Day 17 – Friday, August 22, 2025
My mini-adventure ends only once I am back to civilization. I must have been quite tired, I still wasn’t ready by 8 am. Once ready, I continued on the dirt road – with an occasional motorbike rider or car. There were orange plantages, however, as an older man I had met told me, some of them got burned down in course of wildfires. It was quite a sad sight. Anyhow, at one point there was asphalt below me again and then smaller villages began, then I hit a main road. (For a while, I played with the idea to do a shortcut over a river, but I quickly abandoned it – can you guess why?)
Pleasant day break
The first course of action was to get rid of all the sand and dust on my bike. There was a petrol station, a young guy was tending it, I asked if I could sprinkle the cycle, he was very nice, even helped me. He spoke very good English; when his mother arrived, I told her something she probably knew – that she has a nice son.
So now I was on a proper road again and there was a pretty darn big mountain in front of me. The sea on the right and the road goes left. Oh no, not a climb, not something I had expected. Yes, this mountain towered over the coast, so actually, my entire short-cut (aka mini-adventure) was somewhat (but not entirely) futile.
In a small settlement called Nafpatkia, I found a wonderful watershed, with not less than four fountains coming out of the side of the mountain. It was great to get freshened up and fill my bottles.
What a nice way to freshen up!
The ride uphill was a lot longer than I thought. As a compensation, I was rewarded by beautiful views of the sea – something that never gets old. Now the bridge was definitely getting closer. I got to Antirrio, the last town on the mainland around noon and granted myself a break – sort of a late breakfast/early lunch.
This really never gets old!
About to cut over to the Pell Peloponnese peninsula
After the break, I asked how best to get on the bridge, they told me to backtrack about 3 kilometers – hmmm, did not like the idea. I noticed a flight of stairs leading to the bridge, but there was a big sign prohibiting bikes. Shall I call this yet another mini-adventure? I might as well.
I climbed up by myself and all I saw were ticket booths, separated by barriers. I climbed over one, when someone came screaming, telling me to get back behind the barrier. OK, done. I showed him I was with the bike and asked politely if I might cross the bridge. Yes, I might. So now I hauled the entire bike up the stairs, moaning. I was told not to use the road, but the pedestrian crossing, so that is what I did.
So now I was on the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge, one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges and longest of the fully suspended type. It crosses the Rion Strait between the Gulf of Corinth and Gulf of Patras, linking the town of Antirrio on mainland Greece to the town of Rio on the Peloponnese peninsula by road. It opened one day before the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, on 12 August 2004, and was used to transport the Olympic flame. It was a real (mini-)adventure crossing the bridge. There were beautiful views everywhere, especially to the side of the mountain I had ridden from. At the middle of the bridge were grates, where one could look down to the water – not recommended for those with fear of heights.
Up there the sun was shining to the Gulf of Corinth
Another nod to architects, this time to the Greek ones!
Alas, on the other side it was rather difficult to get down, there were like 3 stories of stairs, so I hauled the bike down, then the bags. Probably the crossing would have been easier with a ferry, but this was for sure more memorable.
There was a public beach at the foot of the bridge, so in went for a nice swim. I enjoyed the fact that there were public showers, changing booths and even sun umbrellas – free of charge. Nice thing, Greece!
I had a really nice and refreshing swim!
I do not recall what made me not to continue riding on the shore, but somehow I continued on an inland road – which would drop me to Patras, the largest town in Western Greece. The one benefit of this road is that I noticed a modern museum building of archaeology, where I would return a few days later.
I got to the center of Patras and asked if there was an atomic explosion that eradicated all its inhabitants. The city was practically empty, except for a few teenagers loitering about; it was “dead trouser”, a direct translation of the German “tote Hose”. Well, later I learned that in August, everyone is at the seaside (though the seaside was not crowded either, so who knows). A bit outside the center, I saw a well equipped, modern bike shop, but they were on vacation, opening only on August 25.
Where is everyone???
I guess every trip has its highlights, but there are lowlights as well. This is what I experienced after my visit to Patras – maybe I was demotivated by such an empty city, maybe I was getting tired. So here is approximately how the story goes.
A bit south of Patras, I saw a seaport. At the back of my mind, I was already thinking of how to get back home, I did want to reach by September 4, as I had mentioned. On the other side, I had seen so much that the thought of stopping did play a twinkle in my mind. So I visited the port, full of bored young people – to learn that there are daily ferries to Ancona in Italy and occasional ones to Bari and Venice. The Venice option is certainly a viable one if I want to make it home. One downside – they are rather expensive, around €150, that is, without a cabin.
There were two roads leading south and somehow I managed to go for the more busy one. I stopped at a Lidl – and here I had the feeling of not wanting to continue. Well, I did. I have to say what followed was the worst part of the entire trip. At first, it was a busy road going close to the beach, with some very – very – nice houses. After this, I decided to leave the coast and follow a major road. This was the most disgusting road on my entire trip. Here is how it went – it was a two plus one lane highway, at times having two lanes in one direction, other times just one. The directions were separated by orange cones – guess Greek drivers are rather unruly, so they do not want people to keep speeding, so this slows down traffic at times, then allowing cars to overtake. The issue was when the road was one lane – there was no shoulder whatsoever, to make matters worse, there was thick vegetation, such as reed, so I could not veer out of harm’s way. Buses, lorries and fast cars were coming from behind, they honked and without stopping went on. It was quite frustrating and frightening at the same time. To make matters worse, the scenery was unappealing, there were just fields of agriculture and smaller plants and factories. There were also quite a few animals (cats, dogs, foxes) rotting dead on the road, having been run over – sorry for the details, just signaling how dire it was. There was no tourism whatsoever, out on the beaches for sure, but they were like 20 kilometers away.
At one point, I asked Copilot whether the Peloponnese peninsula is less affluent than the rest of the country and my suspicion was confirmed. So I was not having a good time.
I was sure I would not want to wild camp anywhere near this road – so at one point, when the road was closer to the shore, I decided to head down towards the sea. I got to a smaller town and saw a nice field and asked someone if he thought sleeping there might be a good idea, he said no, it’s dangerous, there are drug dealers in this area. Honestly, I believed him – the area did not look too appealing.
The situation improved when I was getting closer to the shore. I stopped at a hotel, they were full, but they told me there would be a restaurant on the beach with a campground.
After quite a lot of riding on small roads – by now in darkness – I found the restaurant. It was 9 pm, they told me to order quickly, as the kitchen was closing – for that, the campsite is free. How nice. I had a good Greek salad, the lady proudly told me she had prepared it. I found a spot next to camping cars, asked a French couple if they could charge my phone, they did and then went to sleep. Not my favourite day, at least not since the bridge crossing.
It was 99 km that day and about 650 meters of elevation.