Lizzie likes: food, smoking, walking at her family’s holiday cottage
in west Scotland. She is a gardener, having largely packed in writing about
food to study horticulture two years ago.
Steve is: her husband, who likes watching football, playing cricket,
smoking, and visiting his wife’s family’s holiday cottage in Scotland with a
view to walking. He is stuck in an office largely editing other people’s
travel articles.
The proposition: a week-long walking holiday in The Pelion, on the
eastern mainland of Greece, in May, when the wildflowers are at their best
(Lizzie) and before the cricket season starts (Steve) in a country that
doesn’t shoot smokers. The bags are transferred for you (bliss) and the
weather reportedly temperate (see bags).
The issues: He is 48, wary of too much walking but convinced that a
week in the outdoors in an apparently glorious part of quiet Greece is a
“good thing.” She is 10 years younger and fine with the idea, until the
travel pack arrives welcoming us to Mt Pelion. “Mount Pelion? As in
mountain? When did you mention a mountain? “
DAY 1
London-Skiathos
Altitude: Sea level – 35,000ft – Sea level
Distance: 2,600km.
It didn’t help that a passenger in a window seat pointed out there was still
snow on The Pelion as the plane began to descend. And although Koula is a
very jolly host at her B&B in Skiathos, it didn’t help that she slapped
her thighs and shrieked in laughter at Lizzie’s mountain story. Still wiping
her eyes, she asked what warm clothes we had with us. “A cardigan,” said
Lizzie, looking at me.
DAY 2
Skiathos – Volos, on the Greek mainland.
Altitude: Sea level – sea level
Distance: 10km
Onto the hydrofoil: perhaps it's time to read the On Foot Holidays advice book
properly. Things to take for the backpack: “Survival bag,” I read. Lizzie
looks at me. “Whistle, torch, pocket knife….” I look at Lizzie out of the
corner of my eye. Each item is met with a shake of the head. “Compass, GPS,
First Aid kit….” More shakes..
DAY 3
Kala Nera – Milies
Altitude: Sea level – 285m – 390m
Distance: 6km
It was an acquaintance who sold the idea of The Pelion to me. Her vivid
descriptions of skipping through waist high flowers in the spring sunshine
in Greece sounded perfect, a getaway before spending a suuny summer in
England when everybody went to Greece and the Med. I don’t recall Annabel
mentioning any undulations: now I’m getting a bit worried as we prepare for
five days of walking across the Pelion peninsula. The one with the mountain.
So I throw a light waterproof, walking pole, spare pair of comfy sneakers,
jumper and corkscrew into the backpack. Lizzie wears her cardigan and an air
of confidence, knowing the waterproof, pole and jumper are hers for the
asking. We’re dropped off by the rep, who checks we have our maps, notes and
directions. In this case, at least, we are well prepared. If it's pouring
800m up the mountain, we won't.
Basically, the first day is a reasonable one hour walk up through olive
groves, then another hour along the slight slope of a railway line to
Millies. Happily, the weather is glorious. Turpentine trees, sistus, orchids
and poppies wave at the sun along the railway cutting. About one kilometre
before Milles, a couple amble toward us, the only other people we’ve seen
all morning (and conspiciously not carrying any spare shoes, jumpers or
waterproof). Our spirits are further lifted. Then, right on cue, the
one-a-day tourist train toots behind us as we cross a bridge spanning a deep
gorge. How deeply satisfying as novice hikers to wave to the tourists.
Lunch in Millies’main square, a £20 banquet of sausage and green peppers,
lamb, salad,, chicken and beer. It's busy with families, the kids playing
unchaperoned and unfussed over in the playground next door. Another group of
children from the train, a school group, have their own table while the
teachers smoke and drink and laugh. Old boys play backgammon while their
wives huddle to talk.
Two enormous plane trees shade the square, a sight we would get used to over
the days. The squares remain the village social hub, the place to stop and
read and talk, to meet, eat or take a small pastis, and for walkers to be
eternally grateful and wondrous as to how easy going life can be. Today,
four or five other walkers are passing through, distinguished by their
inevitable poles, rucksacks and great clumping boots.
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It appears there is one other British couple on the same route as us, a fact
cunningly deduced by the fact that it is odd to see the same couple in
Skiathos, on the hydrofoil and now sitting at the next table. Being British
and wanting our own space, we of course don’t strike up conversation,
avoiding eye contact while idly pondering who they are. They look
Hertfordshire, 50, teacher-ish and very pleasant.
From the square, it’s uphill to our B&B, Sto Aloni, set back on a
bend of the road leaving the village. So set back that we only discover it’s
the right place by asking for directions. It’s clean, with a small balcony
and the owners are jolly. But for dinner, unencumbered by bags and boots, we
walk sprightly uphill in rapidly fading light to the next village, Vizitsa,
a kilometre or two away. The large manor houses that once housed the
Pelion’s merchants are now being restored, the huge properties with wooden
top floors used by families in summer, who retreat to the well-insulated
stone lower floors in winter.
The On Foot notes say the village was on its way to becoming a ghost town when
the state declared it a national treasure. Now there are 400 inhabitants and
some of the houses are now inns (including the unassuming Glorious Peleys
Luxury Castle) and the population migration has been stemmed.
All cobbled paths lead to the main square, where we surprise a slumbering
restaurant owner by taking a table. It is still so early in the season that
only one other couple sit in another taverna in a square dominated by two
plane trees we estimated to be eight feet in diameter. There are only half a
dozen dishes available, so we’re forced to order souvlaki, fried pork and
potatoes with rose wine.
With all talk of mountains and snow forgotten, we talk about the day, from
being tentative, overburdened hikers to the lovely climb through scrubby
olive groves and along the railway track to, just before Millies, a
transformed scene of brilliant green glades and gurgling streams. Up here in
Vizitsa the houses are partly hidden behind tall trees.
In winter, The Pelion has the highest rainfall in mainland Greece and the east
facing slopes are incredibly green. Apples, peaches, pears and strawberries
grow here. “You wouldn’t expect this of Greece,” muses Lizzie. “Olive trees,
yes, but I didn’t expect almighty great trees and rivers. I expected lots of
bouganvillea, geraniums and vines but I didn’t expect lush. It’s more like
Italy.”
DAY 4
Milies – Tsagarada
Altitude: 390m – 780m – 480m
Distance: 10km
We meet our fellow walkers over a breakfast of bread, jam, coffee and fruit
with a boiled egg on the side. She is Renee, he is Martin and they have been
on one other On Foot walking holiday, to the Czech Republic. “That was five
to seven hours a day, which is why we chose this one.” Comforting words – I
like her, although Martin is more of a closed book.
Out of the village, we looked down over slate-tiled roofs and picked up the
trail. The maps are detailed, with step by step route notes written by the
company's reps in The Pelion, Dimitrios and Velentina. Dimitrios is a member
of the Volos Alpine club and we have their mobile numbers should anything go
wrong.
The maps and notes are split into daily packs and include asides and
observations which help personalise the whole trip. We pass the point where
Valentina writes: “One of the fallen trees is thick and we, rather
romantically, have to almost crawl under it.” It is a romantic spot, with
thick beech wood glades, fruit orchards and chesnut trees reminiscent of the
Forest of Dean. It’s a gradual climb, “ideal for smokers,” says Lizzie.
Laurels and helibores proliferate as we climb to 780m, the highest point of
the walk, within two hours, before the path gently slides around the side of
a gorge with the Aegean Sea becoming visible in front of us. We stop for
lunch (packed by last night’s B&B) and see nobody else for an
hour. I’m even moved to whip out my watercolour sketching pad under the
shade of the beech.
The pace becomes slower, as Lizzie stops to swoop on a flower and refer to a
botany book we found in Volos (thankfully: not to self, be better prepared
next time). A small church on the path, one of many, is kept open and it’s
another pleasant diversion, dark and cool inside. The notes again prove
helpful and provide insight. It would obviously be cheaper to not book with
a tour operator, but the notes, maps, support in case of a problem and
pre-booking of well-chosen B&Bs add immeasurably to the pleasure.
We meet the Boltons again that evening on the cool, shaded terrace of our
fantastic B&B, The Lost Unicorn in Tsagarada. They arrived an hour
before us, but it’s not a race. We’d taken nearly seven hours whereas On
Foot suggest it may take five. Over a beer, Renee asked if we’d gone into
the church. “And did you sit down?” she added. We didn’t. “That’s a shame -
I left my glasses there.” Apparently, it happens a lot – find a cool spot,
sit down, relax, then leave glasses/binoculars/cigarettes behind. Be warned.
It transpires the couple are in their 50s and from Gloucestershire, with two
grown-up daughters. We never got around to talking work as Renee chatted
pleasantly to Lizzie about the flora while more pistachios and drinks
arrived.
After a long walk, the glass of Greek Mythos lager felt like that scene from Ice
Cold in Alex. My toes were crunching the front of my boots in the last
three hours as we walked downhill - but it was absolutely perfect weather,
about 18C, all off-road and mostly along calderimis, cobbled paths that
connected the villages of The Pelion until the roads were built only three
or four decades ago.
The Unicorn is run by Christos, whose family lives further north and his
English wife Clare. They met in London and bought the B&B three years
ago, keeping many of the antiques and refurbishing the whole building. There
is a library, dining room, comfy lounge with honesty bar. Our top floor room
has a separate bathroom, with doors opening out to the treetops and balcony.
Perfect.
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DAY 5
Tsagarada – Damouchari
Altitude: 480m – sea level
Distance: 5km
The sun pours into our room through the wooden shutters. We collapsed at 10pm
last night after dinner and are up early, for me at least. Surprisingly, we
are free from aches and pains except Lizzie’s shins.
I may not have packed a GPS or survival kit, but I did remember binoculars,
and from the balcony, I follow the shrieks from the treetops, spotting
swallows, woodpeckers, bee-eaters and other birds I can’t identify. There
are 200 species of birds here. Lizzie is more pleased to see sparrows – “I
only saw six in London in the past year.” I mention it to Clare, who tells
me with a deadpan face that there are more bids this season because of the
birdflu scare - no-one shoots them for supper.
A full English breakfast, as well as cereal, Greek yoghurt and juice are
available, with a cafieiere of freshly ground coffee. I remember yesterday’s
bread, jam and boiled egg and help myself to another sausage. There were
eight guests, including Renee and Martin, all British, and we’d arranged to
visit the Serpentine Garden in the village. It is in a private house, owned
by German-born Doris Schlepper, who allows visits by appointment. Lizzie
(and, as it turned out, three other gardeners in our group) were in their
element.
Doris and her husband started carving the garden out of the wildnerness in
1990. Now it is a flourishing four acre site cleverly built series of paths
and terraces planted with dozens of native and imported species, her
enthusiasm undimmed. After an hour or so, we left clutching home made jams
on sale and returned to our B&B to find a snake in the library. There
are four types on venomous snakes in The Pelion, this one a harmless tiddler
dispatched in a shoebox far enough away so the cats didn’t bring it straight
back in.
By now, I’d realised my legs were twanging like banjos. I was reminded of the
spot near Millies where according to legend, Achilles and Jason (of Argonaut
fame) were fed fawn marrow and lion’s entrails by their centaur tutor,
Chiron, to build up strength. Sadly, that asn’t on the breakfast menu.
But it was all downhill from here to the Aegean Sea to Damouchari, a one-horse
town with one rider – who owns Cleopatra’s, the main restaurant (there is
one other), and some apartments/cottages opposite which has the
distinguishing feature of a bar which doubles up as an antiques-cum-bric a
brac museum. Well worth visiting for a drink on the roof terrace.
The walk was gentle, but then with the sea below us, turned sharply down a
cascading path, dropping hundreds of feet within minutes to the turquoise
shallows of a pebbly beach. Our B&B was again simple and clean and,
having feasted handsomely at Cleopatra’s for lunch, bestowed favour on the
other restaurant for supper, where we watched the village’s two fishing
boats head out at night to find more fish and squid for next day’s table.
DAY 6
Damouchari – Ag Ioannis
Altitude: sea level
Distance: 2km
Another easy stroll to the next bay, barely an hour of slow-paced ambling over
the headland and around a campsite to Ag Ioannis, the main beach resort on
the mainland east coast. Which means no more than a strip of restaurants and
mini marts and a pebbly, sandy beach perhaps 600 metres long. It’s an old
resort, with no clubbing.
We were the first guests of the season at Hotel Aloe, and the owners, Panos
and Eva, couldn’t have been more hospitable. The hotel opened in 1927 and
Panos wistfully recalled the tea dances that were held on the front. The
stairs and corridors echoed to our footsteps and I was reminded of The
Shining, but Panos is no Jack.
The dozen or so tourists in town peered at postcards and we did the only
sensible thing to do and lay on the beach for the afternoon, able to fall
asleep without getting burned in early 20s temperatures. The Boltons, are in
the next door room. We’ve fallen into an easy non-obtrusive relationship by
now, cemented by the shared garden tour, although on the walk, we keep out
distances.
They’ve also got a Rough Guide and suggest the Poseidon
restaurant, the only one featured in the town, where they had lunch. So we
went there for dinner.
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DAY 7
Ag Ioannis- Ag Dimitrios – Kissos – Mouresi – Ag Ioannis
Altitude: Sea level – 380m – 530m – 360m – Sea level
Distance: 11km
OK, I admit it – I took a taxi to Kissos. I’d like to think it was
philosophical: I’d done the walk over the peninsula, from Bay to Sea, so an
up-and-down hike was an intrusion, an adjunct to the real walk. And I’d like
to be able to move when playing cricket on Sunday, three days off.
Lizzie scoffed, naturally, but it was seeing the Boltons also leaving the
hotel after breakfast that produced a twinge of guilt. But only a twinge. My
plan was to cab it, meet Lizzie in Kissos, then walk the hills and savour
the best bit – the walk back down to the sea.
It was essentially a 2 hour, 20 minute walk straight up the hill to Kissos and
I arrived by cab (ordered by the hotel, £5) around 40 minutes before Lizzie
was due, time to sit in the shaded main square with the village scruffy
stray dog settling at my feet, to read and relax. Barely had I time to open
my packed lunch when Lizzie sauntered into town, 20 minutes early. Having,
rightly, taken more ribbing, I deftly switched attention to the spread of
spicy sausage, sandwiches and olive cake.
It was Lizzie’s birthday and, before leaving, I had arranged through On Foot
for champagne and a birthday cake. You’d have thought it was Eva’s birthday,
such was her enthusiasm in producing a spread of cakes and pastries at
breakfast that morning. Some of it was in our lunch boxes that day. Lizzie
paid more attention. So had the stray mongrel who joined us and lolled
pathetically in the shade.
Back in Tsagarada, Christos talked to us about the “problem” of animal welfare
in Greece. Their three dogs were all abandoned by others, one being rescued
from a tip in Volos where it scavenged for food. Another of their dogs died
after eating poison. But here, and in Millies, it is clear that locals do
feed the strays. Our muppet of a dog happily accepted a sausage but didn’t
beg or show aggression and gracefully relapsed into the shade after feeding.
Silly sods we are. Muppet then followed out of the square as we left, and was
still there 20 minutes later. We talked about adoption but decided our
20-year-old cat wouldn’t appreciate his holiday present. Finally, after much
ineffectual shooing, go homes and threats, Muppet was spooked by a mule and
retreated while we sprinted down the road and around the bend.
It was easy sauntering, through sleepy villages, quiet squares back to the
sea. The Boltons joined us to crack the champagne before dinner. We were
keen to try the Ecology Pizza advertised, but it was still too early in the
season and the restaurant remained closed. The one we did choose was busy as
a result, with Dutch and German couples and walkers predominant. The only
British couple we met lived in the resort in the summer, moving back to
Volos in winter. We were also the first British tourists they had seen this
season.
DAY 8
Ag Ioannis – Volos – Skiathos - Home
The cab ride back to Volos was included in the price and we took a road which
passed the Pelion’s ski “resort” – three up and down runs. There really is
snow up here in the winter. We had time to take the ferry back to Skiathos,
rather than the hermetically sealed hydrofoil. I love a good blast of sea,
sky and wind and we sat up top, the black-clad Greek grannies spreading
banquets over the tables down below deck, the men playing cards and smoking
profusely.
We were so pleased we came in May, before the crowds. April would have been
lovely for the blossoms. Or we could feasted on mushrooms in September. But
May gave us the wild flowers, the early summer warmth and the space. I’d do
it again.
NEED TO KNOW
The Mount Pelion self-guided walk ("Across the peninsula to the Aegean")
is offered by On Foot Holidays. Start any day (room and flight availability
permitting) between April 25 - June 30, or between September 11 - October
24.
The price of £495 per person (single supplement: £65) excludes flights but
includes seven nights B&B, two packed lunches, luggage transfers, one
essential taxi ride, maps, route directions, extensive background and
transfer information and full local back-up. Not included are all other taxi
transfers, return ferry fares between Skiathos and Volos and any other meals.
Flights (to Skiathos) available from London, Bristol, East Midlands,
Manchester and Newcastle (source from Web or get help from On Foot
Holidays). We booked through Excel Airways from Gatwick and paid £157 each,
including taxes. Flights operate every Friday until October 6 - a quick
check reveals mid-September prices of £180.
