27 August 2008

Wednesday 27 August 2008

With a bit of luck, a following wind and not too many more Greek monster hills, we should be in Athens tonight.

Our plan has us biking from Livadia, Greece to Athens, obviously also Greece (derrrr...). This is an anticipated distance of around 65 miles though again we don't have any
real idea of what the terrain has in store for us....

Made a very early start by rising at 06:00 followed by a poor breakfast and we hit the road just after 07:30.

Just for a change, it was hot, sunny and with clear blue skies though nice and cool at the earlier start time.

Made short work of exiting Livadia and then bashed out the first 30 miles in 1hr 40mins courtesy of super flat terrain and a reasonable tail wind.

We made a quick bakery stop in Thiva for the biggest ring doughnuts we've ever seen (more like swimming rings than CAKES) and juice.

There followed a nasty steep climb from Thiva via a confusing sequence of diversions set out to avoid a funfair and market. The HGV drivers thought they could disregard the 'road closed' signs and then got themselves in a right royal pickle trying to retrace their steps. Tee hee.

We emerged at the top of the town and then the road levelled for a few miles ending in a rather disconcerting wall of mountains.

As we approached the wall, we commenced the grueller of the day.

We climbed for around 6 miles and over 500m before the road levelled once more.

As we crested the top, the road dropped off into a fantastic and long descent.

Unfortunately, the downhill didn't last all the way to Athens and pretty soon we were engaged in climbing and descending a series of 200m - 300m rollers. Bit like monster corrugated cardboard.

These were just big enough and steep enough to knock the stuffing out of our already mangled legs. By now, temps. had soared to mid 30 Celsius and it felt bloomin hot whilst climbing.

We made another pop stop at a roadside café and enjoyed an 'Acorn Antiques' moment with the Julie Walters character; Mrs Overall being played by the nice lady behind the counter. 'Two Colas anyone?' replaced 'Two soups?'.....

With a bit of tenacity and quite a lot of energy we soon reached the town of Mandra.

Here the road split; motorway into the centre of Athens or dual cabbageway to Pireas the port of Athens.

We chose the latter and soon arrived in Elefsina for the final pop stop of the day.

We were engaged by a very helpful (though voluble) Greek lady who insisted on doing a proper sales job on what the area had to offer. She made us smile when she suggested 20 miles might be too far for us to cycle to one of her recommendations :-)

There followed a rather unpleasant 12 mile of very hot, very noisy, very busy highway into the outskirts of Pireas.

We particularly enjoyed the Greek mainland's sting in the tail which was a 3 mile climb in mid afternoon sun just to finish things off.

At the outskirts of Pireas, in very dense traffic, we followed signs for the Port and made our way to where the passenger ships berth.

These are the boats that connect Crete etc and we'll be taking one tomorrow night.

We'd preselected, and unlike us, booked a very fancy 5* hotel for the night Just to finish off you see.

Unfortunately, we didn't have any directions to it. Pireas was a bit manic so we collared a local cabbie and paid the fare to the hotel whilst we pedalled furiously behind.

We had another smiley moment when the cabbie, after eyeing us up and down, questioned our choice of hotel.

He firstly asked if we had a reservation then declared it's 5* status as if it was not appropriate for a couple of cyclists.

Fair enough, after a day in the saddle, we did look a bit shabby but we're on a bicycle tour not a budget bicycle tour....

We were made very welcome on arrival as we checked in and then followed the usual routine of room/chill/gonk.

If all goes according to plan, tomorrow evening we'll be taking the overnight ferry to Crete. On arrival the following day, we will need a very rapid cycle across the island to catch the Friday Crete/Gavdos ferry.

Hopefully we'll also make the return Gavdos ferry and repeat the rapid trans Crete ride to catch the next overnighter from Crete back to Pireas.

Assuming this all happens, job done.

Today another hot 'n' hilly day of 75 miles and a rather gratuitous 1090m of ascent. Total trip 3738 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

26 August 2008

Tuesday 26 August 2008

The plan for today is to knock off the 60 or so miles between Lamia, Greece and Livadia, Greece. Due to the limitations of our maps, we're not sure what the terrain has in store for us.

We're hoping for a rendition of 'She'll be coming 'round the mountain...' rather than hearing the clarion call; 'Over the top lads....'.

Up and at em at 06:30 and first into breakfast at the hotel. Ready to leave at 08:00 and dived straight into the the chaos of the Lamia rush...

Tracey navigated our way around all the one-way systems and their roadwork related variations.

Disharmony II's new drive chain behaved perfectly, unfortunately her 4000 mile plus gear cassette didn't. We should be able to manage with a couple of skipping gears for the distance we have left and the offending part will be replaced when we get back to the UK.

In clear blue skies and rising temps. we twiddled our way through the first 8 miles or so on a arrow straight (and flat) secondary road due south out of the town.

All the time we were twiddling, we got that uneasy feeling as we were heading straight for a bloody great wall of mountains. 'Nah, we won't be going over that will we?'.....

Well, we will, and we blooming well did. We climbed for 8-9 miles and ~600m of ascent up a lovely twisty and deserted, alleged 'A' road. We think the 'A' category was off as the road was broken and all but unusable for most motorised transport.

At the summit, we made a quick water and bum break then pointed Disharmony II downhill for what we hoped would be a good descent.

The road initially ran alongside a valley and then dropped into a gorge. Fantastic scenery but Miles had to keep both beady eyes on the way ahead as it was very broken, covered in rockfall, very twisty and had zero protective rail over considerable drops.

All too soon the road levelled and we felt a bit cheated.

Our preferred 'A'/Secondary road then crossed the real 'A' road and we continued riding a gradual south easterly descent in lovely surroundings and in traffic isolation.

A quick fuel and bum stop was taken at the village of Amfiklia. Fuelled by juice and ice lollies, we picked up a fantastic descent for a few miles before levelling out again.

Our route continued to parallel the railway line and hug the bottoms of the surrounding mountains. Thankfully, it resisted the temptation to go for more altitude.

The road eventually wended it's way around another mountain and we dropped into Livadia, our destination for the day.

We'd picked out a suitable hotel for the evening whilst Internerd surfing and with a little (read lot) local help we found ourselves stood outside just after 14:00.

After checking into the hotel we completed our localisation by spending the next couple of hours enjoying a siesta. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Assuming tomorrow goes as planned, we should end up in a nice 5* hotel in the Pireas district of Athens.

This just leaves one more day of cycling across Crete and Gavdos to complete our Euro End 2 End journey. Sighhhhhhh......

Today a hot 'n' hilly 60 miles and 845m of ascent. Total trip 3663 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

24 & 25 August 2008

Sunday 24 August 2008

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.

22 August 2008

Friday 22 August 2008

The plan for today is for us to cycle the 55 or so miles from Ptolemaida, Greece to Elassona also Greece via the E65. We've decided to use main routes if possible to try and avoid any unnecessary navigational howlers.

Decent and early breakfast at the hotel as we have planned to start each day earlier to avoid too much afternoon heat. That's the plan, we shall see...

Managed to get away before 08:30, but we'll need to improve on this.

Straight into Ptolemaida town centre to fill the wallet with Euro's then out onto the E65 to blitz some miles.

More blue skies today with a bit of haze to camouflage the bigger mountains further away and the usual mid 30's Celsius expected by this afternoon. Really, really scorcio!

We headed south east towards Kozani and the intersection with the main A2 motorway. Decent climb followed by a really good descent all the way towards Kozani.

Usual bum break and human fuel stop at roadside services at just over the hour mark.

At the junction with the A2, picked our way through the various twists and turns of the feeder roads and worked our way back onto the E65. No one said the Greeks like to do transport systems easily....

Passed a couple of restricted military sites (no photos on pain of death...) and knocked off a bit of a climb and a few nasty rollers.

Payback was a fantastic and loooong descent to Lake Aliakmona. We were now back at ~350m despite all the hard work!

We crossed the lake via their 1.3km bridge and Tracey spotted a few Pelicans doing Pelicany things by the side of the lake.

After the bridge, the road heaved upwards and so it began....

We continued to climb through the village of Servia and stopped when we reached Metaxas 12 miles and nearly 900m later. How we enjoyed the midday sun...

After all the fun of climbing, we were rewarded with a decent descent. However, Miles kept Disharmony II on a short rein and moderated the speed accordingly.

This proved very fortuitous as a few miles into the descent Tracey detected a back end wobble. Now, normally this would be met with a few ribald jokes, however, we'd suffered yet another dratted puncture in the rear tyre.

Had we been going full pelt, it's questionable whether any semblance of control could have been maintained. Phew!

Another roadside repair by Miles followed by some vigorous pumping (oooerrr) had us back in the saddle and finishing the remainder of the descent.

The road dropped into a broad and open plateau surrounded by mountains, one a bit bigger than all the rest.

At our next bum break, we enquired as to the identity of the 'big un' and 'Olympus' came the reply. All we can say is, it's a damn good job we don't have to bike over the blooming thing as it's mahoosive.

By now, we were operating under the misapprehension that we were quite close to our destination of Elassona. Not so.

We had another 15 miles of painful rolling countryside that seemed more up than down and to go on for ever. We were just a tad pooped.

After too long, the road took a downwards turn and we began the last descent of the day into Elassona.

We'd already identified the only digs in town so with a bit of local intervention, we made our way directly there.

Elassona proved to be a lovely little hill town with pavement cafes and nice little Tavernas. The people were very helpful and friendly and apart from a slightly crap meal, we really enjoyed our stay.

Our 'hotel' on the other hand, must have been the poshest yet as it had a sauna built into the bedroom. In fact it was the bedroom. We found it quite hard to sleep constantly slipping out of bed....

Today a very hot and back breaking/bum searing 70 miles and a significant 1275m of ascent. Total trip 3486 miles.

Saturday 23 August 2008

In line with our new 'early departure' policy, we were out of our superheated hotel before 08:00.

This was mainly due to the lack of breakfast facilities and we soon lost the time advantage foraging in town.

Our daily plan has us biking from Elassona, Greece to Karditsa also Greece. A distance of around 60 miles. Hopefully these will prove to be 'normal' miles and not the elongated variety we enjoyed yesterday.

Weather dully predictable; hot, sunny with clear blue skies. Half a chance (read racing certainty) of 36 degrees later. Help!

On leaving Elassona, enjoyed the Greek game of 'follow insufficient signage in most unlikely direction' and somehow found ourselves going the right way on the right road.

Following signs for the 'new national road' had us grasstracking and using unmade lanes that bore little resemblance to any sort of road new or old. (huh?)

To start our day, we had a 'bit of a climb' out of the valley, this time just a little 3 miler of gradual ascent.

This was followed by a very reasonable and pleasant 3.5 mile descent.

We continued to follow the E65 through broad, open valleys surrounded by hills. The difference today is we seem to be going around rather than over. Nice one.

At the small town of Tirnavos, we abandoned our cunning main road plan and made a bid for a lovely secondary road that cut through open country.

This route was surrounded by lovely scenery liberally dotted with vineyards Very picturesque.

After 10 miles or so, we picked up the main E92 which connected us to Farkadonas and the start of our next secondary road sourjourn.

We followed this for approx. 18 miles on mainly flat roads again surrounded by those menacing bumps.

The heat continued to build and the Greek countryside was littered with various items of discarded Goff clothing and equipment. We kept enough just to spare any blushes.

Regular lolly and pop stops were made to try and stave off some of the effects of the heat and exertion, our last being 15 miles before our final destination.

Presently, the secondary road intersected the main E65 and we turned due west (i.e. the wrong way) towards Karditsa, our destination for the night.

Karditsa was chosen due to it having several hotels and we plan to take our scheduled rest day tomorrow so will need reasonable facilities for dossing around in.

We made our way along 5 or so miles of deadly dull dual carriageway into the centre of town.

We made short work of finding the selected hotel and rocked up to check in.

Quelle horreur! There was no room at the inn (or it's 3 mates). Bugger, double bugger and an additional sh!t for good measure.

We'd knocked out our daily miles early and had a succession of really tough days over the past week and IT WAS NOT FAIR! (tsssk how childish).

Having exhausted the in town options we started to look further a field.

These ranged from an additional 55 miles of cycling to grovelling up some distant mountains in the vain hope there may be an hotel with availability.

We also checked out motorised options and neither the trains nor local taxis were big enough to take on Disharmony II.

Oh dear, we were in a pickle. We sat and cogitated at the railway station coming to the conclusion, it was going to be a night of 'Goff dossing' in the local park.

Being eternal optimists, we cycled back into town to see if the tearful female approach would bear any fruit.

Back at the first hotel, Miles sat glumly in the shade outside whilst Tracey went in to work her magic. She shortly emerged with a Cheshire cat like grin as the hotel had just received a cancellation and we were now very much in. Sighs of relief all around.

Whoever said 'fortune favours the brave' got it bang on apart from, in our case, it might have been 'luck sometimes follows the slightly stupid'.

Rest day tomorrow and Hamilton is second on the grid. Yipeee.

Today a splendid 62 miles and a meagre 389m of ascent. Total trip 3548 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

21 August 2008

Thursday 21 August 2008

We've been away 9 weeks today - yay!

Made an early-ish start and managed to get down for breakfast a little before 08:00... although....

As we waited for the dining room to open, we were advised by the waiter to come back at 07:00'. 'Silly bugger' we thought as it was already 07:50.

Turns out, we'd been operating in a space/time anomaly during our time in Macedonia.

For some strange reason, Macedonia are on BST+1 hour whilst all their neighbours are BST+2. We didn't know this and managed to traverse the entire country before finding out. Dick heads.

Today's plan has us leaving Macedonia and reaching our last and 12th country of the trip; Greece. A distance of about 50 miles ending in Ptolemaida

After a belated feast, we attempted to hit the road at the corrected time of 08:15. Unfortunately Disharmony II wasn't playing again and had picked up another overnight slow puncture.

Rather than chance a quick pump, Tracey suggested we ignore this and mend the bike instead! Ha! Not really.

Miles spent half an hour looking for a needle in a haystack (or a pinhole in an inner tube) and eventually elected to replace the offending item.

Later than intended, we used our navigational skills (and a goodly portion of luck) and headed the correct way out of Bitola, Macedonia.

We rapidly banged out 10 flat miles to the Macedonian/Greek border and quickly found ourselves back in Euroland.

This was a bitter sweet moment as we've both really enjoyed Macedonia after a few apprehensive moments and contrary advice on what to expect.

The FCO were warning of roaming bandito's and unexploded ordnance from the recent conflicts in this part of the world. However we saw non of this and found the country enchanting and the people very welcoming and friendly. Definitely worth a visit.

Just over the border we sampled our first Greek pop and choccy at a roadside services then hit the road with serious intent (though no Euro's!).

We headed south east on the E65 and had a fantastic couple of 1:10 descents presumably from altitude 'banked' yesterday as there was precious little climbing involved.

Unfortunately, during one of these 40mph drops, Miles picked up another wasp sting (shin - ouch) presumably from a p!ssed off insect objecting to being walloped by a speeding Goff.

Great riding in climbing temps. (and the usual blue skies) saw us entering a bit of a maze of new/old road that wasn't fully depicted on our maps.

We did a bit of 'making it up as we went along' (and asked the locals who turned out to be Greek chatterboxes) and eventually found ourselves once again heading towards Ptolemaida and up a couple of stinker hills.

En route, we passed countless Buzzards hunting by the roadside but little other wildlife (perhaps the Buzzards had eaten it).

For good measure, Disharmony II had another hissy fit and punctured the back tyre for the second time today (why does it always have to be the bloomin back?). This one was patched by the roadside and we were quickly on our way again.

We continued to roam the countryside in the general direction of Ptolemaida (though more signage would help Mr Greek Transport Minister) and eventually rocked up at the outskirts of the city.

We'd researched likely bolt holes before arriving and made a bee line (don't mention bees anymore!) for the first hotel off our list.

Usual routine, checked in, chilled out and refuelled. Fade to Z'ds.....

A nice introduction to Greek cycling. Quiet roads, few hills (so far) though very hot and poorly sign posted.

Today a rather lazy sluttish 48 miles and 385m of ascent. Total trip 3415 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

20 August 2008

Wednesday 20 August 2008

Had a reasonable breakfast at our hotel served by a smiling waiter who looked as though he was ex-Macedonian Secret Service.

The plan for today is to reach Bitola, Macedonia from Negotino also Macedonia. This is a distance of around 60 miles and should leave us less than 10 miles from the Greek/Macedonian border.

Set off well before 09:00 in a freezing blizzard plus howling gale.....

Errrr....not.

Sorry UK-ites, more blue skies and the promise of mid 30's Celsius later in the day.

Did someone say it's been raining a bit in the UK?.......

Managed to navigate through Negotino by the old technique of 'more luck than judgement' primarily due to the paucity of road signage.

Got ourselves on the scenic route through the Tikves wine region, Macedonian's equivalent of France's Bordeaux.

We had a very pretty scenic ride through to Kavadarci where we were once again lucky with our choices of direction.

Picked up a couple of stonking hills and a good descent, eventually finding our way back onto the main route 106 to Prilep.

Shortly after joining 106, the road started to rise and so it carried on. We slowly gained nearly 1000m of height over the next 17 miles.

At each bend in the road, we hoped the summit would be revealed but alas not.

We had the 'pleasure' of grinding out 95% of the climb before a roadside café came to the rescue and pop gorging began.

Between us we consumed more E's than in a Yorkshire Scrabble set and enough sugar to send an infant into orbit for many hours!

Replenished, we knocked off a 1:7 section then the last couple of miles to the summit at Pletvar.

As we stopped for the inevitable piccies and slurp, we were constantly pipped and waved at by the passing motorists. At least they appreciated the effort that had gone into the climb.

We set off to descend the 'far side' and were a little disappointed as the road was being resurfaced and we had to keep our speed well in check.

Shortly, we arrived at the outskirts of Prilep, Macedonia and elected to use the by-pass rather than fight through the centre.

This joined the M5, which cut through a wide flat valley.

Few ups, fewer downs and a bit of a head/cross wind accompanied us as we banjaxed the final 25 miles into Bitola.

We made a final ice lolly and pop stop outside Bitola then made our way into the interior....

All day, the local people have been very friendly and considerate on the roads. As we rode into Bitola, a Macedonian Bono lookalike hung out of his car shouting felicitations at us.

This has been a very common occurrence during our time here and makes a nice change from some of the other countries we've visited.

As we worked our way through the outskirts of Bitola, we were given more unsolicited help in finding our hotel for the evening and we were rapidly ensconced in our room.

Very nice hotel, very nice restaurant.

Today a hard and mainly uphill 65 miles and a silly 1170m of ascent. Total trip 3368 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

Macedonia - Just After The Border