- Weather: Scattered clouds
- Departure: 10h00
- Arrival: 19h00
- Date: 05/08/15
- Distance: 314 km
Kalabaka, the town of Meteors, those famous Orthodox monasteries perched atop rocky peaks. A must see in Greece, so I had to drop by. With that objective in mind, I started my day earlier than the previous as I suspected the road to be long and wanted to be sure to arrive at my destination with sunlight to spare. Thankfully, it was not raining.
I planned a detour instead of the most direct route because on my map, the roads cutting straight through the mountains were marked as being unpaved. Not that I lack skills on loose surfaces (a bit actually, but I’m willing to learn) but entering this territory on the motorcycle that I had was a gamble I was not ready to take. My tires are cracked from sitting under the sun and even if I had a spare, the wheels are tubeless so there is no changing them without specialized tools. However, once at the crossroads between my desired route and the shortcut, I noticed that a brand new road had been paved using funds from the European Union. In all probability, this would have allowed a safe crossing, but what was far from certain was whether the road had been finished all the way or not, which given Greece’s economic woes, is unlikely. Having to be back in Thessaloniki tomorrow, now was not the time to get stranded in the middle of nowhere.
So I kept going. At a steady pace kilometers passed and early in the evening I arrived in Kalabaka and skipped the town to go and have a look at the Meteors. Spectacular, maybe I’ll visit a monastery tomorrow.
