Tag Archives: peloponnese

Peloponnese 3- Trials, Triumphs and Tribulations

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Written from the balcony of a cheap hotel a day before we fly/at the airport just about to leave/the plane/Anna’s parents’ (It’s a long one!)

  • Further adventures high and low in the ‘Mani’ area
  • A stolen evening on a romantic island
  • Greece turns truly mountainous
  • We go soft in Nafplio
  • More ruins at Mycenae
  • Time to go

 

Mani Mountains and Diros Caves

In retrospect Kardamyli was something of a highlight. Since then there have certainly been high points, but mostly only those we’ve climbed to over grinding hours in our lowest gears!

We tore ourselves away from a waterside café in Karlamyli too late to ever make the ‘easy’ 40km down the coast the doddle it should have been. Despite being overtly a coast road the daft engineers seemed intent on climbing as high into the mountains as possible to achieve their aim, and we had to go with them.

For those of you who don’t cycle, and as a reminder to myself, I think it’s easier to pedal 20km on the flat than 5km on these kind of hills with our panniers on. With the same pedal force you’d be whipping along at 20-30km/h on a smooth, flat road- winding into the mountains you’re suddenly stuck, inching across the flat map at glacial ‘speed’ with tired legs and creaky knees- maybe 8km/h if you’re lucky and fresh, down to 5km/h on the really steep bits. Not having contour lines on our map (just vague topography indicated by shading) made judging journey times something of a lottery. This is one we lost! On the plus side the ride and scenery was truly spectacular- think the Highlands in the sunshine over the sea and you’re not far off. If we had given ourselves all day for it, and could have taken plenty of breaks, it would have been great, as it was we ‘arrived’ (set up emergency camp in an olive grove) just after dark, still about 8kms from our final destination and totally fried.

 

Our destination, other than just an exploration of the Mani, were the Diros Caves- supposedly world famous and well worth a look. The good news is that it was all downhill Continue reading Peloponnese 3- Trials, Triumphs and Tribulations →

Part 1 of Greece Tour, A Week In

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Written in the pissing rain, in our champ tent on the beach

  • We leave Manchester in a blur
  • Party Greece is a total bust
  • Slip the noose and escape on our bikes
  • We’re not as hard as we like to think
  • Ancient Olympia rocks
  • Our tent is tested

 

Leaving

Wow! What a blur from last Friday to this! Last Friday Anna had just finished her last day of three years’ work and training, handed in the corrections on her Psychology thesis, packed up the last of her flat’s furniture into our massive camper van and her car, driven over to her parents’ place to unload and finally get to bed about 1am. We thought that was the hump and that the Friday would be easier- we were wrong! Although the flat was mostly empty, we still needed to do a final pack, break down the bikes for the flight, totally empty the flat and deep clean. The afternoon and then the evening slipped away and midnight found us still mopping floors and emptying the fridge. The van was loaded with the last of it and we finally got away, totally exhausted but slightly exhilarated. It was too late for bed by the time we got to Anna’s bro’s, where we were supposed to have spent the evening and night before the 3am taxi- a bottle of champagne had been promising itself to us all night and the lack of sleep wasn’t going to stop us!

The Villa

This whole Greece jaunt was instigated by an invite to a friend’s 30th birthday at a villa in Zakynthos- we thought we could make the most of the flights rather than just going for a long weekend like most. It was going to be a good chance to celebrate with her, catch up with a few of her friends I knew, meet some new ones and have a the good old party we deserved before a couple of healthy weeks.

Continue reading Part 1 of Greece Tour, A Week In →