A winding road with some beautiful flowers beside it reluctantly delivered me to the sea at Gythio.
To reach Gythio the E4 follows a very windy route, I walked kilometres on one loop to progress just a few hundred metres from where I started. I really should have paid more attention to e4-peloponnes.info as it has a GPS track for a revised route that cuts out the biggest loop. Waymarks on this section are not so common so a GPS track is really useful.
Despite the excessive loops, the tracks and narrow tarmac roads I followed were very attractive with very few vehicles, maybe one every two hours. Walking through olive trees, growing on ancient terraces, the roadside was often a mass of wild flowers. In places it looked like a painting by a very enthusiastic impressionist artist, with splashes of yellow and white all over the place, clusters of red spots acting as highlights, and drifts of purple and blue, with some giant dandeliom clocks for contrast, all set against an olive green background. So I drifted along lost in my thoughts as the road or track went in and out valleys, up and down hills (although as usual I remembered more "ups"). At times there were a few spots of rain but it was not sustained. It was hot and humid.
I stopped at a taverna in Platanos for lunch. The owner did not speak more than a few words of English so I went for omelette and salad, the words being similar in both languages and generally available. While eating I watched Sponge Bob Square Pants on the TV in Greek and wondered who on earth thinks up these stories and whether there are any morals embedded in them for the benefit of the young lad sitting in front of the TV.
Over the last few kilometres into Gythio I was suffering from some problems with my right ankle, so I was glad to reach the edge of town. I walked down to the harbour, with its restaurants grouped around it and confirmed that the ferry to Crete was leaving tomorrow at a shipping agency (although for some reason I could not buy the tickets until the morning).
I am now in the Saga Pension, one of the sponsors of the E4 in the Peloponnese, which is right on the sea front, with a uninterupted sea view from my bedroom. Downstairs the restaurant served me dinner of a plate of small fish and I finished with coffee and a Metaxa brandy to celebrate completion of the Peloponnese stage of the E4.
33 kilometres walked today with a 600 metre ascent.
To reach Gythio the E4 follows a very windy route, I walked kilometres on one loop to progress just a few hundred metres from where I started. I really should have paid more attention to e4-peloponnes.info as it has a GPS track for a revised route that cuts out the biggest loop. Waymarks on this section are not so common so a GPS track is really useful.
Despite the excessive loops, the tracks and narrow tarmac roads I followed were very attractive with very few vehicles, maybe one every two hours. Walking through olive trees, growing on ancient terraces, the roadside was often a mass of wild flowers. In places it looked like a painting by a very enthusiastic impressionist artist, with splashes of yellow and white all over the place, clusters of red spots acting as highlights, and drifts of purple and blue, with some giant dandeliom clocks for contrast, all set against an olive green background. So I drifted along lost in my thoughts as the road or track went in and out valleys, up and down hills (although as usual I remembered more "ups"). At times there were a few spots of rain but it was not sustained. It was hot and humid.
I stopped at a taverna in Platanos for lunch. The owner did not speak more than a few words of English so I went for omelette and salad, the words being similar in both languages and generally available. While eating I watched Sponge Bob Square Pants on the TV in Greek and wondered who on earth thinks up these stories and whether there are any morals embedded in them for the benefit of the young lad sitting in front of the TV.
Over the last few kilometres into Gythio I was suffering from some problems with my right ankle, so I was glad to reach the edge of town. I walked down to the harbour, with its restaurants grouped around it and confirmed that the ferry to Crete was leaving tomorrow at a shipping agency (although for some reason I could not buy the tickets until the morning).
I am now in the Saga Pension, one of the sponsors of the E4 in the Peloponnese, which is right on the sea front, with a uninterupted sea view from my bedroom. Downstairs the restaurant served me dinner of a plate of small fish and I finished with coffee and a Metaxa brandy to celebrate completion of the Peloponnese stage of the E4.
33 kilometres walked today with a 600 metre ascent.
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| Some of the many flowers I saw today |
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| Gythio seafront at night |
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