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Saturday, October 5th - Kalampaka to Descati - 12,636 km
It's a hazy day, not the dazzling sunshine I see in all the postcards of Meteora, but it is a long, hot climb up into the hills to see the monasteries so I appreciate a little cloud cover. I am not sure how hard this climb will be, but the pillars above Kalampaka are intimidatingly high.
First, I have breakfast at a local café. Greeks tend to offer more substantial breakfasts than the rest of Europe, thankfully. I leave my bags in the office of the hotel after I check out, taking only my handlebar bag with my maps, camera and tire changing tools with me. The route up to Meteora and back is a 28 km loop, according to my map.
I am not fond of starting the day with a major climb, especially after enjoying a sizable breakfast, so I keep my pace slow when the climb begins. It is a relentless climb, but not as steep as I feared. It is totally enthralling too, like entering a magical 3-D land. The child inside of me is squealing with delight.
Meteora, geographically, is set massive sandstone pillars at the southern edge of the Pindus Mountains, rising vertically up to 550 m above the Plains of Thessaly below. On road I am on enters a great crack between the formations. It switchbacks through crevices and across rock faces until it is at the top, passing six monasteries as it climbs, monasteries that have been in continuous operation between 300 and 500 years. Each monastery is perched at the top of a massive pillar accessed only by retractable ladders or bridges, a system devised for protection from the invading Ottomans.
The views are incredible. It's a scene out of a fantasy novel. Some would call it romantic, I suppose, but I cannot imagine living with the vertigo or dealing with the amazing inconvenience of locations like this, such as having to climb a 50 m rope ladder after climbing a 300 m hill with a couple sacks of rice on your back, or even worse, hauling up water for cleaning, cooking, bathing... There are darker stains running down some sides of pillars - the effluence of daily life. Eeeeoow! But the idea of living with a colony of young, fit, isolated men (anyone older or otherwise feeble would probably die of a heart attack or fall of the rope ladder at some point) is a fantasy novel of another kind.
It is the second largest collection of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, surpassed only by the string of monasteries on Mount Athos east of here. Mount Athos is a restricted area that requires a permit that I don't have but they cannot be more beautiful than these ones.
I won't be able to go inside of these either, because bicycle shorts don't pass the dress code. I am sure many tourists are dying to get inside though, just to say they've done it, especially the ones accessed by bridges where the tour buses stop. It is ironic that the hermit monks retreated to these inaccessible sites to get away from people, only to be swarmed by tourists because of the location. They had not anticipated this type of barbarian.The first and lowest of the six monasteries is Agios Nikolaou, set on a 100 m high pillar only a couple hundred metres up my climb. It is surrounded by much higher pillars. As I climb I reach the higher ones, Rousanoau, Varlaam, Agia Triada (Holy Trinity) and Agios Stefanos. I can see the plain below stretching out to the distant horizon to the Aegean Sea 100 km away.
I accessed Meteora from the west and return to Kalampaka from the east having completed my circle tour. I pick up my bags and some groceries for lunch, and then set off for Descati, a town in the mountains north of Kalampaka.
The first part of my trip is to retrace my route into town from yesterday evening, heading west on the highway nine kilometres. The truck traffic is heavy and the shoulder is narrow, so it is a bit harrowing. From there I turn north 12 km on Hwy 15 until I reach the start of the road to Descati. Both these roads are much quieter. They are forested and the cloud cover keeps it cool. There are no passes to cross but the route climbs gently over the four hours until I have risen from 200 m at Kalampaka to 820 m at Descati.
Descati is brown and grey, a dusty looking town built on the lower slopes of a lumpy mountain to the north of it. Autumn has arrived without colour to this high plateau in the mountains. Maybe the town has two or three thousand people. It looks drab and poor. If it was any smaller I might not be able to find a place to stay, but there is a simple hotel in town, very affordable, with friendly proprietors. They do not speak English but they are very gracious.
There's a simple Greek restaurant and I get myself a lamb shank with soup and salad. In these quiet towns hospitality is sincere, even if there is no one to talk to. I just wish there was something to see and do other than reviewing my maps and making plans of where I would like to be. There was a rain shower early this evening and there may be more over night. Hopefully it will be dry tomorrow.
PHOTO 1: view of Meteora from below (Kalampaka)
PHOTO 2: Agios Nikolaou, the first monastery
PHOTO 3: Rousanoau Monastery
PHOTO 4: Varlaam Monastery
PHOTO 5: Agiu Stefanu Monastery
PHOTO 6: Agios Triadas (Holy Trinity) Monastery
PHOTO 7: the highest part of Meteora
PHOTO 8: below Meteora, the other side
PHOTO 9: the town of Descati
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