Still in the Mani

Wednesday 25th June.

We are parked up tonight in the little town of Aghios Nikolaos. We're in a small car park against the sea wall next to a small cafe. This evening we asked if it was ok to park the night - for sure, no problem. So we had a beer and an ouzo, they gave us the WiFi password and everybody's happy. We stopped initially at a small beach two kilometres away but the area was plastered with no camping, no motorhome signs so we moved on and spent our money in the mini-market and one of the tavernas here. We've only travelled twenty miles today but stopped a couple of times for coffee in small villages where we also bought some sage honey from an elderly gentleman who spoke a mixture of French, German, Greek and English to us - all in the same sentence! We also bought some lemon flavored olive oil from a small producer where they also had natural, organic, orange and ginger flavored. A young boy was looking after the shop and he wouldn't let us taste anything until he showed us by way of photographs the production process and had the opportunity to demonstrate his English language skills. Then he very formally sliced some bread and allowed us to taste the different flavoured oils. Just before we tasted the organic oil a fly fell into the dish, Phil stood with her slice of bread poised as she exchanged glances with the young boy who looked from Phil to the fly and back again before nonchalantly flicking the fly out of the dish.

Thursday 26th June.

We are parked up tonight on a campsite ten kilometres west of Kalamata. It's a campsite because we have a few domestic chores to do ( wash clothes, shave and empty chemical toilet ) not sure what I'm doing but Phil's sorted out anyway.

Great fun this morning leaving Aghios Nikolaos. The pesky little Garmin took us down roads that became narrower and narrower until we arrived at a bend with a high wall on either side that I just could not get round. I tried, in fact I tried so hard that it took fifteen minutes to get back from the "stuck in a bend with high walls" situation. Then I had to reverse for about five hundred metres back down the lanes with millimeters of space on either side. It took about twenty minutes and half the village was out enjoying the fun and offering advice. Most of the advice was in the form of an enquiry as to why we had even come down these lanes in the first place!! Eventually we got back to our starting point and took the main road out of town which is what we should have done in the first place. No damage to the van though which was a bonus.

As we drove through Kalamata today we passed a pharmacy displaying the temperature. 42deg!!! We can't hardly complain, we knew it would be warm here but 42deg is way too hot for us so I suppose we are complaining. We didn't think we would see these temperatures for a couple of weeks yet. Still, it's no great hardship to walk into the sea for five minutes and then stand under the beach shower. The hard part is stretching out on the sun lounger!!

Pat.

 

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