It’s a lovely day here in Ermoni for our rest day.

Darren and I wondered into town early this morning after we woke up for a coffee and chocolate croissant and then later on all three of us headed into town with our three English tent mates for breakfast.  Honestly the best omelette I’ve ever had, it was sensational! 

Ermoni is a great town with cafes and restaurants along the waterfront and fantastic views out to sea.

We are having a rest day today after the long march yesterday.

Yesterday started with an hour long ferry ride from camp to the start.   Whilst on the ferry we enjoyed chips and  Fanta from the onboard canteen.

The start of the run was from the waterfront in town.  It was raining so I started with my rain jacket on.  The originally planned route along the sea rocks was changed due to the rain so we headed out on to the road.  Within 20 mins of starting, it was bucketing down.  I could also hear thunder and we were in the middle of the storm.  For a while there I was getting absolutely saturated.  Whilst my rain jacket was keeping the main part of me dry, the rest of me was saturated and it was quite cold.  During the worst part of it, I was up on the headland moving along a rocky path.

From the headland we headed down to the beach.  Whilst on the beach, the rain eased and on the positive side, the wet sand made progress easier.

We were on the beach for about three kms before leaving it behind and heading out onto the nearby streets.  There we moved amongst local orchards and into a town, where the first check point was. By that stage the rain had completely stopped, although my shoes and socks were completely saturated.

From the town we headed into the local forests and before I knew it, we were on forest trails going up and down.  

After one particularly long and steep climb, we reached an old monastery, where the 2nd check point was.  The checkpoint involved heading down into the monastery foreground, doing a circuit and then heading back.  The monastery was beautiful and it had a magnificent view of the valleys below.

As I exited the monastery check point, I heard my name called and there was Adam entering the checkpoint.

From there, we had more climbing and descending including a climb up to the wind turbines at the top of the ridge.  I found I was passing people heading up to the turbines as well as when I was descending from them.  At that point I was feeling very strong as I headed into the next 50 kms.

At the bottom of the descent we came to checkpoint 3.  This was in a cave, where we had to head down into the cave, do a circuit of the open interior of the cave system and then head back out of the cave (whilst trying not to hit my head and/or scrape my bag on the top of the cave).

As I left that checkpoint, one of the volunteers told me the town square was 1km away and that I would find a supermarket and cafe/bar there.  I had been looking forward to finding a supermarket to buy chips, fruit and a Fanta all day. I thought that if I filled up on these, I would save myself the time of stopping at checkpoint 4 for dinner, where there was boiling water to add to my freeze dried food packet.

As I approached the supermarket, I saw it was closed.  Disappointed!  I went to the bar and bought a Fanta.  I asked if they had chips, but unfortunately they didn’t.

I headed out of town and up the hill, where tiredness suddenly hit me.  I was feeling physically tired, my legs were starting to be sore and I could feel a couple of blisters developing under my feet (I think from when my shoes and socks were soaking wet earlier in the day). I battled on and found myself in a group of 3, where the conversation kept me going.

We reached checkpoint 4, where we all stopped for dinner.  By that stage, I was quite hungry.  I had a half pack of freeze dried beef strogonoff, which I enjoyed so much, that I had a 2nd half pack.  Unfortunately, this stop cost me 20 mins, more than I had thought.

With around 30 kms to go and as it was getting dark, I heard a dog barking aggressively at the two people in front of me.  The dog was on the road and when I approached him, he seemed to be ok with me.

A couple of kms down the road, I caught up with the two people, Marie-Paule and David.  Marie-Paule asked me how I had got on with passing the dog.  I told her that he didn’t seem too interested in me.

She asked if the two of us could stay with her to protect her from dogs, as the dog incident had spooked her.  So for the next 25 or so kms, the three of us travelled together with our head torches on, walking at an excellent speed and making very good ground.  During this time, most of the walking was on roads and we passed through the final two check points.

With around 4kms to go and my legs and feet hurting, I started to fall behind them. I completed the last 4 kms on my own, with 3 of those kms being along the Ermoni waterfront.

Restaurants and bars were closing up and people were cheering me on as I went through town.  It was a lovely finish to the day, albeit at that stage I was moving a little slower than I would have liked and the last 4kms seemed to take forever.

I finished the 76km run in 14hrs 31mins at around 11:30pm. I was so pleased with the way the day had gone and was excited that I’d finish a lot quicker than I had thought.  Going into the run, I was thinking 15-16 hours would have been a good time.

The majority of the day was enjoyable, especially the first 40 kms. It was only during the 2nd half of the run where pushing ahead became difficult at times.

Tomorrow is the last running day, with an 8 km run to finish the event. 

Josephine is arriving at camp this afternoon and will be running the 8kms with me tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing her and sharing the event with her tomorrow. It will be great to run that last section together as I share with her the excitement and stories of the last few days.   

Sitting here writing this blog whilst staring out at the Mediteranean and enjoying the sea breeze. Very nice.

Thanks to everybody who sent me a message, I loved reading them and love the support.

Good start to the run today.

Although I tossed and turned in the tent a fair bit last night, I still felt I had a good sleep.  We had rain throughout the night but it had cleared by the morning.

We were camping in Kandamyli, and this is where the run started this morning. Kandamyli is a gorgeous seaside town.

Once started, didn't  take long for us to be heading up out of town and into the hills and mountains.

Scenery was spectacular throughout.  Loved seeing and running through the quaint little towns scattered through the mountains.

We also ran up two gorges, which were technical and steep and climbing up through them slowed us down.  

At one stage, as I was heading up the 2nd gorge, I came across wild sage scattered on and around the path.

One of our tent mates, Sean, caught me with about 18 kms to go. We passed each other a few more times until he caught me with 3 kms to go.  We ran/walked the last 3 kms and finished together.

Overall we covered 38kms today with 2,000 metres of elevation.

Now at camp 2 in the mountains.  It is freezing up here.  We are at a scout camp so fortunately we are inside cabins rather than in the tents.

Looking forward to a good nights sleep.