Monday 10.06.2002 - Thunderstorm

	Route: Assos - Angonas - Lixouri Distance: 42,0 km Total: 292,9 km	ROUTE

Again another hot night passed by.
Air-conditioning is not available in this type of rooms of course so the window had to stay open all night. In spite of the anti-mosquito spray and the device to plug in this resulted in a bunch of mosquitoes chasing us all night.

Our clothes are still wet, too bad, everything goes into the bags as it is. Everything is still closed so we first wander around a bit in Assos. But we're lucky today, at the end of the harbor there's already a taverna open for breakfast.

View on the Assos Castle

No warming up for the legs this morning, the road immediately starts with a 4 km strong climb. As usual Alain is one bunch of strength in the beginning, but soon has to cope with the spoiled energy a few kilometers further on.

Our reward

Starting from the fork in the direction of Argostoli the roads slightly goes downhill to Myrtos beach. The brochures describe this beach as one of the nicest of the Ionic islands, even of Greece.
We therefore expect a lot of it, but the weather is rather cloudy today and the magnificent colors don't really show. After some waiting for the sun we are able to take the following picture.
 

Myrtos beach

Rain and storm are clearly hanging in the sky and we notice raindrops from time to time. We give the best of ourselves to try and keep ahead of the thunderstorm as long as possible. But when lightning strikes heavily and thunder approaches fast it gets clear we will not escape from it.
At the turn to Lixouri we get off the bikes and run under the side shelters of a house. As if especially made for us, every biker has a shelter of his own, just enough space to remain dry.
 

Thunderstorm?		Let's shelter for a while

In a flash the road is wet all over and extremely slippery.
Several cars have difficulties to stop here but the most spectacular one is the truck loosing control of it all, turning 90° around right in front of us. An oncoming car can hardly avoid him in time.
We do get well entertained during our rain stop!

A few minutes later it stops raining but waiting for the road to get dry would take too long, so we haul up our rain gear for the first time in 3 years of bike-XP... which of course can only be found at the bottom of our bags.
Gert and Piet take extra precautions and put on a short and T-shirt that can really get dirty. It appears to be a lot of trouble for nothing though since 300 m further on the road is as dry as a bone. Inexplicable but it hasn't been raining at all over there. The rain gear can be put away again.

We continue the decent and get to the coastal road that leads to Lixouri (this town is situated on the peninsula Paliki at the West side of the isle). At 7 km from Lixouri we have some food at a taverna while another shower of rain passes by.

Once in Lixouri we start looking for a hotel with pool. After the efforts of the past few days we sustain ourselves this kind of luxury. Hotel Summery perfectly meets with our expectations.

In the afternoon the sun is back again, the exceptional day of rain per month again passed by.
It is a real joy laying here at the pool, with nobody around. At least this is the case until a bus full of Greek and English youngster stops here. Sparkling with energy they jump into the pool turning this oasis into a wet amusement park.

In the evening we have a delicious meal in a restaurant with view to the Lixouri harbor. We can't figure out though what exactly makes the meal taste so good. Is it the beautiful location, the great food or maybe the waitress who would stand a good chance at the Miss World elections? Stuff to think about...

Tomorrow is another difficult trip to take care of, this time we'll do everything to leave early. We pack our bags for the next day and go to sleep.

Goodnight.

Lixouri Bay