Although it was a little grey, with a few spots of rain when leaving Thessaloniki, I was looking forward to making a little bit more progress through Greece. I headed off for Mt Olympus to see what I might be able to see and experience on the motorbike or if I would need to stay and get organised for some hiking. As I approached along the multi-toll highway the weather at the top of My Olympus didn't look good.
Mt Olympus covered in nasty clouds.
The base for many hikers and less serious visitors to Mt Olympus is a beautiful small town called Litochoro. I pulled in to the town square and parked the bike and found a cafe/restaurant for lunch. I had a plate of wonderfully tender veal while I contemplated warmer clothes, wet weather gear and a ride up as far as possible up Mt Olympus.
This is where I had lunch….
See. There I am.
I decided I would brave the elements and see what might be visible riding up as far as the road allows. It was a wonderful ride up through the twisting and climbing road with only a couple of spots of rain to moisten the bitumen road.
As I rounded the last bend before the road entered the car park it turned to gravel. The short stretch of gravel road was fine and so was getting to the top of the reasonably steep car park. Parking the bike in gear was easy enough. I got off and had a quick wander up to where the track starts to the summit of the mountain.
Very confident before attaching the GoPro.
After taking a quick picture and mounting the GoPro to the windscreen with the suction mount I looked at my bike and where it was parked and considered how best to get it facing in the right direction for departure. I got on a carefully used the clutch to release the engine braking to allow me to roll backwards downhill. I carefully rolled backwards and turned so that I was facing more across the hill ready to take off.
I was ready to go forwards, or so I thought.
I started the engine and as I released the clutch and started off I turned slightly downhill to continue down the carpark and onwards. I obviously turned to much, too soon and tipped the balance downhill. I cleared the bike and ran a few steps downhill and out of the way since I feared the fall might be enough for the bike to roll completely over. Luckily it didn't.
So my second fall of the trip is in another parking area and almost 0km/hr.
Here is the photo sequence from the GoPro…..
0 minutes
1 minutes
2 minutes
3 minutes
4 minutes
5 minutes
It only took a few minutes from starting the GoPro, fallen over to back upright again thanks to the help of a young man in the small cafe at the top of the carpark.
The front brake lever end broke off, the mirror needed to be put back in place and tightened, the windscreen, crash bar, engine guard, hand guard, mirror and pannier were all scratched a little bit and I wasn't hurt.
I hope that after two times I now know I need to be even more careful and thoughtful when negotiating steep, sloping, uneven, gravel and slow area areas.
The fall took away some confidence so on the ride back down I was a little more nervous than necessary. The road and the scenery are wonderful and the short ride back to Litochoro was pleasing despite my earlier mishap.
31 minutes - lovely road and forest (My Olympus)
Back in Litochoro I posed for the GoPro…..
A little sad after dropping the bike for the 2nd time. 45 minutes back in Litochoro.
Due to the weather, and the not completely successful ride, I decided I would not stay at Litochoro and instead press on. I grabbed a cappuccino, opened up the map, looked south and noticed a place called Volos that was close the to the Oros Pelion (Pelion Mountains) that had been recommended to me by Fotis while I was staying at Colors in Thessaloniki. I asked one of the locals how long it might take and based on their advice I decided I would be there well before dark giving me time to find somewhere to stay.
Litochoro Town Centre
I headed back to the multi-toll highway (there seem to be toll booths every 20km or so) towards Volos.
Along the highway there was only one thing I noticed more frequently than the toll booths - the police. At almost every single on-ramp onto the highway there were police. They were standing or were parked in cars and vans or were waiting on motorbikes. They didn't seem at all interested in speeding motorcyclists while they waited at the entry roads. I continued to Volos.
On the outskirts of Volos I stopped for petrol after passing the police who were stopped in the middle of the road. I asked at the service station what all of the police were doing since they were all along the highway and were also stopped in the street very close to the petrol station. They had no idea what could be happening.
As I was about to pull out onto the road a procession of BMW support cars, police and other vans and the Olympic flame passed by. I pulled in between a couple of police cars and in amongst some of the police bikes. As we all continued into town I decided I would stay with the procession as we were getting waved through all of the intersections and getting a smooth run. I ended up behind the last police car and in front of the fire engine that was bringing up the rear.
We skirted the centre of Volos and stopped so that the flame that was on the back of a van could be transferred to light the torch for the first runner to take into town.
I pulled out of the line to take a photo of the flame.
The first of the runner's torches was lit.
After the first torch had been lit from the flame the procession moved much more slowly into Volos where the crowds had lined the streets to see their community representatives run with the torch. I stayed behind the police car and in front of the fire truck for a while. When I saw an opportunity for a photo with one of the runners I stopped.
One of the Volos community representative Olympic Torch Bearers
After the excitement of the Olympic Torch in Volos I decided to head a little further down the coast to see if I might find a quieter place to stay a night or two. I rode into Agria, which is a small town about 6km along the coast from Volos, and found Hotel Ballas which is a very comfortable and relaxed small hotel.
The wind had whipped up some waves in Agria.
I was glad to be sleeping inside since the weather along the coast had turned a little unpleasant with clouds on the way and the wind whipping up the sea. I wandered along the waterfront of Agria briefly before finding somewhere for dinner.
Church in Agria.
After a long day and a quiet dinner it was a reasonably early night.