Month: August 2022

Back on the mainland of Greece, learning to fish and getting more into writing (June 2022)

Finally, in June 2022, I left Evia and hit the mainland of Greece again. After some weeks mostly in solitude, I felt like meeting some people would be nice. I looked for an easily accessible beach and found one with a great view of the mountains in the north of Evia.

On that beach, two super friendly, older Greek guys have been living for months. They had built up a little camp and one was fishing every day. They invited me to have several meals with them and it was super fun to talk with them about their perspective on Greece and how it has been and is changing.

I got to know another Greek guy who visited the beach every morning and evening. He had several fishing rods with him and showed me how to use them. For me, it was the first time using a pole and I enjoyed learning it. But at the same time, I felt very sorry for the fish. I’m mostly vegetarian but from time to time, if someone invites me, I’m eating little meat or fish. The fishing experience made me think about that again.

Most of the time, the water of the sea has been calm like in the video above. After the hiking on Evia, it was just perfect. I continued my swimming and bo staff training and got more and more into writing. I had started writing micro stories at the super nice mountain spot, I found on Evia. I just wrote whatever came into my mind and it felt very free and exciting. The joy of writing intensified over the weeks and very naturally a routine of daily writing established itself.

Hiking Mount Dirfi on Evia in Greece: 50 or 25 km?

After I saw Mount Dirfi from the top of the mountain I’ve hiked before, I really wanted to go to its top in the beginning of June 2022.

I left my super awesome spot in the mountains to get to the bottom of Dirfi. Still not used to how camping is done in Greece, I was a little worried if it would be possible to camp on the foot of the highest mountain on Evia. When I reached the spot I had chosen, there were already two tents and of course, it was no problem to camp there.

I planned my hiking route and decided to just go straight to the top of Dirfi. I always prefer to do a round trip, but the only one that stuck to the path is about 50 km long and I didn’t feel like wanting to do that one. So I started my way to the top. Most of the path did go along the ridge you see in the photo behind Rosinante. It was a nice path that included some easy climbing of big boulders. When I reached the top at 1743 m, I had a great view and met another hiker.

He didn’t have the time to do the round trip but I didn’t want to return the same way and so I decided to do the round trip. I figured out, that I could be able to shorten the distance to about 25 km if I cut the paths at two points. But if that wouldn’t work out, I would have to do about 60 km. I’ve never done 50 or 60 km on that point.

I started my descent and although it was super windy, I enjoyed the view and got all into finding my way down. At first, it became quite difficult because I tried to stick to the path and there had been barely any markings. Once I stopped searching for the official path and just started choosing my own, it got a lot easier and more fun as well. Eventually, after some detours, I made it and reached the foot of Dirfi on the opposite side of where I started my hike. From here on, it was easy to stick to the path and when I met a guided hiking group, the guide was pretty surprised that I wanted to go the walk around because it’s very long.

Next, I met a beekeeper. When I asked him about the shortcuts I would like to take to cut the distance to 25 km, he didn’t really understand and finally told me to turn around. For a moment, I thought about if I should ask him to take me with him on his scooter, but then I decided, that I wanted to try the shortcuts.

After continuing my way for an hour, I finally arrived at the first assumed shortcut. I entered the undergrowth, searched around, crouched through bushes, and found a small and low goat track. I followed it and after half an hour, I made it. The first shortcut worked out pretty well.

I hiked for another hour and finally got to the next potential shortcut. This one got a bit more difficult than the first one: this time no luck in finding a goat path and more climbing. But in the end, it worked out and from that point, I just had to hike along the official path back to Rosinante.

After seven hours I got back to Rosinante and felt like always after hiking: satisfied, vitalized and free.