We are finally back in Europe! And everything is as expensive as you would expect. Even more so to us in comparison to where we’ve come from. But it’s ok because the weather is still nice and Greece is very pretty.
Athens – Neochoraki, Saturday 19th September
We set the alarm for 8am but get up at 10am. We cook lots of eggs for breakfast and drink as much tea as is humanly possible before we have to leave. As we pack up Harry and the girls are very impressed by how well everything fits into our pannier bags. I had a minor jam explosion in one of mine, so I had to empty it in order to clean it, and stuff was spread out all over the room. Makes it look like there’s much more stuff than can fit in the bag. But after all this time Emese and I are expert packers now. We finish packing and say goodbye to everyone before cycling out of Athens. It’s on the coast, so there’s pretty much only one way we can go: uphill. We start climbing almost straight away and carries on for about 30km. It’s not a bad gradient but Emese and I are both having trouble with our knees, so it’s slow going. At the top we stop for a break and eat some figs that Emese picked off a tree, they’re nice and ripe.
Shorter downhill the other side onto a long plateau, we stop in a tiny village for some food. In the only cafe in the village we have the only thing we can understand the lady telling us, which is ‘tost’. So we have a ham and cheese toastie each, and then have to go back and ask the lady for two more, because one is nowhere big enough. It’s only two pieces of bread!! We leave and keep cycling, taking some vaguely adventure roads which are just gravel, because we’re not sure what roads we can cycle on in Greece. In Turkey and before we cycled on anything from motorways down, and no one cared, but we have a feeling it might not be the same in Europe.
Our route is a very scenic one though, despite all the solar panels and wind farms. At least the Greeks are making an effort with renewable energy.
We make friends with 3 of the cutest dogs ever. Tempted again to steal them, but it appears they have an owner.
Just as it’s getting dark we pull out of the adventure road onto a bigger road, buy snacks in a small village shop and then cycle just outside it to find a campsite. Our first choice is way too lumpy, even for us, so we have to push our bikes back out of the clearing and further up the track to camp on the outskirts of a field.
Distance: 64km, Elevation gain: 1,270m
Neochoraki – Kato Tithorea, Sunday 20th September
We are woken up in the night, suddenly, by a dog barking right next to Tenty. We shout at the dog, a little sleepily, to go away. Amazingly, it does. We hear its barking receding into the distance. In the morning as we’re having breakfast a guy in a truck pulls up on the track next to our campsite, waves to us and then walks off with his dog and a very big gun. Later we hear shots, then he returns, waves again and drives off before we’ve even properly packed up. There’s lots of adventure road for 10km until we hit Thiva.
We decide to try our luck on a slightly bigger road, highway 3, and it seems ok for us to cycle on this road, because we meet cyclists coming the other way. After Thiva the road runs pretty flat. In the afternoon some dark clouds start to gather but no rain comes of it.
As it gets dark we pull into an olive grove to camp. We um and ah about setting up the tent properly, but in the end we decide it isn’t going to rain so we don’t put the outer layer of Tenty up.
Distance: 82km, Elevation gain: 485m
Kato Tithorea – Lamia, Monday 21st September
As we’re going to sleep we hear thunder and see lightning, but for some reason we still decide it’s not going to rain, so we still don’t bother to set up the outer layer of Tenty. At 1am Emese goes outside for a toilet break, when she comes back in she says it still doesn’t look like it’s going to rain. But within 5 minutes the storm properly hits and it starts to absolutely piss it down with rain. We immediately panic. We try to get the outer layer on Tenty but it’s already too late. There are maybe 10 heavy spots of rain and then it turns into a deluge. Also, we haven’t left enough space between Tenty and the tree in front of him, so there’s nowhere to set up the porch part, so we just have to rest it on the inner layer of Tenty and hope it doesn’t leak. We are outside the tent for a maximum of 5 minutes but it’s enough to get us soaked. Our pyjamas are soaked and all our clean and dry clothes are outside, in the waterproof pannier bags, still attached to the bicycles, and there’s no way we’re going back out there. So a naked Tenty party it is (we have sleeping bags). The rain continues all night and on into the next day. At 12:30pm we’re getting cabin (Tenty) fever, so we decide to get going anyway. Pretty much everything we own gets wet packing up. Even the stuff that’s dry in our pannier bags gets dripped on when we have to open the bags to pack other stuff away. And of course, about 5 minutes after we start cycling, the rain stops.
The road climbs steadily uphill until we’re within about 20km of Lamia. Then we have a choice. Follow highway E65 until it meets the motorway and then take the small road that (I hope) runs next to it into Lamia, or, take the very squiggly road that may go up or down but is much shorter than the other route (without GPS we can’t tell if the squiggly roads are uphill or downhill, we just know it means a hill). Emese tells me she can’t decide, it’s too difficult, which means all the pressure is on me and I have to do it. I choose the adventurey squiggly road, feeling pretty sure that it’s downhill, but also knowing that I will incur Emese’s wrath if it is uphill. Thankfully my gut instinct is right, and it’s a lovely long downhill that runs in and out of the mountains and is empty except for us.
It’s a nice road all the way into Lamia. Once there we are directed to a nice hotel, but it’s way too expensive for us so we have to sheepishly ask the lady at the desk where the cheaper hotels are. The second one is still a little outside our budget, but by this point we’re wet, cold and tired, so we decide we just won’t eat for a couple of days. We put a still-damp Tenty out to dry on the balcony and use all the available surfaces in our room to dry our stuff. Everything is soaked.
Distance: 58km, Elevation gain: 1,016m
Lamia – Neo Monastri, Tuesday 22nd September
Breakfast is no longer included in the room price now we’re in Europe (sad times) and it’s a whole 10 euros extra in this hotel, so we definitely can’t afford it. Instead we just sleep in until 10am. Have our own breakfast of bread, cheese, tzatziki, apples and chocolate (absolute breakfast of champions). We pack up all our stuff, which takes a bit longer than usual because it’s all spread over the room, drying. Sleeping bags draped over the wardrobe doors, money drying on the desk and pants hanging over the lampshades. Luckily it is all dry, including Tenty, who had a lovely sunbathe on the balcony. We leave at the last minute, 11:55am, after packing everything into the tiny, rickety lift, which gives claustrophobic Emese nightmares. We collect the bikes from the underground garage and head off to the supermarket. A very sweet old man comes to talk to us, he tells us that we must be very strong but we should still be careful. Out of Lamia it’s uphill, an uphill that lasts for 18km through constant drizzly rain. About 2km from the top a Dutch motorcyclist rides past us, turns around, comes back and offers to drag us up the hill. Not sure how he plans to achieve this but we’re not that keen to find out. Some crazy plan involving a very scrawny piece of string I think. Luckily the top is not much further up. And the downhill the other side is pretty great, and when the road levels out we stop for a late lunch in a service station that’s slap bang in the middle of nowhere and seems to only be frequented by coachloads of loud American tourists. It’s nice and warm inside though, as they have the heating on, so we take off our shoes and socks and dry them a bit, probably ruining the ambience in the process. On the map there’s one more very squiggly bit of road, but luckily it turns out to be a short uphill followed by a much longer downhill. A little more flat and then it starts to get dark so we set up camp on a hill overlooking some cotton fields.
Distance: 53km, Elevation gain: 1,024m
Neo Monastri – 25km N of Larisa, Wednesday 23rd September
Wake up at 9am. It rained in the night, but luckily we had the sense to put the outer layer on. Sadly, it looks like winter is coming. Breakfast of champions again. Pack up, avoiding all the gross disgusting things (slugs, earwigs, millipedes, etc) that have come out after the rain. One long-ish uphill to start with followed by a downhill the other side and flat for the rest of the day. At one point we meet Greek cyclists coming the other way, they shout excitedly at us in Greek and give us big thumbs up. We have no idea what they’re saying, so we assume they are telling us that we’re awesome, because of course we are. Cycle into Larisa about 2pm, just in time for lunch. Chain the bicycles up in a bicycle park and go for a wander in the pedestrianised centre, where we find a cheap cafe for gyros. The man serving asks us if we want small or large gyros. Stupid question. Afterwards we decide to follow a route suggested by Clive, who hasn’t cycled here, but has google mapped it and recommended a route north to Kallithea and then around the north of Mount Olympus. So we head out of Larisa, but before we’re anywhere near Mount Olympus we hit a really big hill. It’s long and pretty steep. Emese falls pretty far behind, so I stop to take a photo. As I walk towards the edge of the cliff to take a picture of the view I can hear something wheezing really heavily, and at first I think it’s a dog snoring, but I can’t see what is making the noise. It’s only as I’m walking back that I see it’s two tortoises having sex that’s making all the noise, the male is breathing really heavily and sounds like he’s dying. I’m not sure if they haven’t seen me or they just don’t care, but I don’t want to disturb them so I take a quick photo and back away so I don’t interrupt them.
I go back to the road and sit by my bike to wait for Emese, although I can still hear the tortoises going at it. By the time Emese arrives they’ve finished and one has wandered off, but the other one is still there. I ask Emese if she wants to see a tortoise, she replies that she wants to see a campsite. She has clearly had enough for the day (Clive is not very popular), so we just set up camp right there, on a cliff beside the highway, overlooking the valley we’ve just cycled from. It is a very pretty spot though.
Distance: 86km, Elevation gain: 928m
25km N of Larisa – 15km S of Katerini, Thursday 24th September
Wake up around 9am. Emese goes out for what I think is a toilet break but doesn’t reappear for more than 15 minutes so I start to worry a little bit. I go looking for her, imagining that the cliff has slipped somewhere, as it’s all quite loose gravel around here. Turns out she walked up to the top of the road to find the top of the hill, which is only about 2km further on. When she gets back we have our first and only argument of the whole trip, I claim she should have told me she was going for a walk and she claims she thought I was asleep, and I take her for an idiot for thinking she would fall off the cliff, but I argue that cliffs collapse and boulders fall all the time (we’re always seeing road signs warning us it can happen) and she doesn’t necessarily have to be near the edge for it to collapse and take her down with it. It is unresolved, but it still only lasts 2 minutes, so we eat breakfast and pack up in silence, but once we start cycling it is already forgotten. We get to the top quickly, and then it’s a long-ish downhill the other side.
We cycle along a flat bit, where Emese collects walnuts, and we have Mount Olympus on our right and kind of cycle around it. After Kallithea there’s a 10km steep uphill, to the peak of a pass right by Mount Olympus, which is very cloudy. We stop at the top to admire the downhill, and share a packet of biscuits. A small red car pulls up right in front of us, ruining the view, and then a bloke gets out. He takes a look at us, proceeds to walk right in front of our eye line, and take a pee. He obviously expects us to turn away, but we were here first, so Emese and I keep staring at him, keeping up a long running commentary about what he’s doing in the vague hope he understands and it puts him off what he’s doing. He does give us a very odd look just before he jumps into his car. The uphill is followed by 40km of almost constant downhill, both foretold by Clive, all the way to Katerini and the coast. We find a cafe to check if we have a host tonight, and to our surprise, we do. We just need to message this guy when we arrive in town, so we do, and wait for a reply, but we never get one. By this point we have allowed ourselves to believe that we we’ll be getting a shower, so now we really want one. When it becomes apparent that we’re not going to hear back from this couchsurfing guy we decide to hunt for a campsite, but a proper one, with showers. The nearest one is 15km south of town, so by the time we get there it’s dark. We can’t find the campsite, so we ask at the supermarket, and it turns out that they run a campsite, although we’re pretty sure it’s not the one we were looking for. Still, it’s only 8 euros for the night, we’re the only people there and the showers are hot, so it’s perfect. Manage to find bread, yoghurts and actual salt and vinegar crisps in the supermarket for dinner.
Distance: 96km, Elevation gain: 1,325m
15km S of Katerini – Thessaloniki, Friday 25th September
We wake up at 9am, which is pretty early for a Tenty day, but then we fanny about for ages, even though we’ve got a long day ahead of us and probably should have left earlier. Once we’ve packed up and are ready to go it’s midday. It’s cloudy but not raining so it’s actually perfect cycling weather. We added on an extra 15km to our day by cycling to this campsite, so now we have to cycle all the way back past Katerini and on to Thessaloniki. The highway is direct but we really can’t cycle on that, because it’s a motorway, so we have to take a much smaller road which runs in a much more squiggly line. We have to keep cycling constantly all day, because we left so late, stopping only to eat some biscuits without even getting off our bicycles. Even with almost constant cycling it ends up being a 115km day, so by the time we arrive in Thessaloniki it’s already dark. Luckily lots of locals seem to be out cycling on bikes without any lights, so we’re not the only muppets doing that. It’s 8:30pm by the time we arrive at our host’s apartment/office, luckily Giorgios gave us clear instructions so it was very easy to find, even in the dark. Giorgios organises cycling events and basically lives in his office, in a space which is shared with a couple of other NGOs, and we’re just sleeping in the shared common area. There’s a kitchen for tea, and a bathroom, but no shower or hot water in the sinks, so you have to boil the kettle, fill up empty water bottles, take them into the bathroom, mix it with cold water and then bottle shower. Giorgios feeds us soup, after which we promptly shower and go to bed.
Distance: 115km, Elevation gain: 443m
Thessaloniki REST DAYS< Saturday 26th – Sunday 27th September
Saturday is spent mostly hiding from the rain, which is constant and miserable (it is the end of September unfortunately, although this is still Greece. It shouldn’t be happening). We try to take our washing to the laundrette in the evening (Giorgios doesn’t have a washing machine and we can’t face handwashing everything again) but we get there after 5pm and it’s shut, doesn’t open Sunday so we will have to take it Monday morning before we leave. Luckily the rain stops in the evening long enough for me to go out to watch the rugby, while Emese stays home and blogs. Of course, England lose (the polite term) to Wales (what the hell was that? Just awful) but I do at least make friends with possibly the only 2 professional Greek rugby players in the world. One of them is a prop and he is giant. The tops of his arms are somehow even bigger than my cyclist thighs. I’m so impressed by his hoodie that I insist he lets me try it on, I could honestly get away with it as a knee-length dress. Sunday is spent feeling sorry for myself over the loss of the rugby, intermingled with feeling sorry for myself at not being able to bitch about how crap they were with my dad, while Emese walks down to the port to say goodbye to the sea (we head inland tomorrow).
I have reached my fundraising goal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still sponsor me if you would like to! And massive, massive thanks to everyone who has already sponsored me! https://www.justgiving.com/Hannah-Bellasis/
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