A long and painful day crossing the steep and wooded mountains to Eptalofu. Painful as the blisters on my left foot were not to be ignored.
The day began early with a longish road walk passed old and not so old quarries to a pass. Some Googling indicates there are bauxite mines here (used to make aluminium) and even a museum. After the quarries I had a choice. The E4 officially goes up a dirt track and then a few kilometres of "path". Given recent experience I had my doubts about whether the path would be passable. Instead I had a GPS route from a blog by Stefanos Stamelou that went up a dirt track some way down the road which was visible on my maps, joining the official E4 higher up. Despite the extra 5 kilometres or so this route would involve I decided to take it, at least I knew it had seen recent use. Whether this was the right decision I do not know. On my way down the road I passed a petrol station with a cafe, hope of a coffee was dashed as I saw it was closed.
After walking down the road and climbing back up the vehicle track past goat pasture and into trees. I rejoined the official E4, there was no sign of the path it was meant to follow, although the undergrowth was not too thick beneath the pine trees so it may have been walkable. The vehicle track lead me to some high meadows, then another the E4 takes another "path" across a mixture of pasture, trees and rock outcrops. Flowers, spread across the pasture, were somewhat subdued by the intermittent rain. I was subdued by having to fight through trees and climb over rocks as I followed the route of the alleged path.
Another track took me a good distance around the side of the mountainside gaining height so that I could see the Peloponnese in the grey distance across the Gulf of Corinth, my next destination. Then I was engulfed by cloud as the track crossed a pass, reaching one of the many isolated mountain churches, complete with a full set of icons.
A "path" off the track, which I initially missed, took me down to Eptalofu. Although I spotted bits of paths in places, and even the occasional E4 waymark, really it was more of a routing that you follow with your GPS as best you can, down the mountainside, pushing through trees, stumbling over rocks and squashing plants and flowers. In the meadows lower down my treading on wild thyme gave the air a pleasant herby smell.
Tired and footsore I stopped at the first accommodation that had signs of life, the excellent Mavrodimos, which was a good choice with English speaking staff, heated rooms and reasonable prices. My dinner of locally produced lamb chops was really tasty. The square in the centre of the village was pretty lively, unlike the "suburbs" which had a number of half built houses.
I am now hoping my sore feet can make it to Delphi tomorrow.
33.6 kilometres covered today with a total ascent of 1120 metres.
A GPX file of my route can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or from myViewRanger short code johnpon0042.
The day began early with a longish road walk passed old and not so old quarries to a pass. Some Googling indicates there are bauxite mines here (used to make aluminium) and even a museum. After the quarries I had a choice. The E4 officially goes up a dirt track and then a few kilometres of "path". Given recent experience I had my doubts about whether the path would be passable. Instead I had a GPS route from a blog by Stefanos Stamelou that went up a dirt track some way down the road which was visible on my maps, joining the official E4 higher up. Despite the extra 5 kilometres or so this route would involve I decided to take it, at least I knew it had seen recent use. Whether this was the right decision I do not know. On my way down the road I passed a petrol station with a cafe, hope of a coffee was dashed as I saw it was closed.
After walking down the road and climbing back up the vehicle track past goat pasture and into trees. I rejoined the official E4, there was no sign of the path it was meant to follow, although the undergrowth was not too thick beneath the pine trees so it may have been walkable. The vehicle track lead me to some high meadows, then another the E4 takes another "path" across a mixture of pasture, trees and rock outcrops. Flowers, spread across the pasture, were somewhat subdued by the intermittent rain. I was subdued by having to fight through trees and climb over rocks as I followed the route of the alleged path.
Another track took me a good distance around the side of the mountainside gaining height so that I could see the Peloponnese in the grey distance across the Gulf of Corinth, my next destination. Then I was engulfed by cloud as the track crossed a pass, reaching one of the many isolated mountain churches, complete with a full set of icons.
A "path" off the track, which I initially missed, took me down to Eptalofu. Although I spotted bits of paths in places, and even the occasional E4 waymark, really it was more of a routing that you follow with your GPS as best you can, down the mountainside, pushing through trees, stumbling over rocks and squashing plants and flowers. In the meadows lower down my treading on wild thyme gave the air a pleasant herby smell.
Tired and footsore I stopped at the first accommodation that had signs of life, the excellent Mavrodimos, which was a good choice with English speaking staff, heated rooms and reasonable prices. My dinner of locally produced lamb chops was really tasty. The square in the centre of the village was pretty lively, unlike the "suburbs" which had a number of half built houses.
I am now hoping my sore feet can make it to Delphi tomorrow.
33.6 kilometres covered today with a total ascent of 1120 metres.
A GPX file of my route can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or from myViewRanger short code johnpon0042.
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| Quarries, maybe for bauxite |
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| My first sight of the Peloponnese across the Gulf of Corinth |
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