Time for a brief sleep before heading down to Stanstead at 3am and saying goodbye to Ali. Panic at the check in, my bike is supposed to be boxed for the fight, so i hurriedly try to disassemble it with the few tools i have. But Ryan Air want twenty pounds for the box i have to cram it in to. Thank god for those donations!
At the other end Patras airport ins actually an old military base in the middle of nowhere. I Step of the plain in the heat still wearing my thermals and whites and many layers to keep the weight of my hand luggage down. I struggle to assemble the bike in front of the other dispersing passengers.
Eventually i manage it by the time the staff lock up the airport and i'm dripping with sweat and have already got oil all over my whites. Word from Dana and Jamie comes that they wont be there to join me until the morning so i head off looking for a place to camp. I take a turn and follow the road past a ruined fort on top of a hill, then along the side of a huge lake where i found a little old chapel that looked like something out of a spaghetti western. I pitch my tent by the chapel.
That night i try to walk up to a cave i could see in the overhanging cliff. The rocks have faces, everywhere i look i see the wise men of stone assembled here. I didn't make it to the cave and it was quickly becoming dark and couldn't be sure how exactly to get there. I did make it to a precipice near the top as night fell. I could see the lonely chapel where my tent was and the huge lake next to it and further away street lights indicating civilisation. The hills behind me meant i was looking out in the same direction as all those faces and i could see the sea opposite the orange glows of the towns.
Orion was rising in front of me, Venus and Jupiter above the sea to the west and a red star or planet twinkled intensely above the eastern horizon. Slowly the clouds parted to reveal a huge full moon low in the east too. I headed back down the track in the dark with the help of glow worms and went to sleep in my little tent.
Next morning i cycled back to the airport to meet Dana and Jamie and pick up a hire car that would take us to Delphi for a few days. Strange to find the airport closed apart from a few lonely workers. We chained the bike to a fence and headed off.
Two hours drive till we arrived at the Castalian spring to find it fenced off. There was at least a font where i could wash my feet and head and fill bottles. The temple of Apollo was closed by the time we got to the entrance but i did manage to consume about six litres from the spring as we wandered round the temple of Athena, the oldest part of the sight. I felt the urge to step over the rope and stand in the centre of the circular temple. I was shouted at by the stone faced attendant hiding behind dark sunglasses but still managed a brief moment stood there in barefoot.
Back in the car it was a short drive to meet our hosts Jo and John who provided us with delicious food as we chatted into the night.
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