{"id":2885,"date":"2019-05-31T08:23:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T13:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/?p=2885"},"modified":"2024-06-17T18:49:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T22:49:39","slug":"190531-144-km-in-30-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/190531-144-km-in-30-minutes\/","title":{"rendered":"190531-144 km in 30 minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I woke at 8:00 am, well-rested. Realizing the time, I hastened to pack up to meet the time I’d told the camp host. While filling my water bottles I stumbled across the fuse box for the bath house. I turned on the circuit for the outlets, and charged my battery.
\nReady to leave by 8:30 am, I set out to look for the camp host … and failed to find him. By 9:00 am still no sign of him, so I headed out. <\/p>\n

In reviewing my route for the day, the road near Preveza included a tunnel underneath the entrance to a large bay. There was no way they’d allow cyclists through the tunnel, but I saw no trace of a ferry on the map. An impassible tunnel meant cycling around the bay – 144 km and two days of cycling.<\/p>\n

Researching on-line, the tunnel was indeed closed to cyclists. Great. While searching for a ferry, taxi, or any indication that other cyclists had hitched their way through the tunnel, I found a blog post from a decade ago suggesting that a service vehicle might provide a shuttle. Worth a try. <\/p>\n

The road to Preveza proved gloriously flat. Following the instructions from the blog post, I cycled past the sign indicating no cyclists, and parked in sight of the security camera. Sure enough, in about five minutes a yellow van drove past me, turned back around, and transported me through the underwater tunnel! I had to stop at the other side and review the route for the day, because I had truly expected I was cycling around the bay.<\/p>\n

In nearby Vonitsa I had lunch near the castle. When locking up my bicycle, a small boy walked up and waited near bicycle, making me nervous about leaving it. As I pondered what to do, his companion arrived with a small bicycle with the chain tangled and slipped free. I helped them untangle the chain and remount it, and they scampered off. <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Despite my on-again\/off-again relationship with EuroVelo routes this trip, I saw the first official EuroVelo sign today outside of Vonitsa. From that point on the EV route was well posted. While I occasionally ignored the signs, I’d eventually re-encounter the route, still signposted.
\n\"image\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Except for a short period crossing the foothills of an adjacent 1171 m mountain, the day proved a reasonable definition of light grades. I pulled up short for the day in Mitikas at about 70 km, hopefully positioning myself well for tomorrow. After all, I’m now an additional two days ahead of schedule. I used the afternoon for some rest and relaxation, and laundry. I’m not camped on the Ionian Sea, but it’s across the street.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

I have navigation choices to make tomorrow evening. Another cyclist reported repeated attacks by wild dogs if I cross the bay at Patras, but campgrounds are in short supply on this side. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke at 8:00 am, well-rested. Realizing the time, I hastened to pack up to meet the time I’d told the camp host. While filling my water bottles I stumbled across the fuse box for the bath house. I turned on the circuit for the outlets, and charged my battery. Ready to leave by 8:30 … Continue reading “190531-144 km in 30 minutes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2903,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions\/2903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}