By Lisa Hazel — On the island of Spetses, a member of the Saronic Islands, just south of the Peloponnese in Greece, and at the mouth of the Argolic Gulf, we began our human powered honeymoon bike ride. The island has a variety of terrain which forces you into nature’s distraction. Each angle yields a new vista. How nature manages to stun us after all the beatings we give her shows the power of mother earth seeping out to say, “I have more for you to see, just take a moment and I will astonish you.” Our ride and its sights will be discussed along with our rentor, his take on a transaction, and our conversation with him afterward.
The island of Spetses does not allow cars or trucks on their roads apart from the occasional dump truck, which made for a peaceful ride. According to one of the women working at the Hotel Roumani, where we stayed, ‘Spetses has only recently begun to allow motor scooters on Spetses’ which gives Spetses a unique set of noisy motor vehicles one gets to share the road with.
Our bike rentor, Nikkos, had a full house of potential customers eager to get going. The competition for service was between us and a few people from Germany. Dave kept saying, “How much will the bike rental for the two of us cost?” Nikkos said, “I’ll decide how much when you get back.” After asking Nikkos about the price a couple more times, he insisted we get going so we will have time to enjoy the entirety of the island. For us, this was a leap of faith from us to Nikkos being from the United States where almost everything has a price tag on it prior to payment. We ultimately decided to trust him. I tried telling myself, “We are not in the United States, let’s put some trust in the locals of Greece and see what happens.” While on this small island, I was able to separate the beauty of the scenery from whatever price we will be paying afterward. Nikkos didn’t have a waiver for us to sign either. I felt as if Nikkos wanted a small display of trust from us while we received trust from him. This equality of trust ripped away our obsession with the price and made the act of riding the bicycles one where Nikkos had a measure of goodwill that is difficult to find within the United States.
As we began, we wound through sharp corners, tall hills, and dense trees until we came to a clearing that gave us a long coastline view of the easternmost peninsula of the Peloponnese. As we got in a pedal stroke rhythm, the terrain of Spetses became dry and this viewpoint begged the comparison to our native Utah. Although red soil was nowhere in sight, sandy soil was abundant and lizards were a common sight. At one point, we saw a black snake that was about a foot long but disappeared within moments.
Once we made it to the western side of Spetses, there was a total of one road with construction of another which appeared to cut the island in half. Fellow humans became a rarity at the northwestern corner. Orchards often crept toward the road and cows would strut right up to the fences to greet us while we stopped to take in the contrast of west Spetses from the bustling of east Spetses. Manicured coniferous trees adorned the sides of the narrow streets as we encountered few vehicles. The sole encounter with a gasoline powered truck was a garbage truck that we heard before we saw around a tight corner. Luckily, we were able to get to the side of the road before it turned the bend. The second half of the island offered some of the most vivid contrasts of lush blues, greens, red, and yellows. The yellows came from a cove clamoring with an intimate party on or near the water’s shore invisible from the road. Red came from the sky’s rainbow starting from what appears to be the meeting point of the Argolic Gulf with the Mediterranean Sea. Shades of blue changed as we road counterclockwise around the island with blue deepening in color just prior to sunset. Greens from well kempt walkways and trees surrounding the road made for stark terrain contrast. Each of these colors and their differing positions within added to our reasons to push on. Our cadence was often interrupted with a new positioning of sun, sea, island, and vegetation that was completely new to us. Near the cove, we discussed turning back for fear of not making it back to our rentor’s shop before nightfall. By this time, we were nearly halfway around the island with the best photo lighting yet to come. After discussing the fear of an unknown price hike and an undisclosed curfew, we decided to risk our budget and take the remaining counterclockwise island road.
Neither of us are in immaculate shape and there were times each of us yelled out, “You got this!” or “We’re doing great! Only a little way left to go!” This back-and-forth encouragement from each of us added to the enthusiasm for the exercise, hills, scenery, and Greek culture we were putting our faith in.
Upon our return, we told Nikkos of our decision to complete the full ride around the island. He told us he is in the business of giving people a tool to further enjoy their holiday. When it came time to pay, Nikkos made a reasonable offer which we accepted. He asked us where we are from to which Dave replied “Utah in the United States.” Nikkos did not know where that was so to further explain I said, “it’s two states east of California.” He asked us how long we will be on Spetses to which we replied we would be leaving tomorrow morning to make it out before the two-day ferry strike. After we told him we would be headed for Thessaloniki, Nikkos had a whole set of suggestions for food and spas in that area. Nikkos told us he has a girlfriend up there and will be headed up there shortly after us.
This connection we made with Nikkos, recommendations for a fulfilling trip to Thessaloniki in northern Greece, along with a transaction based on trust topped off a perfect bicycling trip around the island of Spetses. Nature meshed herself together exactly the way she needed to create flawless pictures in our minds. We will be sharing memories of this ride for a lifetime to come.
For more on Spetses: Head on over to visitgreece.gr and type “Spetses” in the search bar to obtain a short history of the island chronologically including its Early Bronze Age inhabitants, Venetians, Ottomans, and some of the Greek naval revolts led by the first known female admiral in naval history, Laskarina Bouboulina (whom one can view artifacts of in the intimate museum on Spetses).
For Nikkos’ Bikes: Located on the Northeastern shore of Spetses, Nikkos offers human powered bicycles, electric bikes, and small motor bikes for rent. Look for the white sign with black lettering which reads “NIKKOS BIKES; TREK; ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΣΕΙΣ; ΠΩΛΗΣΕΙΣ; ΠΟΔΗΛΑΤΩΝ; Spetses; 6946087748” with the Greek translating to Rentals, Sales, Bicycles according to Google Translate.
Our ride details: October 21, 2024; 15.95 miles, 1:56 ride time, 1253 ft elevation gain. Trucks/cars encountered: 1.
