Day 429 – EU – Greece [Olympiada to Paralia Ofriniou]

07/06/21

46.8km

  From Olympiada (Greece) to Paralia Ofriniou (Greece)

Europe

Long and flat run, hot and humid, overcast skies and afternoon thunderstorms

Sunrise over the Strymonian Gulf

It was hot and humid at dawn this morning and it was going to be the case all day. Rain broke from time to time, very lightly. It did not bother me as it was quite hot anyway. I am encountering a lot of stray animals on the side of the roads. A lot more than I saw last year in southern Greece. I always carry with me some cans of dogs or cats food with me, so I took quite a lot of breaks to do my bit. But this is not helping, I wish Greece was a bit more proactive with neutering and taking care of the strays…

Across the Struma river

I sat down on a bench under a fig tree at the halfway point. An old woman, dressed in black from head to toe, came out of her house and handed me a bottle of ice cold water. We chatted a bit. She went back to her house and returned with a chocolate ice cream. We chatted some more as I devoured it. She went back in again and returned with a bottle of orange juice. That’s when I told her I’d better get going or she would end up feeding me the entire content of her fridge! Such hospitality…

The Lion monument of Amfipolis

I passed by the Lion monument in Amfipolis, a beautiful and huge 4BC sculpture in honor of a King of Macedon, General of Alexander the Great. Truly impressive and BoB the stroller was simply dwarfed by it, with just the main body of the Lion standing at 4m tall. An impressive sight. Tonight I stay in Paralia Ofriniou, a small seaside village – which was mostly deserted today as the weather turned for the worst and rain and thunder took over. I hope for a dryer day tomorrow.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: