Mountains and Markets

Friday 4th May 2018.

 

We left the Blue Dolphin campsite on Friday morning and headed off to Mycenae. It’s not the main tourist season yet so we didn’t think we’d have too much trouble accessing the car park, having a look around the site and maybe stopping overnight. After sitting in a traffic queue for 30 minutes to access the car park whilst coaches performed elaborate manoeuvre to deposit their cargo and then find somewhere to park we abandoned the idea, performed a ten point turn and headed south. 

 

Nafplio was only a half hour drive and it’s one of our favourite towns with Venetian architecture, some funky shops and a massive harbour side car park for us (N37.568286 E22.801125). When we arrived though the car park was rammed not only with cars but maybe 50 or 60 coaches. When we strolled into town we could hardly move for teenage school kids and when we arrived at the main square we understood why. A stage had been erected and lots of musical groups, bands and orchestras were performing on the day, encouraged by their teachers and supporters. It was a scorching hot day and some of the young musicians looked like they were wilting in the heat but the applause and cheers from their friends and colleagues kept them lively.

 

The harbour at Nafplio is massive but every available mooring was taken up by luxury yachts and cruisers which was unusual, as was the red carpet lining the promenade. I wandered over and got chatting to a couple of guys cleaning, or should I say preening, one of the yachts. They explained it was a festival where the various owners would display their yachts looking for charter business. Theirs was one of the smaller yachts and they said the daily hire would cost from €3,500 a day although there would be a better rate for a week or more! How much to buy a yacht that size? Ten to fifteen million Euros and the larger ones 50-60 million and upwards. Most of these yachts are owned by seriously wealthy folk who maybe use them for a few weeks of the year and then look to the charter companies to find less seriously wealthy folk to charter them for holidays or corporate functions. Looked like fun but we’ll probably stick with the motorhome.

 

South again the next day pretty much hugging the coastline with the Myrtoan sea on our left and the Parnonas mountains towering above us inland, plenty of places to stop and admire the view as we headed toward Plaka and the Semeli campsite. Plaka is a small harbour village a few miles south of the larger town of Leonidio. We first came to Plaka four years ago when there was, allegedly, a camperstop facility. It was closed and locked up when we arrived and so we parked 50 metres from the harbour and hoped for the best. Within a few minutes a young guy turned up on a bike and explained that we wouldn’t be allowed to park up overnight but no problem because he and his cousin had just opened a campsite round the corner and would we like to come and have a look? Well, we had a look and we were impressed with the time and effort they had put into the site and stopped a few days. This time was our third visit and we were greeted like old friends. We stopped a few days (N37.149432 E22.891848)and planned the next stage of our journey. On previous trips we’d headed south through Lakonia to Geraka Port, Monemvasia, Viglafia and then round into the Mani; Gythio, Kotronas, Porto Kagio and then up the west coast toward Kalamata. This time we didn’t want to just retrace our steps and so decided we would head over the mountains toward Sparti in no particular hurry. We planned the route and set off, climbing toward Platanaki and then Agios Basileios. The roads were fine and the views outstanding but as we left Agios Basileios we lost the tarmac and the road turned into a dirt track. We were heading toward Prastos and we stuck it out for a couple of miles, climbing all the way until we had to give in and accept that we wouldn’t be seeing tarmac for a while. We were both disappointed to have to turn back as there were some waterfalls and a nature reserve that we wanted to visit but our van isn’t really built for off roading and bouncing up a mountain track in second gear for mile after mile. We dropped back to Kosmas and took another scenic route to Sparti, driving around the mountains, albeit at 1500m, rather than over them. We spent the night just outside Sparti at Magoula in the car park of an abandoned restaurant (N37.073066 E22.413992). 

 

The E82 road from Sparti to Kalamata was highly recommended and it didn’t disappoint us, we set off on Thursday morning and again enjoyed some spectacular views, climbing to over 1600m on a good tarmac road. We dropped down to Kalamata and drove around the bay to Petalidi a small harbour town. There are two places where motorhomes are encouraged or at least tolerated outside of the summer months and we chose the one on the edge of town overlooking the sea. We had a wander around and returned to the van to prepare an evening meal. We had just started eating when a dirty old lorry full of live chickens pulled up opposite us. We both had the same thought, was tomorrow market day? A quick google search threw up a Motorhome blog from a few years ago in which the authors had been stuck in the same place where we were parked whilst the market went on around them and they had to leave in the very early hours of the morning, (thanks michaelandpamstravels.com). We had a similar experience a few years ago in Ermioni when we were woken by a market being set up at 5.30am and didn’t want to repeat the experience so whilst Phil steadied the glasses and plates I gingerly drove the 500m around to the parking area behind the harbour (N36.958842 E21.935199). We had pulled in there a few hours earlier to get some water from the beach shower. Most showers have a foot wash tap which makes filling my 10litre a piece of cake but this one just had an overhead shower with the tap at knee level. So I held the containers above my head whilst Phil operated the tap. First container was no problem but by the time we were filling the second one my arms were tired and the inevitable happened, the container slipped and I took an early shower fully clothed much to Phil’s amusement.

 

This morning after buying some tomatoes and cucumber at the market we travelled all of 11 miles to the village of Agios Andreas and another free parking spot next to an abandoned camp site by another small harbour (N38.863074 E21.921912), water available from the beach shower but this time with a tap at a lower level!

 

 

Pat