I woke around 5:30. By the time I’d packed and was on my way it was 7am. I ate a croissant I had bought the day before and, when I arrived in the first town, I bought 2 more, along with a coke, and ate them to fuel me up. One was cookies and cream. It was lit… I also bought a bag of Haribo watermelons.
I guess the morning must have been relatively uneventful as I have no photos until 10:15 and don’t recall much of it, aside from an encounter with a dog on a gravel path which charged at me from the opposite direction until I stopped. Eventually it loped off into the bushes and I was away. I had a few smaller dog encounters later as I was now into farm country again.
I also found a pen in the dirt on the campsite which I’m now writing with. It feels a lot nicer.
I had to go the long way around the Ambracian gulf, instead of taking the car tunnel, which meant I ended up cycling 167km. Most of the morning was in low hills and fields. I did however start seeing the first signs for Patras! Around 11 I reached sea again. At 12 I bought a terrible panini, bag of crisps and an ice cream and stopped at 13:00 to eat it overlooking the sea before tackling the other side of the gulf.
I don’t know if it was all in my head, or because the wind was somewhat against me, or because my back axel has cracked, but the cycling seemed to become harder. I’m getting increasingly concerned about my wobbly back wheel. Hopefully it can hold out for one more day! At 4:30 I reached the causeway to Lefkada island where Liv is staying.
When I was over to it the wind was behind me and it was relatively flat. I sped along to arrive at Liv’s at 6:10. I’m not looking forward to going back the other way!
Liv and James (her boyfriend) met me at the gate. I wheeled my bike in and took in the luxurious villa. They have a pool, hammocks, a BBQ, pool floats for people and for drinks, recliners, lots of beer and look out onto the sea and a small sandy beach, next to a jetty on which they have moored a boat which is also theirs. This’ll do.
I told stories of my travels and drank beer as Xav (Liv's brother), his GF and Annie and Pete (Liv's parents) arrived. Then I repeated the same stories. Xav’s GF was appalled at what I’d been fuelling myself on. She asked me what gels I used. She also cycles. I told her I ate croissants and Haribo.
Soon I was floating in a watermelon inflatable in a pool, complete with a beer in its own watermelon float. It was pretty nice. They showed me my room. Double bed, balcony, air conditioning, en suite with a shower. I could have fainted.
Later we had a BBQ. There were marinated pork chops, Greek sausages, broccoli, rice, salad. It was incredible. After I wanted nothing more than to sleep. Instead we went out. I took ages to leave. We left at midnight, walked 20 mins to a bar. I got a pina colada and drank it slowly, later pepped up by a coca cola. We played Fuck the Dealer and Ring of Fire. I made my drink last. After that we went to a games bar. I played a couple of games of pool. Me and James vs Pete and Xav. Pete won both. But it was close.
Then, mercifully, at 3 we went home. I slept at 4. I’d cycled 167km and been awake for 23 hours. I slept well.
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