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Day 13 - Paralia, Greece to Ignoumenitsa, Greece.
It's a race to the west coast today to get to the ferry port for our ship back to Italy. It doesnt sail until 1am so we've got plenty of time assuming we have the stamina for a long ride in terms of miles and in terms of hours. Its about 220 miles or so today but it will be on very twisty roads so not easy to rack up the miles.
We head off towards Mount Olympus in search of the gods. The first section of countryside is very similar to the UK apart from the mountainous backdrop. Some good twists and turns and remarkably quiet. We're doing some more frequent stops today to break it up a bit. We get to one section just before a sharp right hander over a bridge where we all have a little wobble due to something on the road surface. Its a good reminder for the rest of the day that slow and steady often wins the race.
For a short while it gets quite chilly and even looks like we might get some rain after such a long period of sun.
Hawk decides to play movie director so the GoPro is stuck in various locations on the bikes to document our progress. There should be some good footage assuming he actually turned it on! After about 30-60 mins a catastrophe strikes and the GoPro flies off at 80mph! We then spend the next 20 mins trying to find all the bits which we do apart from one black clip. The amazing thing here is that warrior even manages to find the MicroSD card!
Our first destination is a place called Meteora ( just like the Linkin Park album). We don't know much about the place but it turns out to be spectacular. Its a geological feast for the eyes and has a Nunnery and a Monastery. Its warmed up a bit by now and is in the high twenties again.
At one point outside a cafe we have a really good laugh - editorial restrictions prevent me from mentioning exactly why but it was at Slashes expense. :-)
We spend the first part of the afternoon session on some great roads which hug the mountains and hills. A quick blat down the motorway follows which is also quite good fun as there are miles and miles of tunnels. It starts to rain to dampen our spirits but our endominable character comes through and we press on following some old roads which are in very poor repair since the motorway was built. There are landslides, potholes, sumpholes, goats, dogs, chickens and rocks to contend with but it's a really good run and Warrior is gushing with exuberance.
The port town is easy to navigate and we quickly get checked in but then have a 4 hour wait until we can get on the boat. We get talking to an Italian GS rider and all decide to go for some food together. Turns out he's spent the last 2 weeks doing a very similar ride to us.
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