Going North
By Johan - After hiding from the storm that never eventuated in Patras for two nights, we set of North over the Rion-Antiorion bridge. Pretty awesome feat of engineering. There is a bike lane alongside the main high way but no cycleway signage what so ever so it gets a little bit confusing on the on ramp and off ramp. Nevertheless it was a pretty easy crossing with some impressive views. 
Moving North from here gets a bit more rural and less densely populated. It was a nice change from the fairly dense population we had along the roads from Athens to this point. Mesolonghi has a cool town centre; we enjoyed lunch there; one of the traditional Pita Gyros sandwiches which are pretty awesome! After lunch we passed through Etoliko, which is a pretty little town; the center is an island between two bridges. A nice place to hang out for the night or lunch with some great seaside terasses. Unfortunately the timing was a bit off for us so we peddled through.
There is a bit of a hiatus in campgrounds north of Patras so we used the iOverlander app to find a great free camping spot just west of Astakos.
Nothing beats camping on the beach on a still evening. Loved this camping spot. No toilet though, so we had to bike to the local cafe in the morning for that, but such a great place to hang out. .
It’s a sad story indeed. We still enjoyed the sunset and a wholesome meal from Deborahs wonderfull camp kitchen.
The next morning we continued North along the coast. After enjoying a lot of relatively flat sea side rides to this point, we were now faced with a bit more of inland ups and downs from sea level to about 250 meters. Nothing too dramatic but enough to get the juices flowing.
Back to the main road and towards the Preveza tunnel. You are not meant to bike through the tunnel. It was good to read the blogs to realise that you need bike past the “ no bikes” sign to the toll booth and ask “is there a way across with a bike?”. The lady In the toll booth looks at you funny and then laughs and gives you the phone number of the “boys on the other side” that can give you a ride. Great service; the safety guys give you a ride for free with their van but only if you use the Secret password which is “we are going one way” 😊
All good after that. A tough morning so we settled for lunch in the marina of Preveza, followed by an early camp in the local campground. We ended up spending a great night with some rum and coke and an evening Facebook Messenger video chat with Cecile and Erik-Jan planning a potential catchup in northern Italy in mid July; how cool is that! You gotta love this Internet stuff!
Moving North from here gets a bit more rural and less densely populated. It was a nice change from the fairly dense population we had along the roads from Athens to this point. Mesolonghi has a cool town centre; we enjoyed lunch there; one of the traditional Pita Gyros sandwiches which are pretty awesome! After lunch we passed through Etoliko, which is a pretty little town; the center is an island between two bridges. A nice place to hang out for the night or lunch with some great seaside terasses. Unfortunately the timing was a bit off for us so we peddled through.
There is a bit of a hiatus in campgrounds north of Patras so we used the iOverlander app to find a great free camping spot just west of Astakos.
Nothing beats camping on the beach on a still evening. Loved this camping spot. No toilet though, so we had to bike to the local cafe in the morning for that, but such a great place to hang out. .
The only major downer of the evening is the stark reminder of how we are fucking up this wonderful planet of ours. Greece is beautiful but there is sooooo much garbage around that you want to slap some people. Walking over the 100 meters or so beach we had to ourselves for the evening I couldn’t help but be depressed by the amount of crap I found; mostly plastics. I ended up gathering a lot of garbage and carrying it up to the road. Mindblowing how much plastic you can gather in less than a 100 meters of beach in less than 30 minutes. The bags were supplied by the beach as well! 😢
It’s a sad story indeed. We still enjoyed the sunset and a wholesome meal from Deborahs wonderfull camp kitchen.
The next morning we continued North along the coast. After enjoying a lot of relatively flat sea side rides to this point, we were now faced with a bit more of inland ups and downs from sea level to about 250 meters. Nothing too dramatic but enough to get the juices flowing.
Mytikos is the first place with a campground north of Patras but timing meant we missed out on that. We did however end up having a great set menu lunch with a large group of Belgium classic rally car enthusiasts from Belgium (Flamish side). A great location and some wonderful rally engine grunt indeed!
Just look at that beautiful piece of feta on top of that Greek salad!
The Campground drought continued with the Palairos campground being a bitter disappointment. Although cheap at 5 Euros per person it was painful to see the hosts just didn’t care at all; a run down camp ground and no effort what so ever to even clean the toilet block; just avoid it. No photos here. 😢
The Campground drought continued with the Palairos campground being a bitter disappointment. Although cheap at 5 Euros per person it was painful to see the hosts just didn’t care at all; a run down camp ground and no effort what so ever to even clean the toilet block; just avoid it. No photos here. 😢
Next day we aimed for Preveza. The Komoot app we use to map our route had done well so far but it left us stranded on a dead end farm road on this stretch. It just didn’t work out for us past farm dogs and over rocky farm roads on this stretch. We ended up turning back after pushing the bikes uphill, climbing over a few cattle fences across the road and still ending up on a dead end. Just stick to the main road to Peratia and Lefkada (lefkas) in this area and ignore the farm road shortcut. Luckily on the way back out the nasty farm dog guarding the start of the farm road had called it a day (please do carry a stick in this neck of the woods).
Back to the main road and towards the Preveza tunnel. You are not meant to bike through the tunnel. It was good to read the blogs to realise that you need bike past the “ no bikes” sign to the toll booth and ask “is there a way across with a bike?”. The lady In the toll booth looks at you funny and then laughs and gives you the phone number of the “boys on the other side” that can give you a ride. Great service; the safety guys give you a ride for free with their van but only if you use the Secret password which is “we are going one way” 😊
All good after that. A tough morning so we settled for lunch in the marina of Preveza, followed by an early camp in the local campground. We ended up spending a great night with some rum and coke and an evening Facebook Messenger video chat with Cecile and Erik-Jan planning a potential catchup in northern Italy in mid July; how cool is that! You gotta love this Internet stuff!
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