Walking on the ancient mule track down the mountainside into Delphi, with its atmospheric remains of classical Greece, was a major milestone of the trip.
The trouble with buffet breakfasts at a place like the Mavrodimos guesthouse, where they have an appetizing display of enticing edibles, is that you want to try a bit of everything from the rice pudding to the sheep's yoghurt to the three types of home-made jam. This makes your tummy a little heavy for climbing out of town!
A climb was certainly necessary to regain the mountains I was in yesterday, fortunately the route up, out of town was on dirt tracks through the pine woods, a lot easier than the fight down the mountainside to get into Eptalofu yesterday. The tracks continued for some time until I reached the point I was warned about by the owner of the guesthouse. The E4 climbs a path to the plateau of Kalania. He told me that the first 200 metres after the spring was difficult. It was the usual case of not being able to find a path, pushing through tree branches and climbing over rocks on my GPS track until I reached a small but consistent trail which climbed to the plateau with occasional E4 waymarks. The plateau was a flatish area of grassland with a few ploughed areas surrounded by trees, a bit unusual in such a mountainous area.
After the plateau a dirt track wound around the trees until the E4 took off on a more important path towards Delphi. This last section of the E4 towards Delphi seems to get more walkers, certainly the path was easy to follow. Leaving the pine trees behind it enters a noticeably dryer area and begins its descent into Delphi. No longer do tall pines cling to the mountainside, instead bush size Holm oaks and numerous brightly coloured flowers grow among the rocks. For this final descent the E4 is on a well made path with rough limestone blocks forming the edges and crude steps. The paths makes long sweeps back and forth across the mountainside as it slowly descends, so slowly you wonder if it will every reach the town of Delphi that I could see below me. There were tantalising glimpses of the stadium in the famous archaeological site where naked Greeks once raced. Finally in a profusion of yellow flowers I reached a road on the edge of Delphi and a little later booked into the Hotel Athina.
Although I had visited the ruins twice before I felt I could not leave Delphi without a brief walk up the sacred way to pay tribute to Apollo and the view from his temple, the tall yellow fennel growing among the ruins added to the beauty of the scene in the evening light.
Then it was dinner at one of the many restaurants overlooking the Gulf of Corinth and Itea, the town I will be walking to tomorrow. Before dinner I foolishly thought to compare myself favourably with the muscular marble torsos in the Delphi museum, but now I am looking and feeling distinctly pot bellied. I blame it on the bean soup....
19.8 kilometres walked today, with an ascent of 660 metres.
A GPX file of my route can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or from myViewRanger short code johnpon0042.
The trouble with buffet breakfasts at a place like the Mavrodimos guesthouse, where they have an appetizing display of enticing edibles, is that you want to try a bit of everything from the rice pudding to the sheep's yoghurt to the three types of home-made jam. This makes your tummy a little heavy for climbing out of town!
A climb was certainly necessary to regain the mountains I was in yesterday, fortunately the route up, out of town was on dirt tracks through the pine woods, a lot easier than the fight down the mountainside to get into Eptalofu yesterday. The tracks continued for some time until I reached the point I was warned about by the owner of the guesthouse. The E4 climbs a path to the plateau of Kalania. He told me that the first 200 metres after the spring was difficult. It was the usual case of not being able to find a path, pushing through tree branches and climbing over rocks on my GPS track until I reached a small but consistent trail which climbed to the plateau with occasional E4 waymarks. The plateau was a flatish area of grassland with a few ploughed areas surrounded by trees, a bit unusual in such a mountainous area.
After the plateau a dirt track wound around the trees until the E4 took off on a more important path towards Delphi. This last section of the E4 towards Delphi seems to get more walkers, certainly the path was easy to follow. Leaving the pine trees behind it enters a noticeably dryer area and begins its descent into Delphi. No longer do tall pines cling to the mountainside, instead bush size Holm oaks and numerous brightly coloured flowers grow among the rocks. For this final descent the E4 is on a well made path with rough limestone blocks forming the edges and crude steps. The paths makes long sweeps back and forth across the mountainside as it slowly descends, so slowly you wonder if it will every reach the town of Delphi that I could see below me. There were tantalising glimpses of the stadium in the famous archaeological site where naked Greeks once raced. Finally in a profusion of yellow flowers I reached a road on the edge of Delphi and a little later booked into the Hotel Athina.
Although I had visited the ruins twice before I felt I could not leave Delphi without a brief walk up the sacred way to pay tribute to Apollo and the view from his temple, the tall yellow fennel growing among the ruins added to the beauty of the scene in the evening light.
Then it was dinner at one of the many restaurants overlooking the Gulf of Corinth and Itea, the town I will be walking to tomorrow. Before dinner I foolishly thought to compare myself favourably with the muscular marble torsos in the Delphi museum, but now I am looking and feeling distinctly pot bellied. I blame it on the bean soup....
19.8 kilometres walked today, with an ascent of 660 metres.
A GPX file of my route can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or from myViewRanger short code johnpon0042.
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| Apollo's temple at ancient Delphi |
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| One of the many types of brightly coloured flowers |
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