Let’s do this as a travel blog kind of day, starting with my photo of the day! This is us trying to navigate through one of the many small towns from Monomvasia around the coast to Tyros:

Seriously – this is the main coastal road around the Peloponnese! What the photo doesn’t show is that to get around any corner we had to fold in the side mirrors. It also doesn’t show that this is a TWO-WAY ROAD. As I’m a pretty ordinary driver, but a pretty crap reverser, I think my aura preceded me and all oncoming traffic pulled off the road or reversed. And just to show this was not isolated, heres a little montage from the next village:

Yes Susi, you do drive through the town square to get through the village.

So, drenched in sweat after each village we breathed, drank in the scenery, and thoroughly enjoyed the drive. To put some perspective to this, I think this was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever had. This is, no doubt, aided by the fact that the van remained undamaged, we never really had a nervous break-down, town pressures were alleviated by smiling inhabitants waving us by and the day’s end brought us to this:

I’ve put together a slide-show of just some of the sights taken in over the day, but this necessarily lacks the smells of the forest, sea, orange blossoms and fynbos as we moved around the various headlands. What a day!

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Earlier we had climbed to the top town in Monomvasia, and it would be wrong to ignore just how pretty this Venetian fortified town is. Built in the 12thC, with its church still standing, and some of the frescoes still somewhat intact. As with all the religious buildings in Greece, this underwent original Frankish building and ownership, Venetian improvements, surrender to the Ottoman Turks after the collapse of Constantinople, return to Venice for less than 100 years before returning to the Turks, and then, finally, emancipation in the 1820’s.

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Continuing our slow perambulation around the Peloponnese we stayed for two nights at the campsite right on the beach at Gythio, the original Spartan harbour. A short cycle from the campsite to the town was rewarded with great views … and indescribable traffic chaos on May Day (but clearly better natured than similar chaos in France!).

Still, it gave plenty of opportunity to have a beer and watch the world crawl by – slowly. Our brother-in-law, a traffic connoisseur of note, would be hard-pressed to choose between this and Bangkok street scenes – the latter might win as a result of the great traffic magnitude. But, all friendly, no hooters, no raised voices – Doable.

 

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Yesterday we drove from Gythio to Monemvasia along some pretty good roads, although, as everywhere, travelling through the towns was tight, slow, and dependent on oncoming traffic’s goodwill. We are currently parked on the wharf at the end of the causeway  leading to the old town and fortress of Monemvasia, the first town to be liberated in the Greek War of Independence, 1821. It is gorgeous!

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We’ve also been lucky in bumping into nice neighbours and have spent the last few days meeting up at the end of the day and having a few beers as well as some shared dinners- it’s been great.

Some Bad News!

Getting the timing right to drop off the van for sale in Switzerland and move our household goods, currently stored in the middle of France (Thanks Scott & Marthe-Sophie) in part to New Zealand, in part to Luanda, Angola, was always going to be tricky. Well, it’s proven more difficult than that!

To sell the van back to the company we bought it from is the easiest solution, and I accept the significant hit we’ll take in doing so. Unfortunately, they have also demanded the van before the end of May. Consequently … No Sardinia and, shortly, bye-bye van. We will drop the van off in Basel on May 28, travel back to NZ for 6 weeks (sorry kids) and then return to ship our stuff from France to NZ and Luanda, before heading to Luanda for Niki’s new job. Chuck in closing bank accounts, moving TVs from Germany to France somewhere in the mix, not yet being able to book the (rapidly filling) Luanda flights etc etc … If it sounds complex, that may well be the truth. We’re feeling a little dejected today at the sudden termination of our tour, but it seems we have little choice here – might as well get on with it.

On the upside – what a blast it’s been. Check our neighbours exhibiting non-camping behaviour in a restricted zone 🙂

With Orthodox Easter this weekend and with many places consequently closed. We’ve take the very decadent option of staying in a campsite for the past 4 nights. It’s been well worth it!

We arrived in the little town of Kalogria, somewhat hyped by the flamboyant descriptions in the local tourist guide. To quote:

A few kilometers from Kalamata, almost 42km. The beach is an oasis in the wild landscape of Mani. It is truly beautiful and it is hard for someone who has visited it to be able to forget it. It is a beach with green blue waters, that on seeing it captivates the traveler and makes him believe that he is on a paradise on earth. The impressive beach has cool and almost frozen waters since four of the springs of Taigetos end in its sandy seabed.

On arriving here on Wednesday afternoon we were less than impressed. The sky was grey, the visibility hazed in smoke and mist. This was made worse when, on occasion, it drizzled red mud, leaving the windscreen an opaque mess. A huge weather system over the Sahara has blown dust as far north as Belgium. Here, further south, the effects are quite dramatic, with the snow covered peaks turning ochre, vehicles looking like participants in the Paris-Dakar, and our moods slightly inhibited. The weather remained pretty much the same on Thursday, Friday the weather cleared, Saturday was a ‘Wow – so this is what they were talking about’, Sunday was, well, Sunday – more below, and now it’s Easter Monday, and we’ll eventually get back on the road. We’ve never spent three nights anywhere, so this has been a novel experience.

We are camped at Camping Kalogria – a very friendly site in a park that has been left somewhat to nature – draw your own conclusions. We are directly opposite the house owned by Niko Kazantzaki who moved here in 1917 and met a local character by the name of George Zorbas as foreman in his newly acquired coal mine. So who are all these people? Well, this is the basis of ‘Zorba the Greek’. Don’t plead ignorance on this. This is ‘Eat Pray Love’ for the Pre-Millennials (aka ‘The Selfie Generation’) …

We took the opportunity to cycle to the next town of Agio Nikolaos, along a very well-maintained coastal cycle path. Breakfast on the harbour consisted, for Niki, of pancakes and about half litre of honey – no skimping on sweets in this country.

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Sunday we strolled down to the beach at 10:00am (dawn is late in Greece …) beset by aromatic smoke. The tradition on Easter Sunday is that everybody has spit roast lamb. Yes!!! Lamb on the beach with ice cold beer.

As it turned out, however, this didn’t happen. Our very nice neighbours (hi Rus & Juliet) informed us that our campground was putting on a free lunch – the owner was most offended when inquired of the price. We, of course, got there very late. Nevertheless, the manager and his crew gathered up lamb, tzatziki, roast potatoes and red-dyed eggs … and glasses of wine. What a pleasant afternoon spent with people who may well have been strangers, but, given the time, turned out to be a joyous group of friends.

 

So, it’s been a lazy few days, a little out of our character, but thoroughly enjoyable for all that. Our plan for today is to head off to the parking lot at the Diros Caves, hoping that the recent rains which resulted in shortened cave visits would be a thing of the past – time will tell.