Safe Return Doubtful

69 miles (111 km) – Total so far: 83 miles (134 km

Edessa town was disappointing last night though the Hotel was excellent. The town is very touristy with several pedestrian only streets filled with bars and restaurants. Two bars claimed to have a wide range of beer, one advertised at the front of the street that it had more than 100. In ‘Murphy’s Law’ the first of these they had two kegs, Greek lager and Amstel. In cans they had Guinness and Murphys, not cheap either. In the other, apparently there’s only 100 at certain times of the year, just now, when town is packed, there are 2 draft and 2 in cans, the same as the other bar.

Breakfast was from 8, and the earliest I could push them back to was 7:30. I got on the road just after 8.

The apparently famous church in the centre of Edessa.

Dropping down into Arnissa- mid morning
Cloudy and cool (16 to 19C) all day with rain this morning

Some flat midday miles along Lake Polpp.

Lunch in Amundeo, still raining a bit and pleasantly cool.

Really happy with the route choice today,
Almost completely of quiet roads, just leaving Edessa had traffic.
A few km of this type of surface, through rural farm villages.

Through the big city of Florina at about 2 pm. Stop off for a cool drink (expensive though..)

I managed to find a route off the main highway up over the mountain.
It was a single lane rural road, it may used to have been the only road.
Pestered by flies, thankfully not biting, the seal runs out of the village of Alona. It’s a great little village, filled up with water, would have been a great place to overnight, plenty of wild camping spots close by, and a bar and restaurant.

From Alona the road is rough, not sealed, and really needs off road tyres.
I’d encourage any prospective riders to take it though. It’s 5 km to the highway, and goes up 550 metres, the first half km out of Alona is rocky and very steep, 25%+. That’s a push, but after that it’s pretty much rideable, through the forest. It probably takes a bit longer than the highway, but if you’re riding steadily uphill, it’s a good alternative.

The top of the pass is at 1560 meters, and from there it’s just the highway option downhill, about 10 km and losing 550 metres to the village of Antartiko, and the Villa Rosa, home for the night. A great day.