Kató Vasilikí – Mythikas 98.41km 🚴♀️ 5.33.07 ⏱ 17.7km/hr ⬆️ 715m ⬇️ 695m
On a day like today, where we know we have to cycle close to a hundred kilometres with some good climbing as well, a great sleep 😴 would have been nice. We were totally ready for it staying in an apartment with actual beds, but more than a handful of mosquitoes decided otherwise. Those bloodsucking bastards kept us awake half of the night. Luckily Suuz was able to give most of them what they deserved, but hey you gotta catch’em all..
We had yoghurt with cruesli and some fruit 🍏🍌for breakfast and Michela served us coffee with toast 🍞and jam. Close to 8.30 we were ready to go. The first part we followed the E05. It was pretty busy but most traffic in Greece 🇬🇷 gives us a lot of space. After a first stretch of uphill the road was pretty much flat for most of the morning as we cut inland from the coast.
Just after Mesolongi we left the E05 and followed a secondary road into the country towards port town Astakos. After about 45km we stopped for coffee ☕️ at a place called ‘Lokaal’, where a friendly Greek lady with perfect English made us super happy with these insanely big cinnamon buns. Not as great as the Canadian version but still very tasty. And huge. Almost the size of my head, so half the size of Suuz her head.
With a little sugar rush the next kilometres went pretty quickly. I drove Suuz crazy by singing the Calimero-theme song 🐣🎼. I can’t really help it since Kalimera is Greek for ‘good morning’ so you see what’s happening here.
Anyway, we were going on and on waiting for this big climb to show up. We knew it was coming but we didn’t know exactly when. We figured it would happen before Astakos since that’s a little harbour town on our route and harbours are not in the mountains ⛰. At least not that I know off. So about ten kilometres before this coastal town the road went uphill. Since we’re heavily packed (our packed bikes weigh about 35kg each) we are really slow uphill. Luckily it was uphill on a completely deserted highway that was newly paved. The downhill that followed was a treat and we rode right into Astakos, where we stopped at an oceanside restaurant for a big lunch.
From the restaurant we could already see the road taking a steep climb. We had 27km more to go until the campground ⛺️ we planned to stay at and knew this was gonna take quite some time. While burping up our big lunch we started our slow ascent on what looked like a busy highway running parallel to the coastline. A highway it was, busy not so much! The road was absolutely amazing. Hardly any cars 🚙, lots of mountain goats 🐐 and a breathtaking view of the ocean and the Greek islands. We passed a signpost and realized that we had stumbled upon the Eurovelo 8 🎱 route, a European cycling route through the Mediterranean. After a while we were dripping in sweat, cycling in the full sun ☀️ for hours. The idea of a jump in the ocean 🌊 upon arrival made it bearable. And again, the view ❤️!
The road circled the mountains ⛰, and after some speedy downhills we finally arrived at campground Bay View situate day right on the beach 🏖 near fishing town Mysthikas. It looked a little spooky. The gate was open and there were caravans everywhere, but no people. We decided to ditch the place and rent an apartment next door instead. Setting us back only €25 💶 (and being desperate for a dip in the ocean) the choice was easily made. We dumped our bags in the room, ran to the ocean and jumped right in. The water is not as cold on this side, or maybe we were just overheated. We definitely got some shoulder burns going on, so that’ll be sleeved 👚 for tomorrow.
After a good shower 🚿 to was off the sweat, dust and sun lotion, we walked to the one and only beach bar that we found to be open and had dinner. The food wasn’t great but most things will do after a big day on the bike. Tomorrow we are cycling two days in one since the fellow cyclists we met earlier informed us there is a tunnel we can take instead of cycling inland all the way around to head further North. The tunnel doesn’t allow cyclists, but apparently if you show up and stand in front of the security camera at the tunnel gate a mini van 🚌 will show up and take you and your bikes through. Saves us about 90 kilometres and gives us an extra day to spend somewhere nice. Good stuff! 👍
Note 🌰 on the side: we saw a lot of road kill today. Really? Yeah really. A lot. Weasel lookalikes , snakes 🐍, cats 🐈, dogs 🐕 (it wasn’t Suuz, promise), grasshoppers 🦗, a raccoon, a turtle 🐢, a hairy animal body in a white trash bag, and also quite some unidentifiable, but very smelly species.
