{"id":111,"date":"2012-07-27T01:49:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T01:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fnerk.com\/?p=111"},"modified":"2012-08-08T00:25:16","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T00:25:16","slug":"greece-day-8-mount-olympus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/?p=111","title":{"rendered":"Greece – Day 8: Mount Olympus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leigh had to return to her conference, but I had an even MORE harebrained plan: I was going to climb Mount Olympus.\u00a0 Yes, THAT Mount Olympus.\u00a0 Home of Zeus and all that.\u00a0 Incidentally, the ancient Olympic games were in Olympia, which is a completely different part of Greece.<\/p>\n

The scariest part of the undertaking was the first part, namely renting a car.\u00a0 The Greeks seem to regard driving as a competitive sport, and they’re very enthusiastic about it.\u00a0 Add to that the fact that Thessaloniki has tiny streets and a lot of construction underway, and you’ve a recipe for a truly terrifying twenty minutes or so before I got out onto the interstate.<\/p>\n

After that it was a very uneventful drive to the national park.\u00a0 I stopped at the small tourist town at the foot of the mountain for lunch, and then started the drive in.\u00a0 There’s two possible routes – you can park in the town and have an eight hour hike to the shelter, or drive partway up the mountain and hike for three hours.\u00a0 I opted for the latter, given the time constraints, and the fact that I am getting older and out of shape.<\/p>\n

Just a few kilometers up the road was an entrance station, where a nice ranger lady gave me a map, and made sure I had plenty of water.\u00a0 The road up the mountain was switchbacky, but didn’t have a lot of sheer drops, so it was actually quite fun in the rental stickshift.\u00a0 I stopped partway up to visit yet another monastery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The final parking lot, Prionia, is at about 1100 meters elevation, and has a little taverna where I got more water.\u00a0 After my experience on Athos, I was very worried about dehydration, but it turned out not to be a problem this time out. I stopped to sign the log on a small cache hidden near the parking lot, then started up the mountain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I knew it was supposed to be a three hour climb from the parking lot to the refuge where I intended to spend the night, but it was a bit cooler than it had been at sea level, and the temperature mercifully continued to drop as I climbed.\u00a0 It was quite steep in places, and I took a lot of breaks.\u00a0 But it was hard NOT to keep stopping, as the view just got better and better.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At about the two hour mark, I started faintly hearing bells.\u00a0 Bells?\u00a0 I wasn’t completely sure at first – it was right on the edge of hearing.\u00a0 But over time, it became more and more obvious that I was, indeed hearing bells.\u00a0 I correctly inferred that I was probably being approached by a mule train.\u00a0 And I was right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have video too, but it’s a bit larger than I can post here.\u00a0 After allowing the mules to pass, I resumed my climb and finally made it to the hiking refuge at about 2,100 meters.\u00a0 There were a number of other people there, including a group of about 20 American high school students.\u00a0 They were just as noisy as you might expect, but nice kids, and it was good to have someone to talk to in English.\u00a0 The refuge served tasty basic food, and got a fire going, which was appreciated, because I was absolutely soaked through with sweat.\u00a0 I also bought a T-shirt, just so I had something dry to put on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This was the view from the refuge as the sun was setting behind me.\u00a0 They turned the power on for a few hours, and there was even WiFi, so I could let Leigh know I was still alive.\u00a0 At 10 PM sharp, the lights went out, and we turned in to get ready for the final climb in the morning.<\/p>\n

Statistics:<\/p>\n