This week we visit Monemvasia (the Gibraltar of the East), stroll through a prehistoric forest, explore a ghost village, and try some traditional dishes.
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The Detail:
Distance Covered: 307 miles
Financial: Fuel £89; Groceries £175; Alcohol £18; Household £22; Zeus £13; Laundry £37; Entrance Fees £9; Eating Out £69; Total £432
Stopovers: Agio Fokas (Monemvasia); Glyrada Beach; Karavostassion; Bouka Beach; Mystras; Vlachokerasia [2 nights]
Spring is definitely in the air. Carpets of spring flowers can be seen everywhere and the bees are busy collecting pollen.
The weather has been pleasant. There aren’t too many people around yet. All in all, it’s been a joy to be here at this time of year,
Kastraki to Agio Fokas
Monemvasia was our destination today.
It is a small tied island connected to the mainland by a short bridge at Gefira. The island is dominated by a huge sea “rock”. Indeed, it has been called the “Gibraltar of the East”.
Monemvasia town is built around the far side of the island so isn’t visible from the mainland. It is a Medieval castle town comprising 3 levels. The lower town, upper town, and the citadel, which is perched on top of the “rock” which towers over the town. It is encircled by a fortified wall, and each section is separated by further fortifications.
There has been much restoration work in recent years, with many of the fortifications having been sympathetically rebuilt. In the lower town are the ruins of many ancient buildings, while the upper town is where you can find the shops and restaurants. The Fortress of Youlas (the citadel) is accessed via a rocky, twisty path.
It is truly a unique place. Yes, there are some places aimed at visiting tourists, but it hasn’t been overdone. It is almost like walking back in time. You enter the town through an arched gateway that snakes left and right. Impossible to get any kind of vehicle through there, so from then on it’s shanks’ pony only.
The narrow cobbled streets wind between the buildings, which aren’t typically greek, having a very medieval feel about them. This isn’t a whitewashed town with the typical red roofs. The buildings blend in with the surroundings, being a similar colour to the rock that towers over them.
It’s such an amazing place, I can’t believe it is more widely known. If you are ever even remotely near then it’s a must-see destination.
After spending several hours exploring the town we didn’t want to travel too much further. We found a spot at Agio Fokas just a few kilometres further south. A tiny village with a harbour and chapel. Oh, and a stunning view of Monemvasia too. After a day like today, I feel truly blessed to be able to have the opportunity to travel as we do.
Agio Fokas to Glyfada Beach
Ancient history again today, but much more ancient than we have seen so far.
At the southernmost point of the Cape Malea peninsula is the Agios Nikolaos Geopark. This is actually a large coastal area stretching from Agios Nikolaos to Elafonisos island.
There you can wander through the fossilized remains of a prehistoric forest. This petrified palm forest is the only one of its kind in Europe with countless fossils of starfish, snails, crabs, mussels, and other shellfish amongst the fossilized palm, conifer, and hardwood trees.
From there we continued exploring the Cape Malea peninsula, taking in the lovely little harbour at Profitis Ilias.
After a leisurely drive through the region’s orange groves, the trees laden with fruit almost ready to harvest, we finished the day just outside Gytheio at Glyfada Beach.
This is a long, narrow sandy beach known as a nesting site for sea turtles. The turtles begin nesting from late May to early August. The eggs need around 55 days to incubate, so they hatch from late July to early October.
The beach is also the site of the “Dimitrios” Shipwreck, a 67-metre cargo ship that ran aground on 23rd December 1981.
Glyfada Beach to Karavostassion
Wow. Just wow.
Exploring the Mani peninsula. That was what today was all about. It was one of those days where I wish we had all the time in the world.
This is a truly magical part of Greece. It is a harsh, rugged landscape, where generations of people have scratched a living. Yet it is also an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The lands further south are waterless, barren, and rough, with cold winters and hot summers: situated in one of the most inaccessible areas of the southern Peloponnese,
Mani came to be known as the area where free people lived during the period of the Turkish Ottoman occupation. People mostly lived in fortified villages and tower houses, the remains of which are dotted about everywhere.
It is these tower houses that have influenced many of the buildings seen today in the region. Unlike any other part of Greece, these buildings reflect the region’s turbulent past and are part of its unique identity.
Almost at the southernmost point of the peninsula is the ghost village of Vathia. Perched on top of a hill overlooking the Aegean Sea it was originally built as a defense against pirates.
Here the many tower houses, typical of the defensive buildings of the time, square towers 2 or 3 stories tall, are built close together with narrow passageways and steep steps winding between them. Wandering through this maze of passageways and half-ruined buildings is like a mythical journey back in time to harsher, more violent times.
During the 20th century, the local villagers began to abandon the village as they moved to larger towns and cities in search of work, and the houses started to fall into disrepair. Back in the 1980s, the Greek state invested some money in the area and renovated many of the houses, although many more are still in a poor state.
Today, a few of the tower houses are family homes, and some are holiday lets, but the village maintains the air of a ghost town. We spent a magical few hours exploring, trying to imagine what life must have been like eking a living from the harsh environment.
We finished the day at Karavostassion, a tiny harbour village across the bay from the better-known Limeni, where you can often see sea turtles in the crystal clear waters.
Karavostassion to Bouka Beach, Messini, near Kalamata
Inevitably the practical side of life catches up with you and today was no exception. The need to find a launderette outweighs everything else.
The thing with launderettes in Greece is that most of them only do service washes. Self-service laundry’s are few and far between. Carol would much rather do our laundry than let someone else do it for us. In practical terms that means that we usually have to go to a campsite, or travel to a bigger city to find one.
So today we drove to Kalamata, the second-biggest city in the Peloponnese.
By the time we had got there, found the launderette, found somewhere to park and actually done the laundry the day was pretty much done and it was time to find somewhere to stop for the night.
We ended up a few kilometres away at the wide sandy beach near Messini known as Bouka Beach. This is a long beach, stretching for several kilometres.
We parked up initially in a car park at one end of the beach. However, there were a couple of stray dogs there, and unusually they appeared to be aggressive. They didn’t take kindly to me shooing them away from Zeus, and I definitely didn’t feel comfortable around them. I wouldn’t have been happy taking Zeus for his bedtime walk with them around.
So we moved. About 2 km along the dirt track running alongside the beach and parked up. Hopefully, we are far enough away that they won’t bother us.
As we have been driving around we haven’t really seen that many motorhomes in Greece. A few, but nowhere near the numbers we saw in Spain and Portugal last year. This particular beach, for some reason, is a popular destination. There are more parked along here than we have seen in our entire time here.
Greece doesn’t have the infrastructure for catering for motorhomes that Western Europe has. There are no Aires as such.
Occasionally you can find a private site like the one we stayed at in Lygourio. And of course, there are plenty of campsites, although they tend to be quite expensive.
What they do have is a more relaxed attitude to sleeping in your vehicle. If you are parked in a designated parking area and not displaying camping behaviour then you likely won’t be disturbed.
Wild camping is also tolerated, particularly out of season. However parking on someone’s private land without permission, understandably, is not acceptable. And camping in national parks is not permitted, in common with most other countries in Europe.
Finding water isn’t too tricky either. Water fountains and taps can be found in many locations all over Greece. LPG is commonly available too. All the stations we have visited use the same adapter as in France.
Which leaves the disposal of waste. This is a bit trickier. Finding somewhere to empty waste water and toilet cassettes can be difficult. Although there doesn’t seem to be any problem emptying the cassette into public toilets when you can find one.
Bouka Beach to Mystras
A lovely drive today. Travelled along the 82 from Kalamata to Sparta, with a detour around some rather narrow mountain roads because of roadworks.
This is an easy drive as it is the main non-toll connecting the two cities. Although the detour was a little more challenging. There are very narrow village roads, hairpin bends, steep drops, monuments, and stunning mountain scenery.
The highlight for me was the Langada-Taygetos Pass. A section of road through a gorge where the road folds back on itself over and over as it descends the steep sides, and includes some low “tunnels” cut directly through the rock.
By the time we got to Sparta, it was getting quite late. There was just time for me to visit the Museum of the Olive. Carol was the one left holding the baby this time.
This is a small museum that explores the history of olive oil in Greece. Including some information about growing and management of the trees, the production process, and the multitude of uses it has been put to through the ages. A fascinating exploration of the importance of olives to the Greeks throughout history.
Then it was time to find somewhere to stop for the night. Driving through Sparta ….. disaster. There was a coach parked outside a hotel partially blocking the road. I stopped as I didn’t think I could get past, but the driver waved me forward. He clearly didn’t want to move and thought there was enough space.
There wasn’t. As I edged forward I had to go up the kerb on the left which tilted the van towards the coach. Despite the fact I was as far to the left as I could be, the awning clipped his wing mirror and broke it.
That’s where things started to get interesting. After a bit of to and fro, I managed to pull in safely just in front of the coach. In Greece, in the event of an accident, the traffic police have to be called who then have to write a report detailing what happened.
First up a representative for the coach company arrived, who spoke a little English. He was there to represent the driver and tried to get me to admit fault. The first rule of any accident is never to admit blame. Well, that caused some excitement. The coach driver clearly wasn’t happy, but as far as I am concerned he was at least partially to blame because of the bad parking and waving me forward.
The traffic officer (armed, as all police are here) arrived a short while later but didn’t speak any English. A translator was called, and several others seemed to get involved too, mainly to try and help the police officer fill in the paperwork. He understandably, couldn’t read my English paperwork as the alphabet is different from that of the Greek.
It took nearly two hours to sort it out in the end. Just need to contact the insurance company in the morning. It all seemed such a drama for a broken mirror, but live and learn I guess.
We finished up parking outside the entrance to the Mystras Archaeological Site, under the fortress. Ready to visit in the morning.
Mystras to Vlachokerasia
As planned we moved to the top car park at the entrance to the fortress in the morning. And as expected Zeus wasn’t allowed in, so I took him for a walk while Carol had a look around the site.
It’s a huge site, so it took Carol quite a while to explore. As I was sitting in the motorhome waiting, who should pull into the car park but our new French friends. Lovely to see them again so soon.
After a brief lunch stop in Mistras, we decided to head into the mountains for a change, rather than hugging the coast as we had been.
So we headed north towards the central part of the Peloponnese, to the region known as Arcadia. In Greek mythology, it was home to the god Pan.
We finished up at a small mountain village called Vlachokerasia. With just a few hundred residents it is located in a fertile area filled with cherry, chestnut, walnut, and apple trees.
As we pulled into the parking next to the church we were immediately greeted with friendly words and gestures. People seemed genuinely happy to see us.
The owner of the local taverna especially so. He had obviously seen us drive past and made a point of coming to talk to us. Yes, I know he was hoping for a little extra business, but do you know what, fair play to him.
He only knew a few words of English. “Beautiful” being the most prominent one. We tried to ask if we were okay to park here for the night, but I think it might have lost something in the translation. What was clear was that he was trying to get us to come to the taverna for something to eat and drink.
I followed him up to the taverna, hoping to double check we were okay to stay and to ask about getting something to eat later. Eventually, I think we managed to understand each other and that we would return later for a meal.
We took Zeus for a walk, then bimbled on over to the Taverna. My Greek is non-existent, but we think that the name of the Taverna was “the good heart”.
Ordering was interesting. We had to use a translator app, but that is always a bit hit-and-miss. There didn’t seem to be any kind of menu, so we had to work with “I have very nice food ready for you. I will put greens, wild bulbs for you, wild boar with potatoes”
We had a lovely meal. And it couldn’t have been any more traditional. Just what I love. I had no real idea what we were eating, but do you know what, that is part of the joy of travelling for me.
After dinner, I had a frappe. Oh my, it was so thick and strong that the straw literally stood up straight in it. Don’t think I’ll sleep for a week.
They also had a range of homemade and local produce for sale, and we rather indulgently allowed ourselves to be persuaded to purchase some of it. That rather blew away the budget for this week.
We purchased some local honey, apples preserved in honey, quince preserved in honey, and Tarhana
I had no idea what Tarhana was, but that’s me – when I see something that I don’t know I just have to try it.
It turns out it is a dried food ingredient, based on a fermented mixture of grain, vegetables, and yogurt or fermented milk. It is found in the cuisines of Central Asia, Southeast Europe, and the Middle East.
Dry tarhana has a texture of coarse, uneven crumbs, and it is usually made into a thick soup with water, stock, or milk. Effectively it is an instant soup powder.
When we finally got back to the van I had to, of course, research what we had eaten.
Best Guess:
‘Ascordula’ – an onion-like wild edible bulb that is boiled, then simply drizzled with olive oil. It is considered an excellent appetizer, on its own, or as an ingredient in salads to give more flavor.n It looked a little like a shallot, but had a very soft, almost silky texture and slightly bitter taste.
Horta – a traditional Greek dish of steamed or boiled leafy vegetables, served very simply with lemon juice and olive oil.
In Greek, Horta is an umbrella name for various types of edible leafy greens, many of which grow in the wild. This includes endive, dandelion leaves, chard, chicory, and many more. There are literally hundreds of edible plants growing all over Greece if you know what to look for.
Wild boar – I believe that this was marinated in white wine with bay leaves, garlic, allspice berries, peppercorns, cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest for 24 hours, then slow-cooked. I did ask what was in it, but all I really got from the reply was “momma cooked it”
Some menu highlights from this week
Click on the picture for further information. If you would like recipes or further information let me know in the comments
As before, There is so much more we saw and did that I haven’t included here – you’ll just have to go see it for yourself!
I haven’t gone into great detail about anything in particular in this post, so if you would like me to expand on anything please leave a comment and I will endeavor to write another separate post on the topic.
Happy Motorhoming.
Hope You Enjoy!
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