Left Hawks early with a guy named Antuni. We got talking in the common area last night. I was telling him about Mount Hymettus and he wanted to go hiking there with me, so here I was, returning to Hymettus.
We got the bus to the outskirts, fuelling up with breakfast and stashing up on lunch. My breakfast was a warm salami sandwich with sweet brioche bread and lots of lettuce and tomato. My lunch… the classic spanakopita.
Early in our ascent we came upon a Greek guy harvesting Olives for olive oil with the help of two Pakistani lads. The Pakistani lads seemed friendly and I wish I went over to speak to them. But we made good ground. We’d arrived at the mountain by 9am and now we were walking steadily up the incline.
Antuni has been travelling Europe for the past 7 weeks – was in Naples before this. He’s come from San Francisco, been living in the states for years but was born in the Philippines and made the big move at 12. He talked to me about the Philippines and California. Told me about the California Pacific Crest. An insane 6-month hiking trail that starts in southern California and takes you all the way up into Canada. I have to do it!
Last time I came to Hymettus I spent 5 hours here and failed to find a single cave or temple ruin. Since the city itself is full of ruins, I was determined that this time I would find some caves to explore. I was dead set on getting inside the mountain whatever the cost.
But to my immense frustration, the higher we got, the more obscure our path forward became, and it began to look as if there was no way to the caves at all. To make things even more difficult, Antuni was set on following the main road and didn’t want to go off the beaten path, but as the hours ticked by, I became more and more certain that the only way to make it to the caves was to go off road.
Three times we had to turn around and retrace our steps, because google maps had either changed our route or we’d simply taken a wrong turn. It was supposed to be a 3 hour walk to the caves, but noon had come and gone and google maps was telling us we still had 3 hours to go. We’re never going to make it, I thought, bitterly looking up at the clifftops. If we had just climbed…. Urgh!
I was sure that if we just pushed on through the undergrowth, we could reach the caves in no time at all. I was positive! But Antuni was adamant he wouldn’t stray from the road, so whatever I guess, hours more were wasted.
It should be no surprise that we never made it to the caves – that is, the caves I thought we were searching for. It turns out however, the caves of Koutouki are not the only hollowed spaces within Mount Hymettus, and I was little prepared for what Antuni and I were about to uncover.
Growing sick of peddling the main path, and with nightfall fast approaching, Antuni and I decided to briefly explore a dirt track leading from the main trail. We had left the city of Athens far behind us, and the settlement that rested on our horizons was named Nera Glyka – according to Google maps.
The trail wound steeply upwards past rocks and bushes to a hole buried in the side of the mountain. “Lion Cave” stated a nearby wooden post.
I didn’t think much of it at first. It looked very small. But the sun was only lighting upon the entrance. What I mistook for the entire cave was nothing more than the “front porch”. Antuni slung off his backpack and climbed in, and I followed.
What I had first thought the recesses, I soon realised were little more than large pillars of rock heralding a far deeper cavern. I was thrilled. But my excitement came with a mixture of fear and creeping dread, for I made the grave mistake of looking up.
The low ceiling was swamped with spider webs – and I mean swamped. They plastered the rock, gloopy and stringy white sheets. It reminded me of Shelob’s lair from The Lord of the Rings and I felt as if every inch of my skin had suddenly heightened sensitivity, my subconscious on red alert for a spider attack. I felt that at any moment some hideous creature might drop on my head. I wanted to explore the cave, and I didn’t want to look up at the dreaded things hanging there, but how could I not? They were so real and hideous.
Luckily, the further I ventured inside the cave, the more the ground dropped downwards into heaps of broken stone, and the walls grew several metres high, bringing the ceiling far away from my personal space. The only downside was that I now had no idea what lurked above me.
I turned on my phone flashlight and shone it upon mysterious white stalagmites glistening in the gloom. Rocks and stones gave way before me, and I found myself skidding forwards further into the black – until Antuni shone his own flashlight at me. I wonder what the cave was used for? Did it used to simply be the home of lions? Or was it used for something else? We weren’t going to find out simply standing around in the dark. We knew we would never reach the caves of Koutouki, but we had come too far to simply walk back through the mountain; the night would swallow us whole. We had to press on to Paiania, the town on the other side of the mountains of Attica. So we ventured back into the waning sunlight and continued our journey along the rugged mountain path.
After much journeying we finally looked down at Paiania. The only problem was we couldn’t find a way down! I was happy to leap over fences and through farms to get back to civilisation, but Antuni said he didn’t feel comfortable. He reminded me that farmers in the U.S. carry guns to defend their property. I felt like reminding him we weren’t in the U.S. but I didn’t bother. Instead, we extended our journey by another 30 minutes, taking a long winding road down to a smaller village.
And so, we never reached Paiania. The settlement we found ourselves in was called Ag. Andreas. A flock of goats were on the prowl and they rushed near to us, suddenly coming to a halt and forming a line like a bunch of soldiers, just staring at us. Their attention was firmly fixed on us until a random meowing kitten came out of nowhere, and the heads of the goats flicked as one to the kitten running across their territory. Antuni and I took this as our opportunity to hurry on before the goats decided to charge.
We jumped on a bus to Athens without a ticket. Luckily, there were no ticket inspectors to bother us, and after one change we were safely back in the city, very tired and very hungry. Antuni had his sights set on an Indian place near Hawks, but all I could think about was Mailo’s pasta. Plus, I desperately needed a piss and didn’t want to hold it all the way back to Hawk’s. So, after over 8 hours of constant walking, Antuni and I split ways and I made quickly for Mailo’s near Lycbettus Hill.
I left Mailo’s clutching a large pot of Rigatoni Ragu and ate it sitting at a nearby bus stop. It was good and gravy-like, much better than the Rigatoni Ragu I had at Tivoli. This was the real stuff, not bland mince-meat, but big juicy chunks in an aromatic tomato sauce. My only regret was forgetting to ask for cheese on top.
But my stomach wasn’t letting me off the hook that easily. I’d been walking for over 8 hours after all. I stopped at a bakery near Monastiraki Square and had my first Greek sausage roll. It was a Frankfurt in beautiful buttery pastry and it hit the spot…
Finally, I returned to Hawks. Crashing down in bed, I was quickly overcome with sweet sleep.
