It’s now exactly one year since we set off on this amazing adventure. Once the removal people had taken away our furniture being put into storage, we left our home and drove to the van on a campsite in Colchester. The next day we drove to the nearby webuyanycar.com office and sold the car before … Read more
A bit of a long post today, so please bear with me! On Wednesday we left Corinth and drove 80km to Athens. It took about an hour and a half to get there on the toll roads, with delays caused by an accident on the approach to Athens. I’d emailed ahead to book a pitch, … Read more
Since the 7th century BC, people have tried to connect the Aegean Sea with the Ionian Sea. At this time the Ancient Greeks built a diolkos – or paved slipway – and it was the job of the crew to pull their small boats across rollers from one sea to the other – some 6 … Read more
Perhaps the only downside of parking for the night on a marina is that the van is exposed to the elements, so it can get very cold in the winter time with the winds blowing in off the sea. It’s OK in the night when you can snuggle under a warm winter duvet, and we … Read more
Yesterday morning we were up bright and early, and drove from Nafplion to the campsite at Drepano just 10km away. I think we got the owner up out of bed. The day was spent doing the laundry and charging up all of our gadgets and power packs, and our leisure battery is now back to … Read more
The town of Nafplion is overlooked by the Palamidi fortress at the top of a massive rocky outcrop. Built by the Venetians in the early 18th century, it certainly dominates the town. There are 999 steps to climb to get up to the top. Or, if you want to cheat, there’s a road to the … Read more
We left Gytheio, safely negotiating the narrow sliproad off the peninsula, and drove 5 km along the coast to see the Dimitrios shipwreck which went aground in 1981 and has been left to the elements. From there we called in at Lidl to stock up on groceries, and it was only a short drive from … Read more
or Githeio… or Githio… or Gythia… Lots of different translations! We’ll be wild camping for the next couple of weeks, parking up for free off the beaten track. First stop after leaving Kalamata was by the beach about a mile or so south of the village of Agios Nikolaos (aka St Nicholas!). The weather was … Read more
We’ve had a pretty quiet second week in Kalamata. Apart from our daytrips to Mistras and Ancient Messene, we’ve not done anything exciting, mainly because the weather has been pretty awful, with loads of thunderstorms. We’ve been out for lunch a few times now, enjoying the Greek cuisine, and on Friday we went upmarket to … Read more
The second of our daytrips from Kalamata was a visit to Ancient Messene, situated about 25 km to the north west. It’s one of those place names which doesn’t have an agreed translation from the Greek to the Latin alphabet, so it is often also spelt Messini. Stopping on the way to fill up with … Read more