I was never in a hurry on my journey, I stayed longer in many places, I lived in Kardamili for four days. So I had time. The Taygetos Challenge trail begins in the village’s main square and then ascends gradually up the valley. The rocky terraces in the lower parts are planted with olive trees, then there are only rocks. It runs higher and higher, the perspective changes, you can see more and more sea and more and more cypress trees. The route runs from village to village, is often difficult to see, and in many places it crosses other roads, so without a gpx file, I would definitely get lost. To be true I got lost even with this gpx track, I can’t keep looking at my watch all the time! I stopped, took pictures, admired the world. The route was technically difficult, even like for Greek situations. The fact that sometimes the trail was separated from the olive groves by a small wall on both sites did not make the task any easier, since the precisely defined road was filled with large, rounded boulders. As if someone had scattered them there on purpose. Prickly thickets and bushes were the second significant attraction. In Greece, almost all plants are prickly, so it’s better not to touch them, these seemed to me extremely sharp and extremely numerous.
The crisis caught me more or less in the middle of the tour. Torn by spikes of various kinds and scalded by nettles, I approached the fenced area with a gate. From the inscriptions and signs, I realized that it was a private area, but available during the competition. And I am … almost at a competition. The gate turned out to be locked only with a hook, what was worse is that on the other side I could only see bushes, even in the line of the road. If there was anywhere to withdraw, I would probably turn back at this point. But it wasn’t. So I pushed my way further, singing songs under my breath that consisted almost entirely of words commonly considered offensive. As good that there was also a gate on the other side of this hell, so I could have assumed it would be a little better now.

Somewhere in this area I realized that it was already quite late. Approximately 20 kilometers, the Taygetos Challenge route approaches Kardamili a little, only to go back to the “second loop” after a while. It was 3 p.m., I had practically no chance to run the remaining 17 km before dark, and wading through the prickly thickets in the dark is not my favorite activity. I decided to shorten the route by turning directly to the last, 8-kilometer descent to the finish line. Almost due west, seeing better and better Kardamili below and getting the setting sun on my face.