Day 12 – Sunday, August 17, 2025
Well, the explosions continued even in the morning and I was already up by 6 am. I did a “cat wash” in the river, which was pleasantly cool. I was rolling even prior to 7 am. A lady was jogging on the road and I asked her the reason for the explosions. She said, “Oh, don't you know? It’s just to scare the bears away!” Hmm, very reassuring. At least I did not get an unplanned furry visit that night.
Not a good night...
I was not far from Lake Orestiada, the main city of which, located on a peninsula, is Kastoria. Probably because I had not slept enough, I decided against visiting it, so I rode on the southwestern shore of the lake, stopping quite a few times to take a photo of the spectacular city. Yet another reason to return. Interesting was to see a number of factory outlets selling furs there — there is even an international fur fair here, and this has been an important fur center since Byzantine times.
Pretty town of Kastoria
Not long thereafter, I got to a small village called Argos Orestiko via rural roads, with a wonderful church, full of worshippers on this Sunday morning.
Big church in a small village
I got back to the road next to the freeway, a very straight patch of road, which had pleasant descents and tiring ascents. At around 10:30 am, I stopped at a small kiosk next to the road, already having a few guests feasting on grilled items. I had a late breakfast/early lunch in the form of a gyros. While the caretaker did not speak English, a retired old Greek guest from Florida came to my rescue with his strong Greek-American accent, he helped complete the transaction and also gave some directions. Funny to see was that truck drivers would stop on the freeway and order through the barrier separating the country road from the freeway — they apparently knew what they were doing.
It was quite a hot day, the sun doing its best to fry me. I was riding on this main road when I noticed a turn to a smaller road, heading uphill. My issue was that I was running out of water, even though I had filled my three (or four?) bottles earlier, I was afraid to start an uphill ride without enough to drink.
At the junction was some sort of (milk?) factory and a truck was just about to depart. I stopped the driver and asked him if he could give me some water. He motioned I should wait and drove back to the factory building. He came back with an ice-cold larger water bottle and two smaller soft drinks — so kind, this Greek generosity, efharisto!
As I was standing outside the gates of the factory, I stopped a car to be sure I would be heading in the right direction. The driver did not speak English fluently, but he affirmed I would indeed be riding in the correct road — and he explained in sign language that he had seen me earlier riding on the road. I thought that was funny.
I started my incline, luckily, it did not last too long, it would be more of a roller coaster in store for me. A welcome break was seeing a turtle cross the road, as usual, I stopped and made sure it would not be run over. At the bottom of a valley was a romantic-looking church.
Romantic church in the valley
After quite some riding on this not very busy road, I made it to the town of Grevena, famous for its mushroom production. Now that I am writing this blog do I really get it — that is why there was this mushroom house in the main square. All clear. Here I had another gyros — even though there were many other restaurants, most of them half-full (or half-empty). The staff of the fast-food place were very friendly, with perfect English knowledge.
Mushroom marketing
Now started my second mini-adventure within an adventure in Greece. You see, there was a freeway next to Grevena, one I could not ride on, obviously. There was indeed a regular road, however, it was closed, I did not know why. Google Maps was showing a pretty large, 25-kilometer-long detour, with quite some climbing — instead of the regular, but closed road of about half that length. From my experience in Albania at Milot, I thought (hoped/prayed/etc.) that I would be able to ride on that road and that there would be no issues.
It was quite an incline getting out of Grevena, for about 3 kilometers, straight uphill to where the motorway connects with the city. I stopped at various places, like a grocery shop or a petrol station, to inquire whether I would be able to ride on the closed road. Half the people tried to explain it would not be possible and that I would be sent back by the construction workers (mind you, it was a Sunday), the other half were more relaxed - reminiscent of me taking the small road to the Ostrog monastery. I decided to go for it.
After my incline to the motorway intersection, I could see the signs for the closed road and easily went around it. What followed was an amazing descent on a completely empty road. Alas, I did not enjoy it that much, fearing I might have to pedal back - should I not be allowed to ride further (I had already planned giving some money to the road workers to haul me back to Grevena). Two or three motorbikes overtook me, with youngsters riding without helmets (the helmet regulation for motorbikes seems rather lax in Greece). There were switchbacks and then I got to the bottom, with a river cutting through a wonderful canyon.
Nice canyon on a closed road
There was a bridge, the reason the road was closed, which was being repaired, it being blocked off by a huge pile of sand — but that was not an issue going around. The youngsters were all going for a swim, but I realized there was a massive piece of work waiting for me — now that I am in this deep canyon, I needed to get out of it, too. So I made the short crossing over the bridge and started riding uphill.
Oh my, oh my — that was a real challenge of wills, not to give up biking forever, but just to smash the bike down the rocks and sit down in the middle of the road. It took me like an hour and a half to get back to a respectable elevation, where the road would level out, well, more or less. One advantage was the little to no traffic, after all, I was on a closed road. This benefit evaporated after the diverted road merged with mine, now there were many cars, but by this time, the ride was more manageable.
The view during the ascent, you can see the canyon in the middle of the photo
Somewhere here I decided now I would make it all the way to a major — and double — UNESCO highlight, that of Meteora. Duuble, as it is both a natural and a man-made wonder. It was still about 50 kilometers away and it was now 6 pm. In case you are asking if the mini-adventure is still rolling, yes, it is.
I started stamping, despite the lack of sleep the previous night and the elevation I had already covered. Helping me was a patch of road, about 20 kilometers long, which had a slight descent, so I was munching up the kilometers rather quickly.
Close to 9 pm, I got in the vicinity and I started clicking my camera — the view was incredible.
Incredible, the view of Meteora
Of course, the last 3 kilometers or so were uphill, I made it to a nice tavern, apparently called “All Time” (I probably would not have picked it had I known the name), where I treated myself to a delicious dinner. I had no accommodation yet, but the place was like a mecca for hotels. I found a pretty OK place for just €35 at Edelweiss (seriously? what is wrong with a nice Greek name?) and retired for the night. Now we can call the second mini-adventure as finished.
133 kilometers of riding that day, with some 1,485 meters of climbing.