The countryside is very green in spring, and once over the mountains, the road to Karditsa descends into the wide expanse of the fertile Plains of Thessaly.

We hadn't seen cotton growing before and were amazed to discover it being harvested. It was only later when we came across cotton processing depots with pickers and the open truck used to collect it for processing that we realised that the disappointingly large amount of white 'litter' was actually escaped cotton in it's raw state.

Naturally, we had to stop to examine the cotton flowers close up. They feel just like cotton wool to the touch with harder particles inside them. The fields of cotton aren't particularly attractive at this time; just blackened stalks with white cotton heads. It reminded me of fields of sunflowers with blackened heads, past their glory days, and devoid of beauty prior to harvest.

A laden wagon of cotton at a depot with stray bits littering the ground	Another cotton wagon ready to take the cotton for processing to the plant	A depot with associated machinery

The road is remarkably good through this large agricultural plain, edged by distant mountains. On approaching Karditsa and following the signs to Trikala, another bypass enabled us to skirt the town and avoid the traffic. The Romans would have been proud of the road out of Karditsa, it's so straight, but perhaps they had built it originally? A circular bypass of Trikala took us onto the last short stretch to Kalampaka and our destination of Meteora.