Delphi to Kalavrita

May 2, 2009

Leaving Delphi, we backtracked the route we had arrived by. Freewheeling most of the way back to the gulf we quickly arrived back in Itea and continued on a few miles further to Galaxidi where we broke for lunch and poked around the colorful town a bit before moving on. Lunch was great, at a sidewalk restaurant overlooking the gulf. This was a fish eatery, and we were invited to pick our meal from the colorful assortment on ice presented to us.

We were sorry to have missed staying overnight in Galaxidi. It's in a very pretty setting and looked like an attractive town to wander around in at our leisure. It just wasn't feasible though, because the first ferry back in the morning was too late to work with our train plans. So, after polishing off the catch of the day we continued west to Agia Nikolaos, caught the last ferry to Aegio, and checked in at the only hotel in town. Not the most exciting place to stay actually, but we were pleased at our success in finding a room on the fly.

The next morning, we biked on to Diakofto, locked our bikes up at the station, and loitered around with the other passengers waiting for the famous train to arrive. When it did appear, it was immediately obvious that the bikes weren't going to fit in the plan - it's a tiny thing, with space only for sightseers packed in like sardines. We hastily concluded that we'd take the train anyway, ride it back down again, and then bike up to Kalavrita. Perhaps foolishly, we also decided it would be brilliant to take our bike bags up with us and stash them in the station at the top so we wouldn't have to carry them with us when we biked back up again.

The train ride was everything it's made out to be. The gorge is steep, very winding, narrow, and studded with tunnels. Building a train route through it was quite an impressive feat, and it was great fun to look out the window the whole way up, admiring the changing terrain as we ascended, watching our fellow travelers gawk along with us, and watching the folks outside gawk back.

We reached the top in about an hour, and had only about 10 minutes to find a place to stash the bags. The station wasn't an option, because it barely exists. Fortunately I quickly found a cafe nearby and someone who spoke a smattering of English who agreed to watch them for us for a few hours, and made it back to the train with a few minutes to spare. Pretty harebrained idea all in all, but it worked out.

If anything, the ride back up by bicycle was even better than the train ride was. It was a steady 3000' climb to the summit before dropping back down again to Kalavrita, but it was really a beautiful ride that just kept getting better the further we climbed. We had great views down to the gulf and across to northern Greece, and the countryside in the spring was green, lush and spectacular.

One of our short cuts on the way back to Diakofto didn't pan out, and we walked our bikes across the river on a train bridge instead.

The cogwheel train to Kalavrita. Finding that we couldn't take our bikes on it after all, we locked them up at the station and rode the train up and back again. We did though, take our panniers up with us, planning to leave them at the top somewhere.

Sightseers lined the tracks along the way.

Commemorating the ride up Vouraikos Gorge.

Leaving the gorge, we entered the Arcadian highlands.

We arrived in Kalavrita about an hour after leaving Diakofto. We had only a few minutes to scramble around and find a place to leave off our panniers before hopping on the train for the trip back down.

As it turned out, we were very glad to have it both ways. The ride up was challenging but beautiful, with terrific views back over the Gulf of Corinth the whole way.

The Gulf of Corinth, from the ascent into Arcadia.

Goats at the summit and Rachael starting the descent, Arcadia.

Kalavrita's church. Kalavrita was the site of a horrendous WWII massacre, in which all of the males of the town were slaughtered. The clock on the left has been frozen to the time of the event ever since.

The commercial district, downtown Kalavrita.

Today's ride: 80 miles (129 km)
Total: 209 miles (336 km)

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