We have had many marvellous adventures in the Taygetos Mountains. On our own, with friends from the Kalamata Alpine Club and, with my sister Celia and Laurence during their recent visit. But now it is time to go.
A Picnic in a Greek AlpSpring is definitely here. It’s considerably warmer, the wild flowers are at their stunning best, both in the hills and along the coast. I saw a swallow the other day and told it to fly north. I'm sure the people in Britain are looking forward to Spring as much as we are.
Spring in the Taygetos mountains
Last Thursday, two ageing Greek gentlemen, one certainly an octogenarian, the other not far off, came promenading along our quay. We took time out from our chores to speak to them; the conversation ranged over many topics including the ineptitude of the Greek government and the ownership of the Elgin marbles.
They said we could not leave the Peloponnisos without making a visit to the ancient town of Messini, just outside Kalamata.
N.B. You will have observed many interesting or unusual spellings in this Blog. However, they are not all down to my dyslexia. Greek place names never seem to be spelt the same way twice. This Messini can also be spelt Mycenae. Pippa tells me it has something to do with transliteration. That seems as good an excuse as any.
The ancient city of Mycenae
We were picked up the following morning and given a conducted tour of the ruins. The gentlemen were obviously very proud of them, and with good reason. They are very fine.
Our guide explained while picking up a stone “This is Andreas, I am every where here”. He showed us his favourite olive tree, overlooking the ruins, where, as a young boy, he would seek shade from the sun to play his wooden pipe.
It transpired that Andreas had a small house in the town. We were invited in for afternoon tea, which consisted of very strong Greek coffee, delightfully/disgustingly sweet pastry and a glass of Tsipouro, a local liqueur (moonshine) distilled from grape skins and pips left over from the wine press.
It was a fabulous day out. The generosity and friendliness of the people we meet while travelling never ceases to amaze us.
Taygetos mountains from Koroni
In between distractions, we have been hard at work getting Sula ready for our next cruise. We are almost there. We won’t ever get all the jobs done, but we won’t let that stop us going.
Last week we had a test sail. We revisited Koroni, a lovely small harbour on the south east side of the Gulf of Messina, then off to Pilos on the Ionian side of the peninsular. Pilos is a fascinating natural harbour and the scene of the bloody battle of Navarinon that brought the Greek war of independence to its successful conclusion.
It was easy to imagine, as we sailed into the harbour, that we were one of Admiral Codrington’s 26 ships about to do battle with the Turko-Egyptian fleet of 89 warships.
Pilos
On our way back to Kalamata we visited the delightful village of Methoni with its splendid Venetian fort and Turkish tower. The fort was closed to the public, so we paddled our dingy round the sea walls, found a weak link in the defences and mounted our own water-born invasion.
Methoni
We were pleased with our test sail. Everything, or anyway most things seemed to work, and we could remember, after a fashion what ropes to pull and when to pull them.
We have said our goodbyes and will sail off as soon as we get a reasonable forecast.
The plan is to round the Matapan and Maleas peninsulas, then head north east to the Northern Cyclades (Aegean). We will spend the rest of the spring and early summer slowly working our way south through the Dodecanese (south east Aegean) and on to Turkey. Before it gets too hot we plan to haul Sula out of the water and leave her to dry out while we head to cooler the climes. We are not really sure quite where, but you can bet your boots there will be mountains in sight.
