turned round and headed back to Asprovalta.

We didn’t quite go all the way, leaving Tiger to do the last three kilometres whilst Sarina and I had a coffee and waited with his bags. All sorted, and caffeinated, we headed off again, albeit at 11am now.

A quick search for board shorts confirmed Tiger’s suspicion — they were back at the hotel

Today we were cycling along the shores of a lake for a lot of the journey, with beautiful landscapes either side of a quiet road once more. We saw four fellow cycle tourist today also, proving this is a popular route to get from the Adriatic coast to Turkey and the East.

Another lunch outside a village shop — this one had quite a limited selection of lunch options

Beautiful riding country

The black clouds threatened, but never actually turned to rain

Before we could ride into Thessaloniki, we had to cross a ridge of hills, which was quite a climb at the end of the day, but the gradients weren’t too bad, and then we could descend down into the city.

The waterfront in Thessaloniki and another Byzantine tower

We had an appointment with the Action Bike store, who are an Ortlieb pannier stockist and were able to help us out with a replacement for the hook we broke. They also had some other spares like puncture patches, chain lube and the first proper chamois cream we’ve had for about 5,000km. That’s going to be a nice luxury!

Supper with pretty nice sunset over the Aegean