Apart from an overgrown path, an easy day passing through a few villages.
Leaving Hotel Alexander after a good breakfast, I pass one of the old white minis (the car not the dress), a nostalgic exhibit it seems to accompany other diverse artifacts at the hotel, like pictures of different knots. After a walk along a road passed cherry orchards to the sound of a flock of sheep somewhere I soon reach the first village of Elenes. The next section is one of those overgrown paths through low thorny bushes, thistles and sage plants, where I followed red waymarks (somewhat confusing at one place), my GPS track and my nose in an attempt to work out where I should be going until I spot the Austrian group ahead of me. This makes navigation easier (having done the route 20 times must make it easier to find). On reaching a road I pass them on some detour dictated by my GPS which avoids a few hundred metres of road. We meet again while I am having coffee at a cafe in the next settlement of Amari at the bottom of a cobbled path. The bell tower looks impressive but the sign says it was built at the beginning of the century, so not so old.
On my way to the village of Lambiotes I try to follow the detours off the tarmac indicated by my GPS, following dirt tracks among the rocks and bushes. On the first one a padlocked gate, with a sign warning of a guard dog, forces me to return to the road. I am more successful on the second one which delivers me to Lambiotes. I keep passing small Orthodox chapels, each with the same design and interior fittings: an iconostasis (a screen hiding the alter with icons on), a lectern, a place to burn candles, a lamp or two and some icons and maybe wall paintings. The paintings of Jesus, Mary and the saints always look so solemn, today in particular they seemed to be frowning.
After Lambiotes it was down a valley, a tricky water crossing, then uphill to Fourfouras. I passed some old ruins: an arch and a section of aqueduct. A later sign indicated somewhere nearby there were some Byzantine ruins of a Christian church. I reached Fourfouras walking up through an old part of town where the houses were almost built on top of each other. Tonight I am staying at the "Windy Place", the Psiloritis mountain range I hope to cross in the next few days is apparently quite breezy. My GPS gave me the position of the rooms, but when I arrived they were all shut up. I had no phone signal to call the owner so I asked a few people and finally reached the Windy Place taverna which is at a different location to the rooms. My delay in finding the place meant that the Austrian party arrived first and were already enjoying a cold beer. I guess enthusiasm must bow to experience!
17 kilometres walked today with a 460 metre ascent.
Leaving Hotel Alexander after a good breakfast, I pass one of the old white minis (the car not the dress), a nostalgic exhibit it seems to accompany other diverse artifacts at the hotel, like pictures of different knots. After a walk along a road passed cherry orchards to the sound of a flock of sheep somewhere I soon reach the first village of Elenes. The next section is one of those overgrown paths through low thorny bushes, thistles and sage plants, where I followed red waymarks (somewhat confusing at one place), my GPS track and my nose in an attempt to work out where I should be going until I spot the Austrian group ahead of me. This makes navigation easier (having done the route 20 times must make it easier to find). On reaching a road I pass them on some detour dictated by my GPS which avoids a few hundred metres of road. We meet again while I am having coffee at a cafe in the next settlement of Amari at the bottom of a cobbled path. The bell tower looks impressive but the sign says it was built at the beginning of the century, so not so old.
On my way to the village of Lambiotes I try to follow the detours off the tarmac indicated by my GPS, following dirt tracks among the rocks and bushes. On the first one a padlocked gate, with a sign warning of a guard dog, forces me to return to the road. I am more successful on the second one which delivers me to Lambiotes. I keep passing small Orthodox chapels, each with the same design and interior fittings: an iconostasis (a screen hiding the alter with icons on), a lectern, a place to burn candles, a lamp or two and some icons and maybe wall paintings. The paintings of Jesus, Mary and the saints always look so solemn, today in particular they seemed to be frowning.
After Lambiotes it was down a valley, a tricky water crossing, then uphill to Fourfouras. I passed some old ruins: an arch and a section of aqueduct. A later sign indicated somewhere nearby there were some Byzantine ruins of a Christian church. I reached Fourfouras walking up through an old part of town where the houses were almost built on top of each other. Tonight I am staying at the "Windy Place", the Psiloritis mountain range I hope to cross in the next few days is apparently quite breezy. My GPS gave me the position of the rooms, but when I arrived they were all shut up. I had no phone signal to call the owner so I asked a few people and finally reached the Windy Place taverna which is at a different location to the rooms. My delay in finding the place meant that the Austrian party arrived first and were already enjoying a cold beer. I guess enthusiasm must bow to experience!
17 kilometres walked today with a 460 metre ascent.
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| Path after Elenes, catching up with the Austrian party |
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| Blocked route |
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| Byzantine remains? |
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