Platamon Fortress
We were very lucky with the weather in Greece. Almost every day was sunny, but it wasn't too hot: after all, late September and October are more comfortable than summer.
Only one day promised rain, but we were lucky: the day before we had hiked through the Vikos Canyon, and the weather was beautiful. Today we had to go further, so the rain wasn't too bad. However, we should have left earlier and driven through one of the most the most picturesque serpentines in the world before the rain.
Greece is truly an amazing country! Where else will a woman with the simple Greek name of Athena feed you breakfast and then help you carry your suitcases to the car?
Ironically, we were lucky with the weather here too: the clouds thickened just long enough to create dramatic lighting and a light drizzle, but then the sky cleared, and we were back in sunny weather. Apparently, all the rain had stayed behind the mountain.
The journey isn't particularly long—about four hours to the coastal town of Leptorakia. But first, we'll drive a little further to the fortress. Platamon — It was built by the Crusaders in the 13th century. As is typical here, it stood on the site of an older Greek settlement—the city of Heraklion. The fortress is small and doesn't boast many visitors, despite its beautiful views.
After admiring the views of the fortress, we headed to our town, fortunately only a 10-minute drive away. It's a pleasant resort town, now half-empty due to the end of the season (though the water is very warm). I was a little surprised by the abundance of hotels and cottages for rent to tourists: when I searched for accommodation on booking.com, I didn't see any of this. Apparently, the locals have their own pride and look down on Booking.com. I'll have to keep this in mind if we go to Greece again. We checked into a cozy and almost empty hotel on the second line—a 10-minute walk to the beach. But that wasn't a problem for us, so we went swimming right away. There weren't many people, and Russian was clearly audible. Perhaps it's too cold for the locals? After all, the water temperature was only 25 degrees.
However, local residents were also present on the beach:
Mount Olympus National Park“
Swimming in the sea is wonderful, of course, but that's not why we came here. Our goal today is to climb Mount Olympus. Unfortunately, it takes two days to reach the summit, including an overnight stay at a shelter. We don't have the time or equipment for that, so we'll hike halfway—right up to this shelter.
Spiridula, the cheerful hostess of our hotel, feeds us a hearty breakfast, and we set off. It's a forty-minute drive, and, of course, it's a serpentine mountain road. However, after the road to Papingo, that's nothing to us.
The trail is very popular—we arrived quite early, but the parking lot was already quite full, and we constantly had to pass slower groups. The walking is fairly easy, and the weather was perfect.
We've finally reached the shelter! You can spend the night there (but you have to bring your own bedding) and buy food—surprisingly, it's not too expensive. Many, like us, simply reach the shelter and turn back, but others stay here for a few days and make radial excursions.
Interestingly, the shelter has no water source: all the water (at least the drinking water) is brought in. There are several tanks of industrial water, which is undrinkable. I wonder where it comes from? It's impossible to get here by car.
It would have been nice to stay here overnight and reach the summit, but apparently it wasn't meant to be. We take photos at the edge of the trail and, after a short rest, descend, passing or skirting large groups slowly making their way up.
Along the way, we encounter a caravan carrying supplies uphill. It's surprising that, despite such complex and time-consuming logistics, a bottle of water at the shelter costs about two euros—it would probably be more expensive at our department store.
The walk turned out to be neither difficult nor too long – about half a day, so we had time to have lunch, swim in the sea and watch the sun set behind Mount Olympus.
Go to Greek Trip Homepage.
