Toxotes to Vafeika – August 16th
Distance: 25.6 km – Elevation +140 m -170 m
Weather: Sunny. Overnight thunderstorms. Temperature: High 29 degrees
I was woken from my sleep by a thunderstorm that raged most of the night with brilliant flashes of lightning, loud claps of thunder, and heavy rain. I left for my day’s walk at 6.00 am just as dawn was breaking. There were a lot of stray dogs as I left the village, most just ignored me but as I walked past the open gates of a large industrial site I heard a bark and suddenly I found myself being followed by a pack of ten dogs. Initially, I tried to ignore them but they came ever closer and the leader of the pack appeared aggressive so I turned and threatened them with my trusty stick and threw a stone in their direction which kept them at a safe distance until they tired and returned from whence they came.
It was overcast and much cooler after the thunderstorms as I followed the Via Egnatia Foundation tracks which led me across featureless scrubland for the first 5 miles. I passed a couple of men each with shotguns and six dogs who I think were rabbit hunting. Later the land became more arable with ploughed fields and my boots began to feel heavy with clinging red mud caused by the overnight rain.
The path took me across the Egnatia Odos, the motorway leading to Istanbul, and as I stood on the bridge looking at the speeding traffic below, I calculated that if I was driving I would be in Istanbul within 6 hours, a journey on foot of around 18 days!
I met a shepherd watching over his flock of goats. Usually, the shepherds I meet are on foot or riding a donkey, this shepherd had decided on a moped as his mode of transport! I asked him how many goats were in his flock and he indicated with his hand a figure of 3 hundred.
It was flat walking but with distant views of Xanthi and the Rhodope Mountains. The first village came after 16 kilometres, Magiko, where I enjoyed my usual morning frappe. Continuing on I passed the small Moslem community in Alkioni with maybe the first Mosque I have seen in Greece. In the village of Avxentiou I met a rather grumpy woman walking towards me who I think was admonishing me for walking in the road and I heard her mutter “tourist” as she passed by me.
I arrived in the small town of Genisea at 1.00 pm and stopped for a lunch break in a cafe in the middle of the town. The lady owner was very friendly and I asked her if there was anywhere to stay in the town and she indicated no with a shake of her head. Looking at Google maps I saw a possible lodging indicated on the edge of the town. There was no telephone number, so after lunch, I walked to the location but when I arrived there was no answer to the bell. I had already walked 24 kilometres, and I knew there was no accommodation on the road to Ilasmos, another 24 kilometres away, so I walked to Vafeika where I caught a bus to Xanthi, 8 kilometres in the wrong direction where I found a bed for the night in the Natassa Hotel on the outskirts of the town. The hotel restaurant was not open and I was too tired to walk into town, so the hotel receptionist arranged for a pizza delivery and set out a table for me in the restaurant. Tomorrow I will catch a bus back to Vafeika and resume my journey to Ilasmos.
