A 350-MILE CYCLE TOUR IN THE NORTH OF THE GREEK PELOPONNESE

FEBRUARY 1998

Leaving our motorhome at Glyfa, west of Gastouni in the north-west corner of the Peloponnese, on the excellent Ionion Beach Camping, we were tempted by the early spring weather to make a circular 7-day bicycle tour of the northern Peloponnese. Riding the route again today, 2006, little will have changed and a few things will have improved.

The total ride was 350 miles (560 km) in 7 days, giving an average of 50 miles (80 km) a day.

Day 1 IONION BEACH – Hotel Hercules, OLYMPIA £15.50

We awoke to the sound of rain but the sky cleared mid-morning and we decided to go ahead with our cycle tour. With our motorbike tucked away in the campsite drying room among the sacks of corn and our motorhome well locked up, we left by 11.15 am, posted some letters and ate in the 'Break' in Gastouni.

Then a hard slog, pushing south against a strong wind (not from the north, as forecast) for 15 miles along the New National Road to Pirgos. Here we had a brief rest over coffee and cakes in the Eurospar before the final 15 miles east into an even stronger wind to Olympia, on a relatively busy, uphill road.

Olympian Tourist Information provided a list of Pensions/Hotels which were open, the price of a basic room averaging £16 a night (breakfast extra). We chose the Hotel Hercules: white plastered walls and tiled floor, a small 'bathroom' with a shower, toilet and basin, warm radiator and hot water in the evening. As usual, having bought our main meal at lunch-time, we made our own supper and breakfast in the room, using our trusty Camping Gaz stove.

Day 2 OLYMPIA – Motel, LANGADIA £11.00

After fresh rolls and yogurt, fetched from the bakery opposite, we were away by 9.30 am on a warm, sunny day with clear blue sky and a cold edge to the easterly wind. We climbed virtually all day, the only variation being in the gradient, on 40 miles of wonderfully quiet roads through forests and villages and gorges, past banks of blue iris and colourful anemones, until we reached scrubland and rocks above the tree-line.

We passed the site and stadium of Ancient Olympia as the first tourist group of the day went in. One or two village schools were char-grilling meat in the playground on 'Singe the Meat Thursday', one of the pre-Lent festivities. Our route followed the River Alfios eastwards for a time but kept leaping above it, not easy going. After climbing 2 passes, we stopped to brew up by a church at noon, then onward and upward, the wind getting stronger, sometimes against us and sometimes behind as our road zig-zagged for 5 miles, with one more break to mend Barry's front wheel puncture before reaching Stavrodromio. Here we had a welcome meal: half an hour's solid eating, with Greek salad, huge pork chops, chips, bread, all consumed with the appetite that only 30 miles of hill-climbing gives!

The final 10 miles was still climbing steeply to Langadia, a mountain town perched on the edge of a gorge. We were relieved that the 'motel' was open (though without heating - they had a 'problem' and reduced the price accordingly). Our room on the ground floor, entering from the street, had a balcony at the back overlooking a giddy drop, as the building was right on the cliff-face. A fantastic setting in which to rest, read and look at the moon and stars in the clear mountain air at over 4,000 ft.

Day 3 LANGADIA - Hotel Menalon, TRIPOLI £16.50

After a hotel breakfast of toast, jam, orange juice and coffee (£1.75 each), we went into the village ironmonger's with our problem - one of Barry's cycling shoe soles was hanging off and he put his foot on the counter to demonstrate. The woman responded with a big tin of glue and we were soon on our way, wondering if the shoe would be stuck into the toe clip when he tried to stop!

The road climbed even higher into the clear blue mountain air, still with warm sun and cold wind, up to the Dimitsana turn-off, then levelled out to Vitina, a quiet little town a mile off the main road, where we bought coffee and buns and paused to admire the church - all polished brass rails and candelabra, marble columns, the scent of beeswax candles, a pair of icons bordered in ribbon and flowers.

Now on an excellent road, gently rising and falling, with little traffic and snow on the peaks all around, we waved to shepherds, noticed the flowers and birds of prey and, with no more stiff climbs, arrived happily in Levidi at exactly 1 pm and found the chicken restaurant we'd once enjoyed on a day out from Olympia on the motorbike. (That had been a very different day, freezing cold, damp and misty, searching out a Byzantine church in a meadow below the town.) The chickens turned on a spit behind the counter and were served in quarters with chips, toast and coleslaw. The wind was now stronger and had turned against us but it was an easy 15 miles south to Tripoli as it was all downhill, round the shoulder of the Menalon Mountains.

By 4 pm we were settled comfortably in the Hotel Menalon and Margaret ventured out again to buy supplies. This was the only room with TV during the whole week and we fell asleep watching Clint Eastwood in 'Dirty Harry' (again!).

Day 4 TRIPOLI – Hotel Korinthos, CORINTH £20.00

Leaving the Tripoli traffic behind, we took the magnificent road eastwards, climbing to the border of Arcadia and the Argolid. Here we stopped to make coffee by a little shrine packed with icons and watched a kind motorist stop to light a candle and open a can of dog food for a cowering stray who was too scared to eat it until we left. After another short climb came the wonderful hair-pinned descent, 3 days' worth of climbing behind us, all the way to the sea near Ancient Lerna at Mili. With its warmth and oranges this was a different world from the heights of Tripoli. The familiar road led north to Argos, busy with its market, and we looked for lunch. Finding no better alternative, we returned to the chicken take-away man we'd found in January and again sat on stools in his window, demolishing a spatchcocked char-grilled chicken with fried potatoes and lemon sauce.

Continuing north for Mycenae, we rode into another strong head wind, resting at a Kafenion by the railway line which we crossed repeatedly as we followed it to Corinth. After a total of 45 miles, at the Mycenae turn-off, we decided to push on for Corinth hoping the wind would abate (which it eventually did) and knowing the road had to go downhill to the sea again. We got a good view of Ancient Mycenae, often hard to see as it blends into the hillside, and later of the mighty fortress of Acrocorinth, welcoming us at the end of the day, backlit by the setting sun. The road became busy, mainly with pick-ups loaded with empty orange crates returning from Corinth in extraordinary numbers. The light began to fade as we reached Corinth harbour and we got a room with a view across the Gulf to Loutraki. Slept very soundly!

Day 5 CORINTH – Hotel Lemonies, DIAKOFTO £17.75

An easier day's riding, westwards along the Gulf of Corinth past many familiar landmarks (the place we bought our motorbike, Corinth Beach Camping, the cycle shop which sold mainly Christmas decorations). After 10 miles we got bread and sausage rolls from a bakery and stopped to make coffee and breakfast by the beach. Barry had another slow rear puncture - the tyre was worn out - so he dumped it, moved front tyre to back and put the lightweight spare on the front. We are in desperate need of some good touring tyres – the cheap ones bought in Greece are heavy and rot in the sun, of which there is plenty!

After Kiato the road followed the sea more closely, with gentle rises and falls, and the initial head wind gave out. Snowy peaks hovered in mid-air in the haze across the Gulf as we rode through lemon groves and small quiet towns with low-key tourist development. We had a picnic lunch by the sea at Kato Pitsa, then reached Diakofto, with its rack railway to Kalavrita, after 55 miles. The much advertised Chris Paul Hotel with swimming pool looked expensive, so we tried the Lemonies Hotel on the way to the beach, where we got a pleasant room with a view of the lemon-grove garden. We rode on to the harbour and made tea in the sunshine before settling in. Later we had steak and chips, freshly cooked by the old man in the hotel restaurant, in company with Skai TV and 2 silent Greek men, one eating, one drinking. The room radiator kept us awake, trickling and leaking noisily, until Barry fixed it with a spanner.

Day 6 DIAKOFTO - Hotel Tarantella, KATO ALISSOS £15.50

The Old National Road twisted westwards, parallel with the toll road, passing under and over motorway and railway as all 3 ran along the narrow gap between the sea and the mountains, climbing over several bridges spanning gorges. We saw the sea again at Egio, a very busy town with too much traffic and ferries across the Gulf. Glad to escape, we stopped to make coffee by the beach just up the coast and found Barry had yet another rear puncture, this time caused by a drawing pin. Mended and off again, a fresh wind channelled in from the open sea slowed us down, taxi drivers and dust carts crowded us, there was no hard shoulder to ride, but at least the sun still shone. The funniest/saddest sight of our ride, as we cycled along a stretch of new white-lining at the verge, was a dead cat with the white line painted straight across its fur. Whether the white-lining machine actually killed it or just ran over its body we shall never know.

Passing through Ag Vasilio, shortly before Rio, we saw the sign for a Goody's restaurant up above on the toll road but assumed we'd be unable to access it. However, to our joy a little lane turned off under the motorway, just wide enough for a car, and led to some rough ground down a bank near Goody's (a very Greek solution to the problem!) The restaurant was very quiet, no children's party, and good fresh food - just what we needed at 12.45 pm before tackling the Patras traffic.

We rode into town, fighting for the right to be on the road, and got a hotel list and map from Tourist Information by gate 6 of the port. We also checked the Medlink sailings to Italy for next week, looked out a bicycle shop by the central square (closed till tomorrow) and went on to 'Praktiker' (no suitable bike tyres) and the Eurospar store.

After ringing the Hotel Tarantella at Kato Alissos to check that it was open, we decided to push on another 10 miles to reach it rather than cop out and get the 5.30 pm train to Gastouni (though we might have been tempted if the weather had changed). The hotels we saw in Patras were dingy, noisy and expensive.

Pausing only to brew up and eat cakes by the shore at the 'Patras District Athletic Centre' (a couple of basketball and tennis courts surrounded by gravel and rubbish), we were soon glad to leave the New Nat Rd and turn along the quieter coast road (the Old Nat Road) to K Alissos. We got a smart room with sea view at the price promised on the phone, though Madam did try asking 3,000 dr (£6) more! She got her revenge by not providing any heating or hot water!

Another fine sunny day, though clouds are gathering for a change in the weather. A favourable wind at last made the 25 miles south-west along the shoulder of the New Nat Rd surprisingly easy, with a wide margin and light traffic. Over coffee at a roadside cafe we played a few hands of Patience but it never came out - it used to be easier on the computer!

We took the first possible turn-off at Lehana and rode towards Killini, then climbed up to Chlemoutsi Castle at Kastro from Neohori. We made our lunch sitting by the new ticket office outside the castle, looking across the calm blue sea to Zakinthos, lost in the haze and just distinguishable by the cap of clouds. The work-men were still 'busy' restoring the castle, or rather busy having a lunch break. A village woman climbed up the lane with an empty bucket and returned home with it full of cement mix after a few words with them - this must happen a lot and we wondered if the 300 million Dr given by the EU would be enough to ever finish the restoration.

Then the last descent, through the lemon groves to Loutra Killini and back via Arkoudi and along the track past Aginara Beach Camping, only closing the circle of the ride at the end of the lane in Glyfa.