Rest day, yipeee!
Had a bit of a lie in - until 07:30 anyway.
Joined the 'wedding throngs' for breakfast then did a few chores.
Tracey did some laundry and Miles fettled the tandem ready for the coming week.
Had a communication from the mother ship back in the UK and spent a pleasant half hour chatting to Jackie (Tracey's Mum) on the mobile.
Did a quick tour of the neighbourhood in 37 degrees of heat. Chanced upon an internet café and spent a couple of hours researching options for the final few days (flights/accommodation/trains/ferries etc).
Returned to the hotel in time to witness Hamilton start and stay in 2nd place in the GP of Europe.
Pizza for dinner in town which was absolutely buzzing despite it being Sunday evening.
Back in the saddle tomorrow for what should be a 3 day trip into Athens.
Fingers crossed.
Monday 25 August 2008
Bank Holiday for you UKites, we hope it doesn't rain.
Perhaps due to our new early departure regime, Miles woke at 03:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.
We were all ready to go at the earlier than normal time of 08:00. Delayed slightly by the purchase of yet another drive chain for Disharmony II. This is the fourth of the trip and we're getting about 1000 miles per chain on average. The timing side is still within tolerance so will be left until we return to the UK.
The plan today is to knock out 50 or so miles from Karditsa, Greece to Lamia also Greece. Not sure about the terrain but we'll be sticking to the E65 in the vain hope it doesn't go up too many mountains.
Made short work of the dull dual carriage way that signalled our imminent arrival in Karditsa a couple of days ago.
As the road reduced to single lane, we got the hammer down and really went for the first 25 miles or so. This was helped by super flat terrain and an helpful tailwind.
Made a refuelling stop at a roadside services at just over the hour and then got straight back to it.
The road then started in a naughty upwards direction and we climbed for over 5 twisty miles and 350m to the small town of Domocos.
We made another pit stop as the road crested the summit and Tracey made an immediate friend of the nice lady serving in the bakery.
Mucho CAKE was consumed (and about time too...), followed by mucho juice and on we went.
Dissapointingly, there was an absence of descent to match the hardwork we'd put into the ascent.
After a short section of down, the road levelled then ominously, started to go up again.
There followed an action replay of the earlier climb which culminated in a rather dull summit where we took on extra water.
Greece, in a rush of fair play, then handed us a fantastic and very long descent all the way into Lamia our destination for the day.
As the descent continued, we were rewarded with spectacular views of massive mountains seemingly plonked in the middle of flat plains.
The views were most unexpected and quite breathtaking - go there young man.
We made our way through the outskirts of Lamia to a rendezvous with an hotel we'd previously identified on the interweb. Camping has become a bit of a non option for us currently, mainly due to the complete absence of campgrounds.
Lamia proved to be a charming and quaint little town. We spent some time whiling away the afternoon in the town square near the hotel then did a few chores including fitting the new chain to the tandem.
Dinner was had in a nice little spaghetti house near the hotel and there followed an early night to try and catch up from yesterday.
We plan to try and get out even earlier tomorrow as we've been warned of 39 degrees afternoon temps. here and it seems wise to try and avoid this as much as possible.
Today a hard won though enjoyable 55 miles and 735m of ascent. Total trip 3603 miles.
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
