Kosmas to Githio - down, down, down

It was a cold morning when we awoke in Kosmas. We felt rested but still had muscle fatigue from the previous day's effort. Our new friends, the Verhage family, had shown up in Kosmas around 8:30 pm last night which surprised us. We had expected that they would be over the mountain ahead of us, but they had actually started the climb 30 minutes after us.

Dave's brake hoods finally gave up the ghost and our super supply (a roll) of duct tape came in very handy. Duct tape, don't leave home without it!



We left Kosmas bundled up for the cold descent. Even though we were braking a lot, we both had top speeds over 50 kph and the view was spectacular on the way down.



We soon dropped out of the fir tree forest and into an agricultural region. The shrine of the day was in front of a home next to a very old and healthy olive grove.



The piles of wood behind the shrine are for tonight's bonfires at midnight welcoming Christ back from the dead on Easter morning. Traffic jams in Greece are numerous, however we never saw this kind of traffic problem in Athens.



Soon we were back on the coast with an ocean breeze in our faces. We got into Githio, and according to our new habit rode the waterfront in search of lodging. Soon lodged we strolled out for dinner. Random firecrackers have been going off all evening, but at mid-night you would think it was a war zone! The heavy barrage went on for about an hour and finally subsided back to random explosions.

We have not yet camped on this trip, partly due to the fact that we have had trouble finding the right gas for our Primus stove. Yesterday that problem was solved when Belinda was in a small market to buy apples when she spied the right canister. So now the way is open to camping, perhaps tomorrow on the way up the coast to Kalamata.