This is the trail map.
Well, it’s not because I’ve got the grooming habits of a chimpanzee but that day I was peeling 3 bunches of bananas and throwing the peelings away, trying to hit a watermelon about 3 meters away. Nop, I wasn’t at Fiji islands or somewhere else exotic but at home in Athens. I had too many fruits in the fridge so I was in a holy mission to “extinguish” them all. I was in a fine mood ‘cause next day we would go to a place that I really wanted to be. Pantabrexei. In English that means “Always raining”. So, we were about to go to the “Always raining land”.
The next day came. Actually it was night or better early in the morning. We choose to travel at night just to earn some time.Captain Sakis already knew a place to spend the night peacefully near the sea. So, after a couple of hours of driving we were hit the beach. We drove through till we reached the end of the shore. "This is the place i told you about" he said. "Looks pretty cool dude'' i said and got my hand into my backpack to find my flashlight. While Sakis was pitching his tent like a modern Kadafi i was explore the area around. Hmmm next to us was a suspicious car parked among the pine trees.Then i saw an empty boat trailer lying beside the car. "Fishermen" i thought and then...a big truck passed by going west roaring like a lion in its first attempt to smoke the very first cigarette. "What the hell is going on here?" i said. Where were we? Do you know were we were? 15 meters away and 2 meters down from the main road. All the damn traffic was going to passed over our heads.Great!
I was totally pissed off and i didn't want to pitch my tent so i jumped into the backseat trying to found the most comfortable sleeping configuration.After i killed all the mosquitoes and read 3 chapters from Augusten Burroughs "Running with scissors", then finally i fell to sleep. Two hours later i waked up from my sleep mode. The fishermen came back and they were trying to pull the boat out of the water but in a noisy way.Probably they would be very happy from what they got into their nets.For some reason they decided to bang every tin-made thing around them. Was like a god gave the missing arm back to Def Leppard's drummer and then, he, just to say "thank you god" started to playing all the songs he knew like a maniac...but with 2 arms and twice louder.
Then took their boat and went away.I fell a sleep once more.
Next day. The first sun-ray hit my left eye. The second, hit my right, then a car hit the crash barrier.It was a really huge bang. We, Sakis and i, both went where the bang had come from to found out what the hell had happened. We saw a crashed car and an old lady who was yelling at his husband.He was the driver, you know. Both were out of the car, in "fine condition" staring at the car that was like shit. We acted like a team. Sakis asked them if they were OK, i took the collapsible road safety triangle from the trunk and put it 50 meters away.The car assistant truck came an hour later.Then we splashed into the sea.Wow!
Next stop was Galaxidi, a few kilometers away. We were salty from the sea and hungry enough to kill for food .We went straight to the center of the city to found a bakery. Two cheese pies and milk was our breakfast plus some ‘koulouria’ . We sat at the nice harbor of Galaxidi eating and watching the view, the boats and the amazing buildings.
With our stomachs in a happy mood, we had already gone to our next stop, the famous Pantabrexei.
It’s nice to driving on an empty road. I mean empty from cars not from animals. So, what was that dark , bulky, huge figure with horns in the middle of the ‘empty’ road? What else. A bull.
Yes, a bull was sitting in the middle of the road.
Fortunately, it was friendly and calm. It let us also to took some pictures of it…or him.
He was the king of the road, we knew that, and with his permission we continued our trip.We were driving up to the mountain when we saw on the left, something like a coffe-bar.
We stopped by. I got a cold beer, Sakis got a cappuccino freddo. This is hilarious, cappuccino freddo in the woods. The owner handed me the beer and then brought an extra plate with a small piece of feta cheese, 3-4 baked potatoes and a piece of pasta soufflé. Pretty cool huh? Or... Was i look desperately hungry?
We asked the owner and he told us many useful things about the area like there wasn’t any gas station nearby. We had to go to Galaxidi or to Nafpactos to fill the car up. “But….” he said but. “But you can find some gas at the grocery store. Just go to the next village and ask for the grocer. I’ll call to let him know about you”. A grocery store,selling gas! Have you ever heard of something like this? Only in Greece.
We found the grocer. He got only 20 liter of gas. We dropped them into the gas tank then we went to the next village, asked for the grocer and bought extra 40 liters.
Now you know. If you are around and need some gas , just go to the grocery.
Sounds funny and easy, but this gas adventure took us 2 ‘precious’ hours.
To cut a long story short, we didn’t have enough time to cross along the river and reached Pantabrexei.
We had to cross about a 1000 meters but when we hit the middle we had to go back because it was getting dark. We took some pictures and both said “Goodbye Pantabrexei. See you next time”. Totally pissed off, we were driving up to the mountain “Kaliakouda”. It was the worst dirt road I had ever seen.Extremly narrow, 180 degrees turns, 9 Beaufort strong wind and there was a very steep slope just before we reached the top of the mountain. With the differential gear always locked in low ranges we crossed the mountain and finally, we reached the place that we would eat and sleep. Mikro palio horio. “Little Old Village”. We ate like horses and pitched the tent near the lake. I slept in the car, again. I think that everytime I’m pissed off, I hate the tents and love the backseats. In that case I did the right thing!
4 o’clock in the morning. Sakis knocked the window and made me scared to death. He took an extra sleeping bag and a jacket, because of the low temperature. But I was in the car and I was fine.
Sunday. But without the sun was only an ordinary day. We should had call it Clouday. Anyway, few hours later Clouday became Sunday and we were at the top of the mountain (Οίτη) Oeta or Oeti.One of the best places i’ve ever been.
Totally green. The green that we all like not the blue poisoned with some yellow. A glorious green. Tall fir trees as it was a huge Christmas tree salon and a fantastic upland. Few steps away it was a lodge. We checked it out but we found the door locked. This is a place I wanna come back and stay for a while.
We had already started driving down the mountain, leaving all these great scenes and pictures of green behind us. I was tired but my brain was full of nice informations. I had 2 days beard that made me look like a diesel dyke but I felt happy. As a conclusion…. I would definitely do it again.
Do it, but with a tank full of gas. ;)
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