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Any tips on the remote bits? Or is the economy too knacked?
At least there won't be rioting and looting in the hills....
I've been to Greece a few times. For remote the Mani takes some beating and for just perfect walking Crete. I haven't taken a bike but would love to
See if you can borrow a bike from someone over there then tell them you are defaulting on the loan?
How do you ride on foot 😆
I've done a lot of motorbike trail riding around rural Greece and islands (and some mtb).
Tips.
- Smile, slow down for and try to speak to locals
- Make it clear you're not German
- take plenty of water (and relevant spares)
- don't go near military bases or try to photograph them
- take a compass and know your reference points (and the map will be crap) and there won't be signposts
- watch out for water pipes and leccy cables strung through trees etc at head height
- beware the panic reaction of pulling to left on a road
I loved it.
Top momements - belting up a dirt track hill road and coming up against a 4wd coming other way, thought about doing a runner as I had no idea where I was etc, but just dragged bike off road so he could pass, peasant (and he was) stopped, could speak English, was really polite and told me to do the Pia(???) hill road - brilliant, windy twiser with a waterfall and some lush greenery.
Vassiliki - awesome mist covered trails and helpful locals
Well worth IMHO
Bad Bits
- yellow grass gets depressing after a while
- watch out for wild dogs (less of an issue on a motorbike)
Remeber walking around the outskirts of one of the smaller resorts in western Cofu a few years back and thinking it would be really nice on the bike, nice mixture of quiet roads though olive groves, dry dirt and gravel tracks, sea views, beaches, bars and the best pizza I've ever had.
I'd echo the advice from gusamc there.
Mani is the Greek deep south - wild and woolly the road signs have machine gun bullet holes in not the usual shotgun pellets, but they are fine with strangers - one taverna we went to the owner's pigs were going round the tables scrounging food.
Not looking German is helpful - SG and I are both fair haired and English speaking, so get mistaken for them quite a lot. Speaking a few words of Greek goes a long way - even if they are just hello, please and thank you.
A lot of the low vegetation on hills has brittle thorns that break off and get into low boots, tough high ones are a big help - I got a pair of ex NATO desert boots with ventilated panels, which saved a lot of pain.
Dogs can be bastards, especially if they are guarding goats, a stick is useful.
Most maps are crap but SKAI are now making very good ones - up there with OS - UK outlet is Stanfords www.stanfords.co.uk who do mail order.
A couple of years ago while driving through kardamyli, in the Peloponnese (southern mainland) I remember visiting a bike shop who ran mountain bike trips, bike hire etc. I think this is there [url= http://www.2407m.com/en/gallery/ ]website[/url], even if it isn't some of the photos are good to give you an idea of what's available in the region.
EDIT: didn't STW run an article on this a couple of months ago?!
best pizza I've ever had
Care to divulge? Few lengths I won't go to in the search for good pizza.
I quite like the idea of a chilled few weeks, doing a bit of riding and a bit of dossing on the beach
I've done some enjoyable riding on holiday there in Sivota - NW corner of the mainland - some routes here:
http://www.everytrail.com/my_trips.php?user_id=169817&order=creation_date
Basically it will really depend - Greece is actually quite diverse if you consider all the different islands. I found that there's a lot of fireroad type stuff, less singletrack though there is if you look hard enough but quite often it'll disappear suddenly as a dead end...
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Cool, thanks
Take the hardtail and integrate it into a wider holiday/sightseeing/chill trip rather than go solely for the riding, it appears
Learn a few phrases. Find a place where they do a decent Kleftico and remember how hot it is.
Efharisto = Thank you
Parakalo = Your Welcome
Milate Anglika? = Do you speak English?
Milate Yermanika? = Do you speak German?
Then katalaveno = I don't understand
Pos se lene? = What is your name?
Me lene ... = My name is ...
Apo pou eisai? = Where are you from?
Eimai apo Anglia = I am from England
Thelo ena kafe = I want a coffee
Thelo ena tsai = I want a tea
Thelo mia mpira = I want a beer
Thelo ena poto = I want a drink
Thelo ena thomatio = I want a room
Ehete thomatio? = Do you have a room?
ya mia mera = for one day
ya thio meres = for two days
ya mia vthomatha = for one week
ya thio vthomathes = for two weeks
Poso kanei? = How much is it?
Poso hrostao = How much do I owe?
Logariasmo parakalo = The bill, please.
Mporo na bgalo mia fotografia? = May I take a photo?
Ela = Come
Fiye = Go away! (fi as in fish, ye as in yellow)
Ise omorfi = you are beautiful
M' areseis = I like you
S' agapo = I love you
M' agapas? = Do you love me?
Agapi mou = My love, Darling
Filise me = kiss me
Fili = kiss
Filos / F ili = friend (male) / (female). Pay attention to the small difference from "kiss".
Eho filo = I have a boyfriend
Eimai pantremeni = I am married (female)
The last few are a bit random I'll grant you, but you know romance in the air and all that...
+1 for JEngledow,We stopped in Aghios Nicolaus,about 6 miles down the coast from Kardamyli,the hills go up to about 6,000ft about 2 miles inland,I always fancied going back with a bike,it's a lovely area,and not too popular with Brits.
Ian
P.S. if you end up on the Pelopponese,this place is worth a day out.
http://members.tripod.com/apollo_photocards/photos/greece/mystra/
Great help, this is giving me some ideas, keep 'em coming 🙂 And the language stuff will be helpful too!
I really rate Samos it's got the lot in a fairly small space. Loads of historic doo dads, a couple of big bloody mountains and some of the best coastline I've seen anywhere.
+1 for Samos - plus Thompson and some others do direct flights, which avoids going through Athens if the unrest carries on.
best pizza I've ever had.
It was in Arillas, don't recall the topping but it was a stonebaked base in a wood fired oven, awesome. The grilled sardines in that restaurant were excellent too. I also liked the fact that it was very relaxed and reasonably priced. If I thought I could take the hardtail on a package holiday without too many problems, and if my GF rode bikes I'd be back there like a shot.
Some of the car hire places do mtbs as well but I haven't ever looked at any of them closely. From a casual glance they looked like cheapo full sussers. If those lethal twist and go scooters are anything to go by they probably aren't up to much, [especially for the discerning users of this forum :-)] However might be better than not getting a ride in at all.
this one looks pretty good, maybe on a hardtail, make it a 2 week thing so can stop at places en route
might be a bit limited being stuck on just 1 smallish island though