Island Hopping
Finally Camping Again
7th May - 10th May | 2023
After all packed up and paid, I left towards the ancient ruins of Nicopolis. Osmand found even a lovely offroad track for me :-D Some of the ruins you could visit for free and some you had to pay, so guess what I have only visited. After that, I went through the underwater tunnel to the island of Lefkada. By late lunchtime, I was already at the ferry port Vasiliki, where at 15h00 the ferry to Kefalonia should leave. It was a bit of running/driving around to get the tickets at the harbour booth nobody was. In town at the sales office as well nobody. So I checked their website again and it said that people have to collect and pay for their tickets at the harbour sales office 1 hour prior to leaving. So back to the harbour. Of course, nobody showed up until 30 mins prior ;-), but I got my ticket.
60mins later I was on the island of Kefalonia and went to the town of Sumi for an official camping. It was a huge one, but still off-season, so very quiet and directly at the sea. A lovely German family was next to my camping spot and we had a really nice conversation.
The next day I decided to visit the south half of the island, which took me about 5 hours due to foto stops and setting the track for OsmAnd every so often. I don´t know why, but I didn’t enjoy it at all... not sure if it is the weather, the thinking of the bad weather coming up again, expensive but crappy accommodation around Greece or this island is simply not made for me.... So I decided to get the ferry back to the mainland tomorrow to carry on. Hopefully, I will be in a better mood and click again with this beautiful country.
As the ferry from Poros leaves at 9h30 I had to start the day at 7am - and the first thing was AGAIN wiping off the cat pee and clean it off! That was really annoying at this camping with the cats!! Once all packed away I headed to the ferry in Poros and made it on time. It was a very modern small ferry boat. As I thought it was a 3 hrs ride, I got some breakfast and plunged comfortably on a chair to finally answer all the messages I got from lovely Greeks about accommodating me, my bike or us both! As I am heading to Athens, I posted a request on social media and the response was overwhelming - now I have to sort the possibilities out! Thank you all!!
90mins later we were already in Killini - oops, that was faster than I thought! So once off the boat, I had to set my track to Olympia, as I was prepared for a 3hrs ferry ride.
This time I opted for the "offroad" version on OsmAnd, as there are no really high mountains around, just rolling hills. Riding through a beautiful panorama was lovely - all so lush and green! The track went mainly over well-prepared farm tracks, so it was really nice and easy for me to get into the swing. Later on, I caught a track, that started to deteriorate more and more in the high grass that I had to scout it. I was obviously too optimistic about it, as after about 2km it ended in a complete washout, so I had to backtrack to the main road. Unfortunately, I lost my momentum at one point, and as my legs couldn’t reach the ground to stabilise us, we were down. Great, first time now with the new set-up and being alone!
I was prepared for a long battle to get the bike up, but I was lucky with the position that gravity helped me! I wish that would be in future always the case!! So packing the rollback and getting dressed again and off we again. The rest of the day, it was street, as had my share for today ;-)
In Olympia, I went to the camping Alfios where I was warmly welcomed by an elderly Greek lady. She had a fantastic sense of humour, and she was really helpful with her information. Once the tent was up it was time for a shower after my today's Olympic discipline of weightlifting. The next one was, downhill, visit the archaeological site of Olympia within 45 mins, before they close for the day and walk the steep hill up to the camping for 1km! I don’t need to say how tired I was at the end of the day! It didn’t take me too long to hit my pillow - after answering more messages about Athens.
The next day I finally decided to stay 2 nights in a hotel at the coast, in Messini, as I have to catch up again on my loose ends and now even looking up all the options for Athens. Somehow I am not yet in my travel rhythm that I arrive somewhere about 16h/17h and have then in the evening all the time to do my "office stuff". Well, I will get eventually there ;-) Also was rain again forecasted, so the tent was then no option at all.
Once all packed up I decided to hop on a bit on the TET (www.transeurotrail.org) to reach the coast. I even set OsmAnd on offroad to get there.
Again it was lovely farm tracks over or around rolling hills. Once again was on a track that deteriorated, or at least it would have been good to have another person for the worst bit, so another turnaround... The TET then was first lovely, twisty back roads and some offroad over a mountain; all very fast and no challenges - good for me, so I could really enjoy it. Once at the coast, it was road again to the new castle of Methoni.
At some point, a big bike with panniers followed me for a long time and after a while, I pulled into a petrol station to see if the other rider would follow so that we could chat, but he/she continued. It was a German number plate. So I carried on and at some road work I lost "sight". Somehow I had the feeling I will meet later on at one of the sites this rider - and I did! At the new castle of Pyros. Thorsten from Würzburg on his Harley Davidson PanAm. So we chatted and chatted until we found out that he will stay for 2 nights in a hotel in the next town of Messini. So we decided to ride together to visit the new castle of Methoni and then towards the hotels.
It was really nice, to ride in company for a change! Whilst visiting the huge area of the castle we could chat a bit more, so the time flew by. However, if you are ever in the area, spend a visit to this area. Due to the girl at the entrance, it was once the biggest castle in the Balkans.
I was so glad to be in the hotel for the night, I was still or again very tired. I am a bit concerned about this tiredness... I wonder if at the end of the "Expedition Antarctica" I might have caught long-covid, also as I had that tickly dry cough until about 2 weeks ago! Tomorrow it will be mainly an "office" day and relaxing, AND more company coming up! Stay tuned for the next blog.... and here comes the bad news! Anabela, the brain of the blog, will be embarking on new adventures, so we will try to keep the blog up twice a week, but it might be a bit out of rhythm.
Places | Cities:
Ksamil, Lefkada island, Kefalonia island, Olympia, Methoni, Messini.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 4755 km
Information Border Crossings (in May 2023):
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Maintenance | Breakdown:
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Health issues:
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Special thanks to:
TET (www.transeurotrail.org) to use some lovely backroads and easy-flowing mountain tracks.
Peleponnes here in Greece to be so beautiful.