At the base of the mountains

Distance: 63km


I didn't want to ride. I wanted to stop and rest. I dreamt of sitting by a beach all day and sleeping in the shade. But we weren't in a good spot. The water wasn't clean enough. We needed to ride to the nearest coastal spot. And I could tell from the squiggles on the map there were more mountains.

I felt sick. I felt tired. I sooked a lot. But we rode. 

Most of the time it wasn't too bad. Relatively flat, roads in good condition, a cool breeze to temper the heat, and we even managed a tailwind for some of the time (although this backfired when we missed our turn-off and had to ride back almost 10km).

With 10km to go to Astokos - our coastal destination - the road wound up the mountain. It looked hard, but once we got into our low gears and found our rhythm it was manageable. It reminded me of Mt Dandenong and I found myself enjoying the ride. Especially when it was time to come down! 

The town was so picturesque, sitting at the bottom of the mountains alongside the water. When we stopped to buy drinks the shopkeeper said it was 40 degrees that day! We knew it had been hot - we had been reminded of the sting of sweat in the eyes and it had been dripping off us all day - but the coolbreeze had made it tolerable.

We swam in warm, clear water again - it felt so good! The water was almost too warm. There were rocks of all shapes and colours and we spent almost an hour pointing out different rocks, finding perfect ones to skim across the calm surface.