A good sleep-in was on the cards, let the leg muscles recover a bit. Salts also needed replacement.
Late morning was a chance to really sort out the bike, clean it and generally give it a decent servicing. The back wheel seemed to have a slow puncture. I was missing a tyre lever. Removing the tube revealed its location – it had been in the tyre cavity all along, since the last repair at Fokianos. D’oh! There’s a lesson there somewhere, but I’m not quite sure what it is.
The Bulgarians next door whispered among themselves while I dismantled everything, cleaned, greased, oiled and re-bolted. All was looking good but I would need to visit the bike shop in Neapoli in the morning, to buy extra tubes and a new puncture repair kit.
After another snooze I headed out to see all the fuss about Simos beach. As I noted yesterday, the approach road to the campsite was less than inviting, but taking the more popular route to the beach left me pretty shocked. The place is a horrid mess – see the photos.
All around are half-built carbuncles left to rot, the construction sites now filled with waste and smathered with crap graffiti. So this is the way to famous Simos beach? It’s a picture of corruption, greed and mismanagement. If I was a local I would be outraged. But I’m not, and they clearly aren’t.
At the beach head are a couple of bar/testaurants that were open. Shitholes. Plenty of tourists were drinking in the sun, oblivious or unconcerned about the fetid disaster around them. Somebody needs a good kick up the hole.
The beach itself is a wonder, actually two beaches seperated by a narrow tombolo. Sandy with typically clean water, though shallow for a long way out.
The bars have extended their grubby tentacles down to the shore, with beach recliners costing 30 Euro per day. They were all occupied by white-skinned neophyte sunseekers clutching bottles of overpriced beer. All-over were dumped pallets with plenty of protruding rusty nails. Plastic straws and their wrappings littered the sand, along with other surprises just below the surface. I was hugely disappointed to see how they are ruining this beautiful place.
I was reminded of my meeting with Mat – the tourer from Amsterdam. We both marvelled at the litter and mismanagement of the Greek countryside. He put it elegantly: in northern Europe people think ‘this is my country, I should protect it’. In southern europe the attitude is ‘this is my country, I can do what I want’. Maybe a generalisation, but it certainly seems true in Greece from what I have seen. Simos was a new nadir.
Apart from all that, I did have something to celebrate. The EU Commission finally published a report I wrote last year – non-animal models of lung diseases. It seems to have been well received and I thought I could pat myself on the back for the fruits of some very hard work that actually means something for a change.
So I went to a tiny family run place down a backstreet. I had the place to myself and was made very welcome. As I was the only customer the owner invited me to eat with the family. The food was amazing: fried feta with honey, and the best Moussaka I have tasted, and a fishy stew. With barrel rosé wine naturally. It made a nice change from the rip off tourist joints on the waterfront. Really lovely people, restored some faith in the place.
The owner’s son recommended that I visit Diros caves near Aeropoli. Tomorrow I head north towards the fishing village of Archangelos.
