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Thursday, October 3rd - Ioannina to Monodendri, return - 12,482 km
Hugo and Hans get up at 7:30. They quietly set up their camp stove and boil water for tea. Hans shakes out the tent and rolls it up. I must get up with them as I am still sleeping between them when they get up, my head resting on my bundle of clothes just outside the door so they wouldn't kick me in the head anymore. I haven't had the best sleep as I was afraid to move and kick them too. I groggily wait for the tea water to boil.
The morning is lovely and it isn't long before I am anxious to get going. I have a couple things to look into before I set off though. Before deciding to sleep in the camp ground last night, I did search for a hotel or hostel but didn't find any. Today I will cycle north to see the Vikos Gorge, one of the two 3-star attractions listed in the Michelin Guide for northern Greece, and I will return to here afterwards. Hugo and Hans will be long gone as they are leaving for points east after breakfast. I will have no shelter and there are rumours of a storm tonight.
We have been camped next to several small tents and a larger one set up by a group of Christian evangelists who are leaving for Albania tomorrow. The Albanians are starving in the economic crisis that has followed the collapse of communism last year. The Christians wish to take advantage of their weakness and get them to convert from Islam to Christianity in exchange for their charity. I see no option but to ask the Christians if they can spare any space for me to lay my sleeping bag tonight. Their leader says that won't be a problem, that they have lots of room. They agree to safe-keep my bags for the day until I return.
With my shelter assured, I set out to find a bike shop. I find one. It's much friendlier and helpful than the one in Bari, Italy, but they don't have an odometer I can fit to my bike. However, they say the fellow who works next door loves to tinker with electronic things. His name is Georgio and he suggests I leave it with him for the day. I doubt he can do anything but it's worth a try since I have no other options.
Finally I am free to leave. The road north passes through the villages of Eleousa, Lykostomo, Asfaka and Karyes. In Karyes, a small side road forks off and slowly ascends the mountainside above the valley and highway below. When it reaches a
height 400 m above the valley floor it turns eastward away from the valley and climbs passes and hills to climb another 200 m to the village of Monodendri, which is perched on the upper edge of the Vikos Gorge.
Monodendri is a trip back in time, with its primitive laneways, stone houses and fences. There are no stores, no signage or other indications of modern life, such as TV antennae. In fact, I see no people either as I roll my unloaded bike through the compact village. I suppose they are all working in nearby fields out of sight. 
The lane diminishes into a trail that leads to the lip of the great gorge which falls off 400 m below me. It is breath-taking. The trail diminishes into a narrow ledge that continues around sheer cliffs rising and falling dozens of metres above and below it. It seems to lead to a cave where the townspeople could take refuge when attacked. I lean up my bike against a wall and inch my way along it. My cycling shoes have no grip and small pebbles that have fallen onto the ledge from above make it slippery. I push them off as inch my way along. They fall so far I cannot hear them land. As I try to round a bend the ledge narrows to about 40 cm and there are many more pebbles. The wind picks up and I start feeling vertigo. There is no logical or justifiable reason for continuing with this much risk so I return to my bike. I climb on and begin the three hour return trip.
The sky clouds over before I reach Ioannina and the wind begins to gust. I detour past the bike shop and Georgio comes over from the shop next door to give me my odometer back. He’s a wizard – my odometer is working again, but he refused to take any money for it, saying it was just fun to try and being successful was his reward. Wow, I am touched. The Christians at the campsite aren’t nearly as charitable. To get an early start tomorrow they have broken down their small tents and the entire group will sleep in the large industrial-sized tent tonight. There’s no room for me, they say. On a whim, their promise of shelter is shrugged off and now that the storm is really starting to hit with high winds and the start of light rain, I have nowhere to go. They couldn’t be less concerned. I pick up my bags, which they have left unattended in the open out in the rain. I hate religion.
The storm is whipping up waves off the lake that are breaking over the levee and smashing against a vertical rack of canoes. It’s going to be a doozie, but instead of retreating to a doorway in the city I get the bright idea to sleep on the platform under the lowest of the canoes, which is raised off the ground about 50 cm. I stuff my bags up under the fare end of the canoe and spread out my mat and sleeping in the middle. I crawl up inside. It is very snug and comfortable and protected from most of the wind. I wrap my sleeping bag half over my head and fall asleep listening to the waves and the rain, which is now falling much harder, splash against the canoes. I feel very safe.
PHOTO 1: beautiful Hans loading his bike
PHOTO 2: winged visitor beside our campsite
PHOTO 3: panorama of Ioannina Lake
PHOTO 4: climbing up to Monodendri, looking south
PHOTO 5: climbing up to Monodendri, looking north
PHOTO 6: arched bridge before Monodendri
PHOTO 7: looking up at Monodendri as I enter
PHOTO 8: lane in Monodendri
PHOTO 9: Monodendri
PHOTO 10: plateau at the edge of the Vikos Gorge
PHOTO 11: desert-like vegetation on the plateau
PHOTO 12: edge of the gorge
PHOTO 13: Vikos Gorge, looking north
PHOTO 14: climbing away, last view of Monodendri and the gorge
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