Puking on Mt Olympus 6/7
Up at 5am after a good night sleep. I woke up to scratching on the tent. What the hell was that? My jet lag told me I wasn't going back to sleep and Andy was up so we packed up and headed out. Free camping night success! I the realized it was Saturday to my delight. I thought we lost 3 days traveling. It didn't make sense but now I'm back on track. I love finding out we have more time!
Back into the small towns and we stopped at the first bakery we saw, ordered two espressos and a round items that I thought was bread but it turned out to have feta and ham made out of brown philosophy dough. Delish. We stopped by the water to eat and enjoy the view before we hit the road. It was almost 7 and a couple locals were out, a guy setting up for fishing and someone cleaning the porch. It's not peak season but I don't know if it's not busy due to other factors. It's lovely having the beautiful view to yourself. Some milk and juice, a quick refill on gas and we headed back to the highway, Andy stopping for pics along the way.
We head north to Larisa and passed by to Mt Olympus. It was early enough in the day, we thought we could start our trek early although out reservation wasn't for another two days. The lady at the entrance gate didn't know if there would be tent sites available. I thought something said there were ~100. She said sometimes people sleep outside the refuge area although it's forbidden. We took our chance. We hit Litochoro around 9 and Pinorios around 9:30. We pulled out all the camping gear we shoved in the car from the night before and backed our bags for the hike. It was warm, no rain clouds in site. It was going to be a great hike.
We started at 10:10 after filling our water bottles from the spring water. I haven't hiked in a long time (since Iceland) and I started breathing hard immediate. Oh damn, we just started and I feel like it need a break. We hiked, I loosened up and started to enjoy the scenery. We hiked through the trees initially with switchbacks, looking over the valley to the mountain across from us. We hiked through tons of wild flowers and some succulents. The hike up was like hiking up Macchu Picchu 2x. We walked up steps and up the mountain over lose rocks. Guys weighing ~90 lbs were running up and down the hill, watching them made me feel nauseous. We could hear the mules in the distance taking goods to the Refuge. Once we hit the smaller trees I started to feel not so good. Walking over the mule crap didn't help. I know when I go from very hungry to not wanting to think about food I'm in trouble. My stomach started to hurt, might have had something to do with not going to the bathroom in 3 days, so I paid a visit to Mother Nature.
Once we saw the sign for Refuge A, I could see it in the distance which brought me much joy. All of a sudden, we heard rocks crashing hinting to a rock slide. Andy listened and told me to come to him now. My heart started beating quickly and I ran toward him. The rocks stopped, I took a break as that took almost all my energy I had. Another 30 min later and we hit the Refuge. Andy got us a camp spot, nowhere near 100 available, maybe 5? We sat, Andy got us hot tea and soup as we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now after 1 plus I was shivering almost uncontrollably although it wasn't cold. We made the hike in 3 hrs, I read 3.5 was a fit hiker pace. Rock on.
Not long after enjoying my tea, my mouth started to water. I went toward the entrance where the mules were and puked right next to them, my undigested energy blocks and all. Apparently I'm a loud puker. I guess the altitude got to me. I felt immediately better but tired, definitely not wanting to deal with the screaming children around me. Andy made quick friends with the shaggy dog at the refuge. She was the sweetest thing and would play bite your leg when you quit petting her. While I tried to eat my soup Andy put up the tent, we inflated our mattress, and I took a nap. He joined me not long after finishing his beer. A wonderful 2 hr nap, in the warm tent from the sun. Just what we needed. I could have slept longer but we needed to go to sleep tonight and deal with the jet lag, plus the Greeks were loud as hell sitting next to our tent.
We got up, enjoyed the last bit of the sun and had a snack of bread with butter and honey for me, cheese and meat for Andy. The sun went down behind the mountain and it got noticeably colder. We headed inside near the fire and some delicious tea. One if the guys working at the refuge brought in a whole log for the fire. Doesn't he know how fires work? Andy brought in kindling and started such a big fire the dudes next to it had to move.
We shared the spaghetti with weird meatballs for dinner. Andy finished it off with wine and a bit of brandi. In bed by 8:30 so we can prepare for the big hike in the am.