August 2008, touring Greece with my best Aussie friends (part 2 Pilio - Evia)

 Milies is arguably the most beautiful village of the heavenly mountain called Pilio. In the previous part you read our walk around its old train station, we capture bits of its wonderful flora:

Time to hop on our bikes for more exploration. We head South following the West coast of this peninsula and oh my...look at Razi beach in front of me:

I'm Greek as it gets and still can't believe my eyes. This heaven is empty at the peak of the high season! Trust me, if you were my pillion you'd consider "heaven" as an understatement.

We enter the mainland again where at Argalasti I stop to picture this odd bell tower of the local church:

I mean, you decide to make a tower like this and place it on a concrete P.O.S. like that? The taste of some people...

We continue South and reach the coastline again when it's time for another heaven under the name Tzasteni:

(sorry for the tilted image but I'm on my bike and if I'd level it you'd miss part of this beauty)

This place is like out of a movie that's hard to believe it really exists. If I comment it like that being a native imagine how it might feel to others. I take one more quick shot before we continue:

The following image was taken near Trikeri looking South but I didn't manage to spot the exact location:

It's at the tip of this peninsula hence this epic view. It's all as good as it gets except that it's kinda too hot and forecast says it's gonna get worse so we decide to stay up in the mountain and let the ones at sea level suffer instead of us. That brings as at Hania, in the heart of Pilio mountain above 1000m. The difference in temperature is vast and brings an instant relief.

Time to walk around:

Neglected houses like this are far from rare in Greece:

The local road is better to drive than to walk but we had a lot of the former and it's time for the latter:

Walking makes you hungry though so we stop at a local tavern where I get a bit of view to the ski slope in the background whenever the wasps that populate these flowers don't attack me:

We can't stay all the time up here so next day we go to the sea again, this time at Agioi Saranta beach on the East coast:

Really nice one plus a scenic winding road going down the mountain. Now it's time to go back up at Hania and walk a more scenic road this time:

Many football teams come to the local football training center in summer to prepare for the next season:

Not a bad place to train at all right? Plus no heatwaves which is the main reason it is a famous destination.

Walking in the woods:

Football teams stay at this hotel but me and Bin are here just for this picture:

I hope you get an idea of how huge that tree is:

From here we get a better view to the football side of things:

Kindergarten:

Log apartment:

Both those 2 above are rare in Greece. Especially that red kindergarten, I'd laugh at someone insisting it's built over Hellenic soil.

Look at this rock formation:

I say that Nature is the best artist for a reason🙂

We walk further in the woods leaving the footballers behind:

This place was probably lived but who knows how long ago:

As you can imagine we could spend the rest of our lives around this mountain but we gotta move South making our way slowly back to Athens. Therefore we ride up to Glyfa to take the ferry to Evia. Goodbye Pilio!

My outfit speaks for how hot the day is:

I love it when seagulls follow the ferry I'm in:

There's more to love on this ferry actually:

It's a short trip heading South to Agiokampos port at North Evia:

We try to find a place to stay but the area around looks (unsurprisingly) quite crowded so we ride the island East and then South (or clockwise if you prefer) when we find a place near Psaropouli beach. Not many choices we can have at the peak of the season so Pat & Bin get an OK apartment while I get a funny one from a converted container. I mean, it is spacious enough but that thing almost rocks whenever I walk from one side to the other😄 Touristic sector at its greediest, little they knew how the country would explode due to this mentality a couple of years later.

This is the mediocre view from Pat & Bin's place:

It would be so much better if locals were not building monstrosities but let's leave that behind and walk around the local marina:

Boys 'n girls, ladies 'n gents, let me introduce you to Patrick, the Man, the Myth, the Legend and occasional pilgrim:

This miniature is half a meter tall:

I laugh at the following image showing me kinda skeptical over my phone with the beautiful beach in the background cause it reminds me that (almost) all images you see here were taken using that Sony K750i:

 Of course today's tools made the images much less painful to see hence I dare to publish all that for the first time 16 years later.

Enough walking, time to ride. I mean, we're all dedicated bikers and Evia island is a biker's heaven - it's a no brainer isn't it?

So we ride heading South enjoying every minute of it when we arrive at Pili which is a village of Evia and you shouldn't confuse it with Pilio mountain that we've been before. Decisions have to be made as in front of as on our left we have scary steep but beyond scenic cliff:

(location)

But in front of us is an as scenic route but with questionable terrain:

Pat's on a more off road oriented bike than mine but he's riding with his other half while I'm solo but on a much more street oriented one with the original street tires on. So we're kinda both challenged and no idea how this road will later be (it's 2008 and no preparation folks) but Pat has no fear and I can't be the one who has so here I am in the background putting my Suzuki on its first challenge ever:

I can't regret enough the fact that this route was not recorded cause it was epic despite that this experience was escorted by the feeling that one mistake and you're gone down off the cliff never to be found. Today this road is paved. Back in the day, when we returned back to our rooms and told the owner where we did this he said "I'm so glad I'm not following you". Tasteless lazy ass he was🙂

So, we finish this epic thing unscratched and we're now back on tarmac near Sarakiniko. Still heading South as you can see on what Pat calls "poor man's GPS" hanging on his windscreen:

The above image was taken on the winding road at Mili which later further South brings us to the wonderful Limnionas beach:

The effortless top views of this area are such a joy:

We continue South driving in the mainland now enjoying the beauties of Dirfi mountain when at some point while heading back West the road feels like a race track offering epic view:

Yes, I know you wanna know where this is and I won't let you down - it's HERE.

Here's an upscaled video from the original file my dear friend Bin shot at this road, still sucks despite AI uspcaling and editing but gives you an idea (hopefully):

It's a pity that Bin missed the rest of the part while I was rolling down this beauty standing on the pegs cross posing like Jesus🙂

Seriously, I can't praise this island enough:

Tires are a little more black than usual - blame the boiling temperatures and the long ride:

For that dirty look blame the gravel we did earlier:

From this magic area we ride all the way back up NW to Edipsos. That part alone is 130ish km. This town is well known for its hot springs apart from it being picturesque:

Seeking for a place to enjoy the view and rest for a bit we find a guy who already enjoys some fair amount of rest:

This grasshopper is now resting on my bike and doesn't wanna leave as I am about to drive off:

We finish this full riding and exciting day with a drink near our place by the sea:

Next day we leave North Evia to explore it's South half. In the middle of the island we make a stop at the port of Kimi where I picture this carcass of an abandoned wheat mill/pasta factory:

We leave Kimi soon and continue South in search of a place to stay when we arrive at this one. I think it could be with some recommendations from locals cause you don't really go there accidentally but forgive me if my memory is not pristinely clean after 16 years. We meet a Georgian girl at the reception and she tells as we can't stay without reservation. Right before disappointment kicks the lady of the couple owning the place shows up and tells us there's room for us. I guess that girl wanted  to spare her some work🙂. Fortunately cause... look at what we've got:

Yep, there's a pool too:

In case you don't wanna walk down to the beach:

If we have planned it we might easily have got something worse. And by the way, we didn't plan anything in advance anyway, all you've seen was pure improvisation on the go.

The sun goes down,

and later the lights go up:

The lady owner invites me to come back here on her birthday, later her husband shares a couple of more private stories, we all drink by the pool while Bin enjoys the music more than anyone around and that's how we spend the night before we fall flat on our beds.

I am the first to wake up next morning cause I thought to myself "sunrise must be epic here". And it really is since we have uninterrupted sea view to the East but in the absence of proper photography gear "epic" goes off the window despite today's retouch:

By the way, this place is still open in case you're interested. Not sure if the same people own it today though. Back in the day they were tempted to sell. Knowing what happened in Greece shortly after I am sure they can't regret it enough if they didn't. However, today we are breaking one record of tourism after the other so they managed to make up I'm sure. This thing is located on a landslide though and I'm sure this was one more reason to try to get rid off it. Still epic spot nevertheless.

Next day we have to leave this place behind too. We say a warm goodbye to all and hop on our bikes.

The more we go South the stronger he wind becomes. We are trying to see if we can manage to find some prehistoric houses in this area that are known as attractions and after a chat with a local in his car we get some rough directions. He insists on whether we are sure to head South on a windy day like this. I tell him "it's gonna be OK" and he says "I'm a biker too, rethink about it cause the road is under construction too". We didn't find much of those but I managed to catch this nice view overlooking Porto Lafia near one of them:

Well, that guy before was right, crazy side wind with gusts that up to this day don't know why they didn't through me off my bike while riding on gravel for several km. Pat& Bin were not as affected but I guess their gross weight being double mine made a difference.

We arrive at Karystos trying to find a place to stay in this overbooked city. No luck so we try searching at the outskirts where we find a complex with lots of rooms in a plot full of fig trees near the sea. It's a bit of a run down but we can't be choosers now:

Plus we all love figs🙂 (not shown in the above image).

Pat & Bin are adventurous enough to try the (far from well taken care off) pool but I play safe and decide to spare me complications a few days before I go back to my 9-5 job:

Close to sunset we take a walk to the local marina:

The city is nothing exciting and we're not here to spend our time in the city anyway so next day, surprise surprise, we start riding again. A few km SE of Karystos we make a stop at the seaside village of Bouros where the local centaurs statue, funny as it gets, gives as the chance for the following shots:

It's a really hot day, just in case our outfit doesn't speak enough.

We continue North East and ride up the mountain till we reach a park full of wind generators:

No surprise as this place gets all the wind of the world.

Look at this cute little church in the middle of nowhere behind that park:

The beach you see in the distance is called Potami and it's one of the best of the area:

Views like the above with Andros island in the background can be experienced around the village of Platanistos. Hard to describe by words, pity it's such a hot hazy day.

We're back at our place near Karystos were unfortunately that's all the shade my bike can get on this boiling hot day:

I told you they have fig trees here didn't I?🙂

They have sunsets too:

Our Greek adventures come to an end as we take the ferry from the nearest port (Marmari) back to Rafina to then ride to my place in Athens. If I look sad on the deck leaving Evia behind me I have a reason since this epic trip ends but no, it's because it's so so hot today:

Besides, the good days don't end yet, I have some more to spend in Athens while hosting my dear friends.

Hope you enjoyed it too, see you on the next one!