Friday 15 June - Izzie's Birthday

The Langada pass. This has been lurking all our holiday...the final day's cycling with 1,600 metres of climbing. The return route from Sparta to Kalamata. I must admit to a somewhat sleepless night, hearing the nearby church bell toll quite often in the night. We set off just before 9 and start climbing straight away. We pass ancient Mystras and continue to climb. The road to Tripi is quite steep. We replenish our water bottles from a mountain spring in the village as it's deserted and there's nowhere to buy anything. Then we join the road from Sparta. Up and up we go through the gorge. We FaceTime Izzie to wish her happy birthday. The ascent takes us the best part of three hours at an average speed of 5 mph. There are no tavernas or shops so we eat wild cherries which grow in profusion at one spot, and drink form mountain springs. Eventually we reach the summit. At 1,600 meters it's actually quite cold and we put on our rain jackets for the descent. 13 miles up and 23 miles of descent. We arrive at Kalamata in mid afternoon stuporous with fatigue and check in to the Hibiscus where we started our travels over two weeks ago.