The Road to Karlovasi

photos by Newell

There are two commercial towns on the island, Samos Town and Karlovasi.  They both sit on the north coast of the island with Samos Town at the east end and Karlovasi to toward the west, with Vourliotes perched at roughly the midway point, overlooking the road that connects them.  On the map that road is depicted with a heavy read line, indicating that it is one of the Island’s main thoroughfares.  Karlovasi is slightly closer and has a more of an industrial, no-nonsense feel to it.  We make the trip several times a week, or whenever we have to shop for anything more than groceries.  We generally prefer it to Samos Town, except for the road.

There is a section of that road just beyond Agios Konstantinos, that is still marked with a 60 kph speed limit sign, but I have only once ever seen a traffic cop on the entire island, and speed limits, like bottled water, are for the tourists.   That section has actually been improved and even widened in some places since the first time I drove it almost twenty years ago, but it’s still an ugly place to meet a wide oncoming truck, especially if there is an impatient Greek driver who is tailgating you for doing only  the speed limit.  In the worst places there is only a short crenellated concrete curb between a distracted driver and a 30 ft. plunge into the rocks and the sea directly below. 

Whenever we make the trip I am reminded of Lady Macbeth’s terse imperative to her wavering husband, “Screw your courage to the sticking place, and we will not fail.”  Eventually you get used to it.

Video  by Alec Newell and Kathy Skaggs