Rest day.. walking on Mount Olympus

Lithohoro is a rather noisy, bustling town, a starting point for people who want to explore the mountain. I took a taxi up to the monastery below the first hut.

First, I walked down to the little chapel in the sacred cave where a spring rises. This feeds the Enipea river which has created the gorge down to Litohoro.

The walk to the cave is signed as taking 20 minutes, but I suspect it took me twice as long. The path is fairly clear, with some steps, but it is very uneven and follows contours of the gorge, up as well as down.

The cave had seemed at the start to be a side path from the main route down, so after filling my water bottle at the very source of the spring, I started back up. A little over half way back up, I met a group of walkers and asked if this path continued to Litohoro. They seemed sure it did, so I turned round and headed back to the sacred cave.

There I spoke more with one of the hiking party. She teaches German in a school in Ossa, and so we could communicate fairly well in German.

She invited me to join their group, which I did as it seemed sensible. Hiking alone is never a great idea. The hike was brilliant, dramatic cliffs, strange rocks, beech trees just turning yellow and of course the river, growing ever fiercer as we descend. It isn't huge but even at the tail-end of summer it is substantial.

I am in the front group of five, with my German-speaking friend. They keep up a cracking pace, so I am just able to keep up. Last summer I walked in the Caucasus with a couple of English ladies in their sixties, with similar energy levels. It turns out these ladies regularly walk on their home mountain, which is pretty tough (schlimm). Also, this is their fourth time doing this particular walk, so they know what's coming. They are keen to set a record and we do, making the bottom in about four hours. I leave them to wait for the rest of their group who are quite a way behind. A great walk, but not perhaps the day of rest intended. But how can I duck out on the serendipity that brought me to this spot unplanned? I would not have done the walk if I had stayed at the coast.

Tried out a much hyped eatery, Gastrodomio, but not impressed. It's hard to make myself eat the salty, un-appetising stuff. Try to think of it as mere fuel. I enjoyed last night's calamari more!

Back to my room to examine maps, as tomorrow looks fearsome...