Sunday, September 23, 2018

Kokkinopelos to Livadi on E4: Day 25

The first part of today's walk was across a pine covered mountain, the second, up a tarmac road to the village of Livadi. A more gentle day with 19 kilometres covered and a total ascent of 640 metres.
As I walked through the village this morning, being a Sunday, Mass was being broadcast over a loudspeaker from the stone built church, sometimes mingling with music from radios. The taverna was just opening for business. Going up the dirt road out of the village I could see hunters with bright orange hats and excited dogs on the hill opposite. Not wanting to be shot accidentally I turned my "Buff" into a red skullcap to increase my visibility. More hunters later passed in their pick ups. 
From Kokkinopelos to Meteora there were no GPS tracks available for download so I had created one from the maps I had available and Google Earth. E4 waymarks and signs were intermittent, bunched together and sometimes full of holes from someone's target practice, but there were enough of them to confirm I was on the right route. A kilometre or so outside the village I turned onto a vehicle track into the pine woods. The track curved up and around with occasional breaks in the trees where I could see across to places I would be walking to tomorrow. After climbing for some time the route bypassed the summit and then gradually descended via a series of switchbacks.
On reaching a major road I crossed to the side road opposite which took me up to the village of Livadi. I managed to missed out one bit of road on a track but most of the time I was on tarmac. The road was quiet and after the road had climbed to around 1200 metres it contoured around the hillside and I could see long distances across the surrounding plains with their fields, farms and forests. Livadi came into view, its red roofs spread over the side of the hillside like a village in Southern Spain. I found the narrow streets in the centre full of people spilling out of the local tavernas in a charming scene.
I checked into the Hotel Mytikas, named after the highest peak on Mount Olympus, one of those I climbed yesterday and which I can see from my balcony along with much else. I was in time for a late lunch at the Asteria restaurant next door. The lamb chops were full of flavour and the waiter helped me with some background. I was in a Vlach village, where they speak a language related to Latin (as well as Greek). There was a conference on the culture taking place in the village, hence the crowds. He pointed out the statue of a Vlach who helped drive out the Ottomans in the last century. I asked about the yellow flags with black eagles on, which I had often seen with the Greek flag. He explained it was a Byzantine flag and referred to the Orthodox faith, and that there was a sort of spiritual war being declared to preserve Christian Orthodox values.
In the evening I had a beer on the hotel terrace and watched the full moon rise over Mount Olympus, a beautiful sight.

A GPS file of my route can be found on Wikiloc.com, or use ViewRanger to view it on your smartphone, shortcode johnpon0039.

The attractive village of Livadi

Moon rise over Mount Olympus as viewed from the terrace of the Hotel Mytikas



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