For the last five years I’ve attended an annual writers holiday with UK Authors. We use the opportunity to be away from the domesticity of home to discover new settings for our stories, new writer friends, peaceful time to contemplate and write, and to talk with like-minded souls about writing and marketing our books. With UK Authors I’ve had laughs and used dynamic verbs in Northern Cyprus, Carmarthen, Southern Cyprus, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and now Methana in Greece.

Limnisa is on the northern coast of the Peloponnese volcanic peninsular of Methana and is a retreat (for anyone, not just writers) run by Mariel Hacking and Philip Wooderson. Click on http://www.limnisa.com for details.

When, a couple of months ago, I booked to go to Limnisa, my main aim was to write a big chunk of ARIA volume three. However, ARIA: Left Luggage was published in August and that event has its own agenda. So, I had a writerly shopping list: write blog entries for the blog tour generated by LL-Publications’ marketing manager, and THEN write more on ARIA 3. Sneaking in among all that was Cycling World magazine. I get paid for cycling articles and they particularly like my anecdotes collected while cycling on the wrong side of the road in warm countries. I am not able to sit and write for more than a couple of hours before my legs itch to go round in circles. By chance, Limnisa offers a selection of bicycles for free use. Okay, they aren’t carbon fibre with the tag Boardman printed on them but the main alternative was to hire a smarty pants bike in Athens or Piraeus and ride the 120 km to Limnisa. I seriously considered doing that but it would mean posting on my luggage. Maybe next time.

Climbing out of the easyJet Airbus onto the tarmac at Athens Airport a wall of dry heat hit me. It was 38C – hotter than my body temperature. Plan B – cycle in the cooler mornings when it is climbing from 22 C to around 30 by midday. Writing and deleting ran along in the afternoons although a dip in the sea became a regular habit too. Lots of great salads including rice, potatoes, homemade humous, and other veggie delights helped put back calories lost on the cycle rides.

You’ll see from the photograph, the space I called The Office. Once I looked up from my laptop and saw a Gecko checking my split infinitives.

I slept in a modern studio apartment 2 km from Limnisa. As usual with my abroad cycling I wanted to photograph the bicycle on the balcony. So I made sure the patio doors opened enough and went out the front to fetch the bike (specs later). Sadly, the door swung closed behind me – key inside. Ah, 1pm and there’s me wearing cycling shorts and nothing else. No shirt, no shoes or socks, no phone. I could’ve ridden the bike to Limnisa but they wouldn’t have had a spare key. So I knocked on the other 5 apartment doors, hoping to find the maintenance person. No reaction. The balcony is one floor up, so if I could find a ladder… Barefoot, I entered the open-door basement. Marvellous down there: a kitchen, table, tools, sandals that fit me, but no ladder. I went through a large hole punched into the polystyrene back wall (really!) and saw that at a pinch I could climb up a pipe but I hadn’t sweated enough mass to be light enough for plastic drainpipe climbing. A long set of railings were in the basement and maybe I was strong enough to manhandle them outside and use as a ladder but opted for the remaining two options. 1) sit and wait, or 2) break in through the kitchen window. 1) could take 24 hours so I borrowed a large screwdriver and … discovered the sliding window wasn’t locked! (it is now, in case a burglar on Methana is reading this) I pulled over a chair and climbed in head first. Sadly, the sink unit is plastic so I had to avoid standing on that and ended up in a controlled fall-forward roll onto the floor. Check photograph of the front of the apartments, and of the finished adventure – the bike on the balcony and the Aegean Sea beyond.

On Tuesday, Mariel took four of us on a tour of the island’s ancient towns and villages including a stop at the foot of a dormant nearly 700 m high volcano called Malia Vgethi. The last recorded eruption was in 276 BC. The nearest village is Kameni Chora (burnt village) and the rocks all around are the dark red andesite and dacite solidified lava. We scrambled up a rocky path to the top, then through a small cave to sit in the vent itself. Magical. I couldn’t resist going back on the bike. Terrific views and hairpin bends.

One long hilly ride goes through an old village of Makrylongos, but from the car tour I knew it had a shelter with a tap. It was while I had my perspiring head under that tap, that I heard a laugh. A Greek woman stood in a long red skirt and white blouse, as if she’d walked out of a 1950s National Geographic Magazine, and waved a stick. I thought I was to be beaten but a herd of goats bleated by and the woman strode after them.

The drawback of cycling and writing in temperatures over 30C is the copious perspiration and odious mosquitoes. I’ve never before been with a band of writers that had a group aroma of citronella.

We had three explosions during the week. 1: a can of coke in a fridge set too cold. 2: a cigarette lighter left in the sun, and 3) in checking out a puncture, the tyre blew apart when I pumped it up. The bikes are kept outside and I would place my helmet on the ground with my gloves inside. On Wednesday night, after a literary evening of readings and wine, I found only one glove. It’s possible a pine martin mistook it for food, or a hat. I wear cycling gloves to reduce the possibilities of RSI from bike vibrations, and if I fall it’s preferable for the glove to be shredded than my skin. These arguments apply to one glove as to a pair so I rode the rest of the days with only one. I became that mad one-glove Englishman.

Did we see anything of the sad Greek recession? Not much on Methana. A vegan could live off the land. My ‘office’ was in the midst of fig trees bearing fruit. Not far away are nut trees, olives, pomegranates and other fruit. Philip told us that the church in Greece fed and clothed 200, 000 people out of a total of 11 million. Even so, we saw laughter and mobile phones chirping.

Speaking of birdsong, that bike of Mariel’s sounded like a bird. Both wheels aren’t quite true so I was riding with the brakes engaging at every revolution. Good for training. 12 gears – a Batavus Champion.

Yes, I wrote the blog pieces, and a couple of chapters of ARIA 3, found that its possible for this vegan to find enough to eat at Greek tavernas (baked aubergines, Greek Salad without the Feta, freshly baked bread dipped in olive oil), but most of all I’ve found new writer pals, new ancient landscapes and an amazing relaxing venue.

Photo of me between Agios Georgios and Limnisa, Methana, taken by Willa, who had travelled from Australia. Thanks Willa! And behold the group photograph taking on the last evening of my stay at Limnisa. Aspring and accomplished writers smiling in appreciation.

Willa took this photo of Geoff Nelder on Methana