Visit one of the best off-season spots I’ve seen in Greece so far. The beauty and privacy of this magnificent beach is something just off the charts. How did you end up there? Good question, glad you asked. Balls of steel were a part of it but let me explain this to you in detail.
Starting at Mitikas
At our last days’ journey, we made the stop a few hundred meters north of a village called Mitikas, nothing special here. The weather and fading daylight forced us once again to just “get a spot.” And don’t get me wrong it was still a beautiful place in a small bay, a few meters away from the main coastal road but still nicely hidden to be comfortable. The day started off, with a slight and inconsistent rain, only interrupted by streaks of bright and warm sunlight.
Passing Patras
The four of us wanted to go further south that day, and we stocked up our supplies at the next big city. The road transferred into a highway to cross the waterway to the Gulf of Corinth. The bridge itself is merely vast and impressive AF. The same goes for the cost of driving over it. I can’t recall the exact amount, but I know that I was quite surprised about the price for the passing.
The bridge just connects to the highway next to Patras, one of the biggest cities in the area. We wanted to find a beautiful spot again, so we tried to avoid the town and headed to the west, along with the coastline, looking for a beautiful place. The area west of Patras is quite populated and to be really comfortable we did not want to stay in someone’s backyard basically. So we tried the occasional beach and stopped at a semi-remote beach to have a break and get us and our dogs’ stomachs filled.
The place was not as remote as we had wished for so after a little discussion, we moved further west. Seeing an isolated beach with a beach bar on the map, we decided to check it out since everything had already closed at the time and as always – beach bars are in a general rule of thumb at beautiful beaches.
Reaching the perfect beach
So the street up to the point where we saw the beach was to say it nicely “adventurous.” Some of its asphalt, concrete, with parts of dirt road. With cracks and holes washed into it from the last rainfalls, it made my Camper-van squeak and rattle up to the bear maximum, my mind could take for Willie – the yellow hell-machine. Reaching the top of the second van we had a fantastic view over the steep valley with the beach at the end. It looked like the final price, the golden ticket, the red cherry on top of the cake or the end of a video game from our point of view. The only thing dough: The boss fight was still up to reach it.
Tom, who was driving the first van stopped at the first slope, and both he and my sister got out of the car to have a quick talk. The discussion was about the steep road down to the beach, almost entirely made out of dirt and sand. Getting down there, well no issue at all – getting back up, a whole different book.
We settled on the opinion: “F**k it – we have some days worth of food and water, and we could still walk to a village and get help if the shit hits the fan. Said and done. After the steep last part of the road, we parked halfway beneath a tree, shielded by vegetation from the elements coming across the ocean, within steep hills surrounding us on all other sites.
The beach turned out to be absolutely perfect. Despite the changing weather which could not disturb us that much. We shielded the room between the vans with a large tarp so we would stay dry when getting out of the vans helped a lot as the first rain started getting stronger and stronger.
Fortunately, with the bed folded into sleeping position, we had an ideal place for the four of us to enjoy our company, have a few drinks and play some poker. The extended bed also doubled as a cave for Filie and Balu as they were partly sleeping, fighting over toys or the worst case scenario: Farting so much that we had to open the door to catch a breath and stop our eyes from watering. Seriously, that bad.
In these days we gave them regular puppy food, but since they were born and first raised as street dogs, they ate just everything they could find around the area.
After the first rain the weather got better each day we stayed so naturally, we waited almost as long as our supplies reached. The only action we saw/had was basically when a few guys with a transporter showed up to collect the burned-out car which stood approximately twenty meters away from us. As Tom and I helped them get it on the far too small cargo area, we wondered how they will get up the hill. Since we could see the road, we had a good look at their struggle.
Other than that – we saw a few cars turn around at the steep part of the slope and a pair of joggers. And that was pretty much the only contact we had with other people. Since there was no cellular connection down there, it was one of the most enjoyable times I had so far on the trip. Completely Off-grid, the electrical devices powered through the solar system during the day, the only thing missing was some beer and wine, which we had not stocked up as much as we should have.
The small beach north of Kalogria was all in all just the perfect beach for a few off-grid days. If you should be around the area at sometimes, you just have to visit the place. A top-tip: Don’t think you can drive back up the hill when it is raining, or the street is still wet. Anything else: My three-ton stealth camper van made it back up there so the only thing you need is some nerves and you will be fine.
Our little group was quite in a hurry to get up there so I made no photos of the undertaking since we feared that it would start to rain within a few minutes, so we basically rushed ourselves up the hill to get back on the road. One thing for sure dough: None of us will ever forget this location.
EU - Adventure 
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