Day 183: Rovies to Chalkida
Big climbs have big descents
Breakfast this morning was a little tricky. There was no-one serving food, but there was a café serving coffee. They were very nice and perfectly happy for us to eat our croissants from the bakery down the road and our cereal from the shop over the way, whilst drinking there very nice “Mrs. Mary” coffee.
Picnicking in the café
The day was all about two climbs over the central spine of the island as we made our way south to the bridge at Chalkida. The first was only around 300m high, and we polished off fairly easily, but the second was at least twice that height and climbed over around 15 km. It was only around 5% for most of the time, but that grinds you down after an hour or so.
The climb started with a gradual slope next to a small river…
It started to ramp up a little as the river went into a ravine…
Then the gradient increased as we entered the big wide switchbacks higher up the climb
We had some support from tree fellers near the top (oh, actually I see there we four of them)
Then pin the ears back and a big long descent, with views of the gulf below
A really nice day’s riding - smooth roads, only a little traffic and beautiful weather (some cloud cover kept it cooler.)
Tomorrow we head into Athens. I’m expecting a lot more traffic, pollution and mayhem. Fingers crossed.