After a sleepy drive we woke up in a carefully chosen lay-by just outside the village of Portaria with stunning views over the port town of Volos.
We started off by heading for the village of Makritsa, ‘the balcony of the Pelion’. The van did the rest of the climbing up the steep hill to get there then we took a scenic route into the car-free town, along Kalderimis, cobbled paths originally built across the peninsula for travel by donkey before road access appeared.
We stopped for coffee and a snack before deciding the village certainly did deserve its reputation as the prettiest in Greece and decided to go on a wander continuing up the hill above the village and enjoying the views to the valley below. Just as we started to feel peckish, an old chap chucked some stuff at us from some trees above. Almonds! We cracked them open with rocks and had a snack at the bench at the top of the path before dropping down back into the village for lunch.
We ate in the main square shaded by plane trees (including a very exciting hollow one for Eddie to play in), and like everywhere in the village it had lovely views. Having spent most of the day here, we wandered back to the van for a drive over the peninsula to the east coast.
We parked up in a seaside car park in Agios Ioannis (not worried about the adjacent campsite getting annoyed as it closed in mid September :P) and made full use of the playpark next to the van before an Eddie cycle along the seafront and bed.
We woke up to an incredible sunrise and headed out for a day’s walking along the Kalderimis up to the village of Mouresi on the hill above us then down to the natural harbor and village of Damouchari (whos claim to fame was being the set of the Mama Mia movie) and then back to our beachside parking. We stopped at a cafe at the hillside village to enjoy the views and a few games of UNO, and only briefly had to shelter from a rainstorm in a Taverna in Damouchari! In other news, Eddie’s new favourite food is ‘octopus’ (actually fried squid, although it seems octopus in vinegar is a common dish around here we haven’t actually tried it!), and he’s especially keen on eating the tentacles!
We of course finished the day washing off in what was actually a rather rough sea and playing on the beach, before another trip to the playpark as incredibly after 9km walking Eddie still seemed to have far too many beans before enjoying another night by the sea in our glamorous car park.
For our last day on the Peninsula we headed to another beach, largely because of its excellent name ‘Milopotamos’. Turns out the sea was once again very choppy so swimming was off the cards, but running away from waves proved such excellent sport we spent far longer there than anticipated! That and the stunning scenery and natural rock arch tunnel connecting the nearby beach (also too wavy to use but very pretty!). On our way back to the van on a steep staircase giving a loop walk from the beach we found a taverna with a terrace too spectacular to pass us to just had to stop for lunch- such a hard life!
Post-lunch naps for everyone apart from Adam took us to the sheltered side of the peninsula for a proper swim and it was so calm we couldn’t resist a paddleboard. Eddie instructed which boats and buoys he wanted to be taken to then we all had a good swim to wash off before a sleepy drive along the coast to a convenient port town en route to Delphi…
Parenting Responsibly 