PRIMO travel
WHEELS OF FORTUNE RIDING A WOODEN BIKE AROUND THE ISLANDS OF GREECE SOUNDS EXTRAORDINARY - AND IT WAS SAYS ANNA HARTLEY. Images by Nils Elzenga.
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f you aren’t Greek, the names of the islands Chios and Ios can sound very, very similar. So the six of us find ourselves at the Athens Piraeus port at 7am, bleary-eyed from navigating our wooden bikes through the predawn streets of the city, and discover that the ferry we intend to board is going to miss our target island by roughly 125 miles. “OK, so when is the next boat to Chios?” “In 14 hours.” We are in a pickle. Our bikes are supposed to be continuing on what is ultimately a 100-day tour of Greece, and we, their human riders, are responsible for getting them there. We hail from the Netherlands, Greece, America and Australia, and none of us are professional riders. As far as cycling teams go, we are an improbable assortment, and have been drawn together by an equally improbable force: 58 year old Paul Efamordis, co-founder of mattress company, boutique hotel chain and homewares empire COCO-MAT.
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PRIMOLIFE | June/July 2017
He and I met on a street in Paris in the spring, when I stopped to check out his unusual all-wood, two-wheeled ride. We got talking and he told me about his plan for the summer. For 100 days he would lead an ever-changing gang of riders all over his home country of Greece, covering a minimum 40 miles a day. The bikes - handmade in Athens from sustainable local oak are more suited to quick city rides than long, hilly treks through the country, are big and heavy, and there would be no support team or merchandise or TV appearances. On the other hand I, and anybody I wanted to bring, would be his guest, staying for free at a mix of COCO-MAT hotels and hotels owned by friends of Paul and we would all explore Greece together, one mile at a time. It pained him, he said, to see Greece characterised as a country paralysed by debt, hostile to artisans and small businesses and at the total mercy of global economic forces, and this ride would be his attempt to prove the naysayers wrong.
The whole undertaking sounded so weird, spontaneous and fun that when he asked if I would join him, I didn’t hesitate for a second, even though I would only be able to go for three days. Flash forward to August, the Pireaus port, 7am. Our first challenge is the Greek ferry system itself. Huge vessels traverse the Aegean Sea day and night, swallowing trucks, motorcycles and families whole, slowly making their way between farflung islands in a complex and mysterious quadrille that changes according to the day, season and possibly the whims of the Gods. As luck would have it, Paul has been called away to the Netherlands for a few days and, as nobody else is really in charge, together we pore over dense timetables and drill the ferry agent with questions, and by 9am have conjured a multi-day island-hopping plan that will ultimately get us to Chios. Of the six riders, three of us only joined the tour the night beforerendezvousing and picking up our bikes in a hotel in Athens where the small team
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