Day 42
Korce > Bilisht > Greek border > Mesopotamia > Kastoria
69km
4 hours 50 mins
924m elevation gain
We set off in Korce and soon enough found ourselves in a nice park complete with a bike lane and an outdoor gym! It was a lovely surprise but naturally didn't last too long. Out on the main road a strong headwind slowed us down towards the border, we had to take it in turns to be in front and to take the force of it. We had a nice coffee/Fanta stop in Bilisht where some locals were drinking beer and then headed onto the border which was very busy, but again we skipped to the front of the queue as it seemed like a long wait.
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| The park in Korce with a bike lane |
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| The road to the border with Greece |
Sights of note:
Apple harvesting in Albania
Abandoned petrol stations (all across Albania)
A bike lane in Albania!
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| Apple harvesting |
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| Arriving in Bilisht |
Greece
As we entered Greece there was suddenly a huge amount of infrastructure and new roads, we headed onto the "local road" which quickly turned into a gravel track, rather than the motorway which took a longer route to Kastoria. However, I soon realised that the motorway we saw was actually brand new and has not yet been updated on the map. It was in fact a direct route to Kastoria but we could no longer jump on the road as there was a high fence the whole way along so we stuck to our route.
We passed a few towns in search of lunch but to no avail, everywhere we tried were only serving drinks. Finally in Mesopotamia we asked in a cafe and a friendly old man pointed us towards pizzeria Elite where we got some nice pasta. We then only had 10km to our destination at lake Kastoria but we had lost an hour so it was later than planned. We still arrived in daylight and checked into our hotel - I had a swim in the pool and everyone was agape wondering how I could swim in such cold water. Most of the Greek people I saw were in coats! It was chilly but very refreshing after the day's cycle.
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| Blue hills in Greece |
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