Tag: outdoor

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.

My most beautiful spot in the mountains

It was the beginning of May 2022 after my tiny dream cove on Evia in Greece when I felt like I want to go hiking again.

I started from the dream cove and went into the central mountains in the north of Evia. After some offroad driving and trying different tracks, I found my most beautiful camp spot in the mountains! The track leading there has been tough, but Rosinate did very well. This place was very much isolated from everything and in the whole week I stayed there, I only saw one goatherd.

One day I recognized that the plastic of the cable protecting fusion leading to my charging booster for the batteries in the cabin had been melted. I guess there is always something to do. Even when living in a car. Every time something like this happens, I’m reminding myself that having less, especially sophisticated, stuff means fewer expenses and fewer things to handle.

I did a lot of walks to discover my surroundings, meditations, and bo staff training. One I went on a hike to the top of a nearby mountain and the view has been fantastic.

From its summit, I had a great view of the biggest mountain on Evia. It’s called Dirfi and is my next destination.

Back on Evia and about stuff, staffs, a beach, mules, a collision and the Zombiecalypse

After visiting the Akropolis in mid-May 2022, I organized some stuff in Athens.

Mainly I wanted to have a gas stove for cooking outside and gas bottles for it. While searching for this stuff I stumbled upon a machete. I’ve always dreamt about having a machete and chopping my way through scrub while hiking. And this one had been so badass. Like straight out of a cyberpunk samurai movie. I love cyberpunk and regarding the inevitable outbreak of the Zombiecalypse, it definitely would have been a good investment. But I didn’t buy it. After that, I checked on some additional recovery boards for Rosinante. They have been very good and in some situations, they would have become handy. But I didn’t buy them. Three years ago, I would have bought the machete and the recovery boards. But now I don’t like this accumulating of stuff anymore. Moving from a bigger car into Rosinante, I got rid of a lot. But still, I have so much stuff. And I’m fighting against adding additional stuff to it. Right now I would need at least three mules to get around with them. A whole mule family. Mhhh, that sounds quite nice to me… I might call them Rosinante one, Rosinante two, and Rosinante three… And in a Zombiecalypse, they would be the better option in the long run… Let’s see… In the end, I got the gas stove for cooking outside and even now, after two months, I use it almost every day and so that had been a good decision.

After having everything done in Athens, I moved straight on a ferry back to Evia. And there I found a wonderful new beach to live at. The road heading there has been quite offroady and fun and I had a wonderful time there.

After having arrived at the beach, I noticed a scratch on the backside of Rosinante’s cabin. It looked like it if I hit some plaster wall or something like that, but I could not remember doing so. I thought about it and concluded that there had been only one occasion on which that might happened. I wrote the owner of the camping shop where I bought the gas stove and did turn around Rosinante in a tight place and he confirmed that I hit the wall of his building. We exchanged photos and he said, that he would get in touch with me again. Until now he didn’t.

Every day at that beach, I cooked outside, washed my dishes in the ocean, read, and meditated a lot. One day I carved a little sand dragon out of some driftwood. I trained more with my bo staff and the other day, I found a bamboo bo staff at that beach and started to train Kung Fu strikes with it. On that day, I started to train almost every day. I’m still doing it and I can strongly recommend it. It’s super cheap (or even free), almost independent from weather and location, and feels super good. At least for me, it’s like that. If you want to give it a try, get yourself a broomstick or something comparable and do what she’s doing, and if you like, try what he’s doing.

I stayed at that beach for a week and apart from two friendly fishermen, who used the beach to launch their boat, I’ve been on my own all day One of the fishermen gave me some beer and one day, he took me on a small boat trip. The water has been fantastic and it has been awesome. I love the friendly locals.

The weather has been super nice but, once it started to get stormy, I moved along.