It was raining this morning, so I delayed my departure and went and got some breakfast. I repacked which wasn’t simple, because I got a new handlebar bag yesterday. Now I’ve got to work out where everything goes all over again. That’ll take a week or so I think.
I had one last look at Athens on the way out. I certainly have a love hate relationship with this place. Love the antiquities hate the tourists.
Yesterday, I picked up This Moment from Frederiks Bikes. Frederik and Vangelis are really nice people and did a great job on the bike. I got a new rear brake disc, a new bottom bracket along with a clean and regrease of the EBB. They also installed my spare brake pads that I’ve been carrying for the last 15,000 kms. They looked after some of my gear while I was on the islands. I had a long chat with Vangelis about what he did to the bike and what he found. In the end, it was hard to leave – it’s such a friendly bike shop.
(after five days of riding now, the bike is still perfect).
I had to though, because I was picking up my new handlebar bag from Ioannis at ENA Bags. He runs a small business making bikepacking gear and I got the large carradice bag overnight – which I’ll use on the front. Before I went to the islands, I rode out to meet Ioannis and see the bags he makes. He’s really impressive and so is his approach. In the end, I just decided to get one because of this. It was a little extravagant, but I love it.
Back to today’s ride …
As I mentioned, I had one last look at the nicer parts of Athens and dove into the overcast skies and somewhat featureless suburbs on the way north. The first 20+ kms were uphill. They weren’t difficult, but there was hardly any relaxing or resting to be done. It drizzled for a while and the traffic was busy and unforgiving as it is in most large cities.
I stopped for lunch at a nice cafe and took my time, as I was expecting only 60kms and I was done with most of the climbing.
As I went further north, at around the 20km mark, I passed through some more upmarket leafy suburbs with larger well kept gardens. Everything seemed more relaxed here with plenty of cafes and restaurants around.
I made it to the coast and found the place I wanted to camp. It was super windy with dogs around, so I kept looking. A few locals told me not to camp near here but couldn’t offer an alternative. As I went further there were even more houses, so I decided to check booking.com.
It was 7pm and I booked a place which was less than 5kms away apparently (according to the website). It was nearly 10kms in the end, up and down a big hill and with one friendly dog chase.
I finally got to the room at 8pm after more than 1000m of climbing. I’m not used to this just yet !