Thursday 22nd May 2008

After breakfast, we walked the half mile to Maisie and said goodbye to Terry and Stuart. One of the joys of travelling like this is meeting soulmates such as Terry and Stuart and we will definitely keep in touch.
We drove up to the largest of the monasteries, Megalou Meteorou (Grand Meteora), and found large numbers of coaches, motorhomes and cars. We decided not to visit the monastery itself but it was much clearer today and we admired the views. From here we looked over the village of Kastraki and the rock formations to the mountains in the distance with their sprinkling of snow. In the other direction, we could see three more monasteries, Varlaam just below us, Roussanou in the middle distance and Ayias Triadhos in the far distance. We then drove down, with many stops for photographs on the way, to Ayiou Nikolaou Anapavsas. This is much lower than the others but still involves a long climb up on wooden and stone steps. They have thoughtfully provided a quick, steep option or a longer, more gentle route. Jane had set off but I stayed to take some photographs. There were two climbers climbing a vertical (literally, not an exaggeration) rock face that was hundreds of metres high – not for the faint-hearted, including me! I set off quickly on the steep route and managed to meet up with Jane near the top. I was definitely out of breath and certainly not fit enough for mountaineering!
Anapavsas was a delight, much less visited than some of the others and with at least one very friendly, young resident monk. The tiny chapel's walls were covered in beautiful frescoes and the views were delightful. From the top of the rock we could see the ruins of at least three other monasteries on nearby pinnacles and there was also a good view of Roussanou and just a glimpse of Varlaam in a gap in the cliff face high above us.
We would have loved to walk around the area and Terry and Stuart described a lovely two and a half hour walk that they had taken. Although my leg is now much improved, it would not have been sensible to attempt such a walk this time. Still, that gives us the excuse to visit the area again and to explore the less visited monasteries on foot.
We headed for Volos and, on the way, tried to find a fuel station that supplied Autogas. These are very rare in Greece but I had found an Internet site with (not very detailed) addresses of two fuel station between Larissa and Volos. We didn't find either of those but fortunately came across another one near Volos. We filled up with 10 litres and, with no heating and little hot water use, the full tank should last us 6 to 8 weeks.
We called in at Volos port on the way to establish the times of the ferries to Skopelos and then drove on the 18 km to the Camping Sykia at Kato Gatzea. This is in a lovely position with terraces going down to the sea and we selected a pitch shaded by old olive trees.
Photos: Anapavsas Monastery from a distance; Three monasteries – Varlaam on the right, a glimpse of Megalou Meteorou on its left and Anapavsas on the far left; Roussanou from a distance; Two ruined monasteries seen from Anapavsas with the village of Kastraki on the left.