Another day on stony paths going up and down hill among the glorious spring flowers.
To avoid the herd of goats and associated dogs catching me dismantling my tent I broke camp at first light and was walking down the hill at 6:20 am, sitting down somewhat later for a breakfast of a muesli bar and an apple. I sat down on a rock to avoid the various crawling insects, but you cannot stay too long as they eventually discover you and start crawling onto your rucksack and boots. The day was very much one of following paths and, less often, dirt tracks or a road, up and down hills. Paths were either through Holm oak bushes or across flower filled meadows. Except at the base of valleys near water the trees never seem to reach any great height, it gave a typically Mediterranean feel to the landscape. There were flowers of all colours, swathes of yellow contrasted with patches of violet and meadows of white, red poppies lined a wall, bright yellow flowers grew among the rocks.
Progress was slow (2.6 km/hr compared to the 4 km/hr I often achieve), for two reasons. Firstly the paths were very rocky, a mixture of outcropping limestone and loose stones, caution was needed to avoid stumbling or slithering. Secondly, it was easy to loose the correct path and follow some goaty trail. The first time this happened I tried to make my way through the prickly bushes directly to the right track based on my GPS. A mistake, there were little goat tracks among the bushes but these appeared and disappeared, leaving me trying to push through the bushes by force and getting prickly leaves down my back, in my boots and various parts of my rucksack. Next time I lost the trail I turned around and retraced my steps.
As I approached the village of Likouria I had again lost the path, but I carried on as the incorrect path took me into the centre of the village where, joy to behold, there was a cafe open. As I sipped my Greek coffee and glass of water that comes with it, I noticed the other customers were all senior men like myself and as I had not shaved this morning (as I was camping) I sort of fitted in, that is apart from my enormous rucksack and bright blue, almost turquoise, walking boats (Italian needless to say). After Likouria there was another place where a river was meant to come out of the ground, I could not see where but there was certainly excessive volumes of water trying to get under the bridge I was crossing.
A final path led me into the village of Dara, where I am staying at the Arhontiko Kordopati. As a sponsor of the E4, this accommodation has been signposted for the last two days, the first sign said it was 14 hours away, then as I walked the miles it became 11, then 6, then 1 1/2, then 300 metres, then 80 metres and then a lady welcomed me with a glass of tsipouro. She asked me a number of things in Greek, to which I probably gave the wrong answer. I will find out more at dinner time!
I ended up with a bottle of wine rather than a glass but otherwise the meal was as I expected. I have saved half the wine in an old plastic water bottle for tomorrow.
I walked 22.5 kilometres today with a total ascent of 880 metres.
To avoid the herd of goats and associated dogs catching me dismantling my tent I broke camp at first light and was walking down the hill at 6:20 am, sitting down somewhat later for a breakfast of a muesli bar and an apple. I sat down on a rock to avoid the various crawling insects, but you cannot stay too long as they eventually discover you and start crawling onto your rucksack and boots. The day was very much one of following paths and, less often, dirt tracks or a road, up and down hills. Paths were either through Holm oak bushes or across flower filled meadows. Except at the base of valleys near water the trees never seem to reach any great height, it gave a typically Mediterranean feel to the landscape. There were flowers of all colours, swathes of yellow contrasted with patches of violet and meadows of white, red poppies lined a wall, bright yellow flowers grew among the rocks.
Progress was slow (2.6 km/hr compared to the 4 km/hr I often achieve), for two reasons. Firstly the paths were very rocky, a mixture of outcropping limestone and loose stones, caution was needed to avoid stumbling or slithering. Secondly, it was easy to loose the correct path and follow some goaty trail. The first time this happened I tried to make my way through the prickly bushes directly to the right track based on my GPS. A mistake, there were little goat tracks among the bushes but these appeared and disappeared, leaving me trying to push through the bushes by force and getting prickly leaves down my back, in my boots and various parts of my rucksack. Next time I lost the trail I turned around and retraced my steps.
As I approached the village of Likouria I had again lost the path, but I carried on as the incorrect path took me into the centre of the village where, joy to behold, there was a cafe open. As I sipped my Greek coffee and glass of water that comes with it, I noticed the other customers were all senior men like myself and as I had not shaved this morning (as I was camping) I sort of fitted in, that is apart from my enormous rucksack and bright blue, almost turquoise, walking boats (Italian needless to say). After Likouria there was another place where a river was meant to come out of the ground, I could not see where but there was certainly excessive volumes of water trying to get under the bridge I was crossing.
A final path led me into the village of Dara, where I am staying at the Arhontiko Kordopati. As a sponsor of the E4, this accommodation has been signposted for the last two days, the first sign said it was 14 hours away, then as I walked the miles it became 11, then 6, then 1 1/2, then 300 metres, then 80 metres and then a lady welcomed me with a glass of tsipouro. She asked me a number of things in Greek, to which I probably gave the wrong answer. I will find out more at dinner time!
I ended up with a bottle of wine rather than a glass but otherwise the meal was as I expected. I have saved half the wine in an old plastic water bottle for tomorrow.
I walked 22.5 kilometres today with a total ascent of 880 metres.
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| A rocky but attracive path |
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| Beautifual flowers even if I do not know what they are |
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| Whole meadows covered with flowers |
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