From: Astakos
To: Mitikas
Miles: 19
Total: 204
There is no reason today should have been so difficult. The weather was perfect, the road was wide, there was some elevation change but not too bad, and it was not particularly long. But Dave and I were both doing some whining by the end of the day.
We set out from our hotel in Astakos about 8:30. The breakfast wasn’t that great, and we knew we would not be passing through any towns for lunch, so we were both armed with a Snickers candy bar to get us through. Immediately after leaving town, the climb began. It wasn’t too steep, but it went on for 6-7 miles. We passed several goat herders along the way, and I stopped and taped a video for Ava (granddaughter #2) with the goats in the background. You can see the video on YouTube under “The Walking Aggie” or just click on video above.
The scenery was awesome all day. We were hugging the coastline and we could see our end of day destination from probably 15 miles away. I’m not sure if that was good or bad. After the 6-7 mile climb the terrain flattened out and it was level or downhill for most of the remainder of the day.
We made it into Mitikas by about 2:30. There is one hotel in town and when we got there it was closed. Probably just as well because it was a dump. So Dave had seen on google maps another place in town that were apartments. We went there and it was also locked, but it looked really nice. There was a number posted at the door to call so Dave tried. Amazingly enough, a gentleman answered who spoke perfect English. He was out of town but said his associate would meet us in five minutes. Sure enough, in less than five minutes, a very nice lady drove up, couldn’t speak a word of English, but showed us the apartments. They were super nice. Living room, kitchen, bedroom and bath, and even a combo washer/dryer. Unfortunately the washer/dryer was made in France and we haven’t been able to figure it out just yet. So Dave and I each have our own super-nice apartment for the night.
After I post this, we’re limping down the street for dinner at 6:00 when the restaurant opens.
We’ve got a 22 mile day tomorrow on up the coast. The weather is forecast to be sunny. This apartment would have been a great place to take a day off tomorrow, but there is rain in the forecast starting Saturday so we’ll walk tomorrow and rest on a rainy day. That’s about it for today. Hope yours was a good one.
