A clean exit took us again up into the remote hills of Central Greece, once ancient Aetolia. Sometimes it feels as if it hasn’t changed much over the last 2500 years!
In the time of the Persian Wars in the 5th century BCE the Aetolians remained neutral and kept out of the battles which made Athens and Sparta so famous. That is why today you most likely haven’t heard of them! But in a way, you can also understand how and why considering even today we felt removed from the rest of Greece as we headed up into the hills!
These hills are impressive and almost Tuscan with their mix of olive and pine trees and we rolled over a few lumps before descending down to Limni Trichonida, Greece’s largest lake.
Skirting this, we rolled into sleepy Agrinio, our last stop on the mainland!
Thunderstorms were in the forecast today, so our ride was cut short by 30km and 2,700 ft of climbing. Instead of lunch by the lake, we skipped that and had a picnic lunch in a very nice lounge at the hotel! It poured rain within minutes of our arrival at the hotel, followed by dinner in the dining room a few hours later.
Tomorrow we ride to the coast to catch a ferry to the island of Kefalonia, we are still on Odysseus’ tail!
