Mountain Biking Towards The Womb Of The Earth
An allergic reaction to stress had been grounding all wishful plans for some time now.
The doctor’s strict advice was “avoidance of tedious activities, allergic-friendly foods and environments”.
A mountain-bike trail in the heart of spring, full of freshly blossomed flowers and dancing bees might not exactly fit the above description, it was nevertheless our homemade anti-stress prescription. And we had to execute it while we were nearby: The ancient trail from Korykeio Cave down to Delphi, in Central Greece.
The only critical question to local bikers left my lips in a perfectly spelled form, to avoid misunderstanding:
-“Any reason to worry about the last part of the descent (“Skala”) above Delphi”?
-”Naaaah, it involves some beating, but it’s rideable”.
Let me inform you otherwise: “Rideable”, it’s not.
Except if you’re one of those Robocop-sheltered downhill wackos. At points it’s hardly trekkable with a mountain bike relaxing upon your shoulder. The -not appropriate- footwear paid the price, exposed skin parts took a couple of days to soothe from the longer-than-planned interaction with the sun and stamina reserves that were already low due to antiistaminics, were drained to the last drop.
The tricky parts though always tends to fade away after a while and what truly remains is the spectacular photo albums inside your head and Lightroom library. Along with a major contribution in stress management, that no commercial medicine proved able to match.-
An allergic reaction to stress had been grounding all wishful plans for some time now.
The doctor’s strict advice was “avoidance of tedious activities, allergic-friendly foods and environments”.
A mountain-bike trail in the heart of spring, full of freshly blossomed flowers and dancing bees might not exactly fit the above description, it was nevertheless our homemade anti-stress prescription. And we had to execute it while we were nearby: The ancient trail from Korykeio Cave down to Delphi, in Central Greece.
The only critical question to local bikers left my lips in a perfectly spelled form, to avoid misunderstanding:
-“Any reason to worry about the last part of the descent (“Skala”) above Delphi”?
-”Naaaah, it involves some beating, but it’s rideable”.
Let me inform you otherwise: “Rideable”, it’s not.
Except if you’re one of those Robocop-sheltered downhill wackos. At points it’s hardly trekkable with a mountain bike relaxing upon your shoulder. The -not appropriate- footwear paid the price, exposed skin parts took a couple of days to soothe from the longer-than-planned interaction with the sun and stamina reserves that were already low due to antiistaminics, were drained to the last drop.
The tricky parts though always tends to fade away after a while and what truly remains is the spectacular photo albums inside your head and Lightroom library. Along with a major contribution in stress management, that no commercial medicine proved able to match.-
