May 2019 – Page 3 – Travelling reflections

Sarande (rest day)

The Albanian Riviera. Still being built with the smell of fresh paint among the sea front. The taxi driver (10euro is the standard rip off price up to the castle) good is the population grows from base 25k to 300k at peak season with 300 days of sunshine. I’m not sure why done people come here to then go to Corfu, but then again we’re not experts on sea resorts!

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At the castle (now a restaurant) great views of Sarande are complemented by a wonderful display of spring flowers. The walk back down illustrates real life, from scrap yards to garages to new building. A fast developing town!

And happy 25 Anniversary to us!!

Albania, Greece, Odyssey

Odyssey Day 7 Elati to Sarande 60miles 1240m

The last 50k on Greece was through lush woodland with even more flowers.

Then into Albania. Anticipation of difficukt border crossings proved false: far smoother that UK.

Almost at once the differences, on the surface, were apparent. A different plateau with only scrub on the hills. Mercedes seem to dominate.

A common theme is ascending a hill with steep drops. Then finding the next valley is different again. Back comes the trees and irrigation channels. 1€ for two coffees sets us up nicely for the chunky ascent to reach Sarande.

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Greece, Odyssey

Odyssey Day 6 Metsovo to Elati 49miles 1350m

More war memorials. A civil war 1946-49 that was a proxy for the start of the cold war. Later on today we finished in villages which have left some buildings in ruins as a reminder of the Greek resistance and WW2 damages.

A rich land, and the dense broad leafed woodlands a surprise. This region, in the Pindos mountain chain has (we were told) the first number of different flowers at 2500, with an area in Spain coming in a poor second at 500. So the few we saw today, including orchids, were are mere sample. They were offset by some fine old arch bridges of various ages and croaking frogs.

Our route took in some old roads and some which were just gravel. That the latter was also a steep (10-20%) incline was a bit of a dampener. We’re also beginning to learn that when at the bottom of a valley most of the sparse villages are at the top… And we go there, to bump over the cobbled surfaces and admire the stone roofs. There’s plenty of scenic other distractions to keep the eyes away from the horizons…. including the wary eye for roving dogs.

Greece, Odyssey

Odyssey Day5 Kastraki to Metsovo 62.5 miles 3000m

The highest road in Greece meant one thing: it was a bit hilly. The excitement was added to by the rockfalls and collapsed roads along this quiet mountain road. Following a valley floor for the first part, farms dotted the road, occasional merging to become a small hamlet. Nice to see working places, no more so than the hair touch of sheep being herded along

Soon ascending and looking up at the mountainous snow capped skyline, little thinking we were going up there! That’s one of the three surprises for me about Greece. Snow, poppies and flat agricultural plains. You get to know this road is little used by the dearth of coffee shops: the water spouts gurgle their invitations to make up for that.

Switchbacks up, and down. The last decent descent was through a beech forest before rejoining civilisation and a more substantive but less attractive new road. Made it!

Cycling, Odyssey

Kastraki

Our second rest day is nestled under huge sandstone conglomerate remnants of a lake long gone (as in 4million years). Early mountaineers doubled up as monks, eventually building monasteries on top of the pinnacles in the 14C. Now they are a tourist attraction. The central chapels are stunning.