Hiking the Lousios Gorge

Leaving Lagkadia, we head further into the mountains to the hillside village of Dimitsana and hardly saw another vehicle on the road.

They like to give lots of warnings on these narrow mountain roads! Slippery roads, sharp bends to the left, danger ahead and just a bit further on fallen rocks sign - yep, we had it all!

Dimitsana and the Lousios Gorge

Typical Greek mountain road in these parts - potholes and more potholes!

Our first stop was the Open-Air Water Power Museum.  Mel had read up about it and was keen to visit, me on the other hand wasn’t that enthusiastic but to be fair it was quite interesting and only cost €3. It has a reconstructed watermill, remains of an old tannery and gunpowder mill, with a short film on the history (English subtitles).  It is all funded by the Piraeus Bank Group (Greece's main bank).

The water cascading down to the gorge, that provides the power.

Remains of the old tanneries

Reconstructed Gunpowder mill.  During the 1821 Greek War of Independence the residents of Dimitsana supplied the fighters with gunpowder. but most of it then would have been done by hand.

Papastanopoulos Powder Mill that would have been used in the 17th century, about 500 metres below the museum.

The Raki Still - interesting bit of kit that the folks of Dimitsana used in the day.  They processed grape skins, seed and a bit of water to produce alcohol.  Each boiler-load of 60-80 kilos of grape waste produced about 20 kilos of Raki with an alcohol content of 35-40%.  That's a lot of booze!

Dimitsana is very old, with its cobbled streets, old houses and churches perched high on the hillside, overlooking the Lousios River.

Up by the clock tower

As we were in the heart of a traditional Greek village, unspoiled by tourism, we decided to treat ourselves to a meal.  We were hoping to sample traditional moussaka but unfortunately, although on the menu they didn’t have any.  So, it was a traditional Feta cheese salad for starters, then Mel opted for pork and I had the lamb, washed down with a glass of house plonk.

Parking is tight in the village, so we decided to stay put in the museum car park (N37.584862 E22.046589). It says on Park4Night that campers have used it for overnighters, plus the museum is closed tomorrow so it’s not like we are taking up parking spaces.  It has numerous fresh water taps and bins, plus free Wi-Fi if you get close enough to the museum entrance. 

Sonny's spot for a couple of nights just below Dimitsana

We were joined last night by Ellen, a Dutch lady travelling on her own in her camper. She had visited most of the places in the Peloponnese where we were heading and gave us tips on the best wild camping spots that she had stayed on.  She was on her way north and we shared some of our best spots with her.

The next day we took a walk to the old Monasteries in the area.  The route was well signed but steep with some scary sheer drops.  It takes you all the way down into the gorge to then climb steeply up to the monasteries.  It was perfect walking weather, sun half out and around 24°C.

At the bottom of the gorge, before the steep climb

The Philosophou Monastery in the distance, clinging to the edge of the rock. It is split by the old and modern.

There are only 2 elderly monks/priests that have lived here for 8 years.  One of them spoke a little English and asked us to sit with him a while and have some water and what tasted like homemade jellies, which we thought at first was Turkish Delight but I think they were Greek Delights!  It was hard to understand him, but hopefully we nodded and agreed in all the right places of conversation!

The 17th century Philosophou Monastery

Inside Philosophou Monastery

A steep climb down and then up again, takes you to the old Philosophou Monastery, known as the old Philosophers Monastery.  Built in 963AD, it clings to the side of the rock and because of its inaccessibility, was used as a ‘secret school’ to educate the Greeks during the Ottoman period. It was abandoned when the new one was built in the 17th century.

Mel trying to navigate around the narrow entrances to the old monastery.

Narrow entrance to the old monastery

View across to some old cave dwellings from the old monastery.

From here it was a further downhill walk to the floor of the gorge before a steep climb up again to Timios Prodromos Monastery – built in the 17^th century in a crack on the rock face overlooking the Lousios Gorge. 

Timios Prodromos Monastery

Women are not allowed to enter wearing shorts or trousers and so wraps/skirts are provided.  Trousers are provided for men if they are wearing shorts.

Wearing the correct attire - I think I look more like a butcher!

When we arrived, the 3 monks (who were a lot younger than the 2 at Philosophou) offered us Greek coffee, water and some more of jelly sweets.  The Greek coffee was good but was very sweet, it would be considered rude not to drink it though and to be fair a sugar fix was needed for the long walk back! They then let us have a wonder around.  It is free to get in both the monasteries and we're not sure how they fund the offerings of drinks and sweets.  They don't expect you to pay for anything but offer for sale a few religious items and postcards, so we opted for a postcard and paid double for it to cover our refreshments.
The small church is really dark inside but outside there are some old mural paintings on the rocks.

Balcony View!

Don't look down Mel - it's a sheer drop!

By the time we got back to the motorhome we had walked 14.4kms (9 miles), with an elevation gain recorded on our Wikiloc App of 1,546 metres -  we were absolutely cream crackered!  We didn’t see any other walkers on our route and only a few people at Timios Prodromos Monastery.  It was just us, the birds, butterflies, a few grass snakes and some stunning views - very spiritual!

Sally x

Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games

Having spent 3 nights on a campsite we headed off to find some more scenic wild camping spots.  We headed south to Flokas, 2km west of Olympia, and parked up on top of an Olympic theatre.  It’s a modern structure built like an ampitheatre with the seats and rows made of stone (not marble, as in ancient theatres). (N37.646282 E21.610128).

Sonny enjoying his great wild camping spot above the ampitheatre, Flokas

A 5 minute walk and your down into the little village and the only signs of life we saw was an old man sat in a rundown café.  So, we joined him with a couple of beers, which the waitress accompanied with an interesting meze – dried bread, cold chips, shrivelled kidneys, few black olives and a bit of tomato.  Mel attempted to eat some of it but for the good of his health gave up after a few mouthfuls.  The Greek beer was good though!

We remembered that the clocks go back as we got into bed and were looking forward to the extra snoozing hour.  However, all didn’t go to plan as the church bells in the village went hammer and tong at 7am – so that put an end to our lie in.  We decided to get up, have an early breakfast and coffee and made our way to the Olympic site in the town of Olympia – only a 2km drive.  It's a fairly small town full of souvenir shops, cafés and restaurants, they obviously get a lot of tourist here. We parked up near to the site a little after 8.30am, just as it was opening.  Armed with our Kindle, which had the Rough Guide to Greece on it and a map of the Olympus Site, we headed on in.  The night before I had persuaded Mel that we should get a combined ticket for the site and archaeological museum. Over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of Greek and Roman artefacts but I didn’t want to miss out on this one.  However, as luck would have it, 28 October is a National holiday and entries to everything was free – what a result!

The site, which was primarily dedicated to Zeus began taking shape around 9^th century BC.  The Olympic Games was established in 776BC and ran to 393AD (every 4 years for 1169 years) and the whole area was classed as a sanctuary and rules of competition strict.  Athletes and officials had to swear an oath and sacred truce before taking part.  Victory was rewarded with a palm immediately after the contest, and an olive branch presented at the closing ceremony of the games. Originally, only Greek born males could take part, although as the games developed it was opened up to athletes from all parts of the Greek and Roman world.  By the 4^th century BC, the athletes were virtually all professionals, sponsored by their home states and commanding huge amounts of money if they won.  Sounds a bit like a lot of sports today!  Emperor Nero postponed the games by 2 years to 67AD just so he could compete (and win) in a special singing and lyre-playing events.  Think he also did something dodgy to win a chariot race as well.

A lot of the buildings now lay in ruins – thanks to the destruction of Emperor Thodosius, who in 393AD converted to Christianity and suspended the games as part of a crackdown on public pagan festivities.  Further destruction came in the form of barbarian invasion, many earthquakes and ultimately by the River Alfios changing course to cover the site.  It remained covered in many metres of sludge until the first excavation by German archeologists in 1870s.

As you enter the site you pass by the gymnasium – training area for the foot race, javelin and discus throwing.

Mel limbering up ready for all events!

Palaestra used by the competitors during their obligatory month of pre-games training

Philippean – first monument to be built to secular glory

A patch of grass marks the spot of lighting the Olympian Flame.  I'm looking for something significant, but can't see much!  In the background the Temple of Hera - the oldest temple of the sanctuary

The bases of Zanes (plural name of Zeus), at the entrance to the stadium. Bronze statues of Zeus were erected on the bases, with the names of athletes who had cheated, and the offence they had committed. They were meant to serve a warning to all competitors, basically a naming and shaming of cheats – doping was done even in ancient times.  Apparently, some athletes ate sheeps testicles and hearts prior to the games, to increase their strength!

And the winner of the 200 metres is me, well I was the only competitor.  The stadium held around 45,000 spectators in its day, I only had Mel to cheer me on. Pathetic finish by me, I know!

Temple of Zeus - lots of fallen column stones here to try and piece together.  The column that stands was reconstructed in time for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Leonidaion, used for accommodation – the Olympic Village of today.

After the site it was off to the museum. Just as we were leaving, coach loads of tourists were coming in to the Olympic site.  It would appear that we had timed our visit just right!

On the 4th day of the Olympics there was a sacrifice of 100 oxen. When the site was excavated a huge number of bronze and clay figurines were found, known to be votive offerings.

Selection of bronze helmets, pottery, body armour that features Apollo and Zeus, and some bronze defensive and offensive equipment.

The chariot race of Pelops and oinomaos that sat on the Temple of Zeus - depicting the myth over the supremacy of the Sanctuary.

Strawberry trees grow outside the History of the Olympics Museum

After we had done the Olympic site, Archaeological Museum and the History of the Olympics museum, we were exhausted!   It was great to visit the ancient site, which is more about temples than sport, but we both agreed that Delphi [link] was a lot more impressive.  We visited it last year and it's where the Pythian Games were held (2 years after each Olympic Games).  We had a wander into the town and around the quality tat on offer, which pretty much consisted of Greek type items of T-shirts, jewellery, pots, replica statues and an Archimedes Museum, again a free visit for us. Then we heard music and a parade of children coming through the town.  We spoke to a lady, whose daughter was taking part and she explained it was ‘Ohi Day. 

Children marching through Olympia in celebration of 'Ohi Day'.  Dressed in white shirts and blue/black trousers/skirts they are supposed to represent soldiers.

The history behind it is that on 28 October 1940 Mussolini (Italian dictator of the time) called the Greek Prime minister (Ioannis Metaxas) with an ultimatum to allow Italian troops to enter and occupy strategic Greek locations.  Metaxas answered with one word ‘Ohi’ meaning no (or apparently words to that affect).  Straight after, the Greek population ran through the streets shouting ‘ohi’ and prepared to arm themselves for war.  The Greeks who had remained neutral were forced to join WW2 and become allies with Great Britain.  It is a day that represents bravery, solidarity and heroism for millions of Greeks.  After all of this we got a hungry spell, so we sought out a fast food joint on the edge of town.

Gyros Time - traditional Greek fast food meal of pitta with pork, onions, herbs, salad, tzatziki and chips - yummy! 

From here we took to the mountains and climbed to nearly 1,000 metres to the village of Lagkadia (N37.68266  E22.03191). The drive was stunning, with beautiful autumn colours, very narrow roads and in places, sheer drops!

Breath in Sonny!

Lagkadia is a small village in the middle of nowhere but it was chocka.  They too were all busy celebrating ‘Ohi Day’.

Shops selling all sorts in the mountain village of Lagkadia

When all the cars had gone, we parked just near the clock tower - fingers crossed it doesn't chime and wake us up too early!   We have just checked weather and it is going to reach 27°C next week whoop, whoop!  Sorry folks back home, I know you are having a bit of a cold spell and snow at the moment.

Sally x

Riding out an earthquake on the Ionian Sea!

Last night we experience the weirdest thing we have ever encountered in our motorhome.  We have been staying on a campsite at Glyfa (N7.8363888 E21.1336111) for a few days on the Ionian Sea, just across from the islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia. 

Sonny, enjoying 5*campsite life in Greece

Last night woke up just after 2.15am and the whole of the motorhome was rocking – it felt like we were on a boat in a bad storm.  We both sat up in bed quickly and shouted, ‘What’s going on!’.  Mel jumped out of bed, swaying from side to side as he made his way to the front.  We looked out of the windows thinking it must be a big storm but there was no wind and it was quiet. Mel went outside and had a good walk around the motorhome and checked it over, he came back in and said he thought there has been some earth tremors.  I quickly jumped on the internet and low and behold there was a report of an earthquake, happened about 1.45am, just of Zakynthos, with further reports to follow - incredible how it got on the internet so quickly   We laid there and experienced a bit more rocking and thought good job we’re not parked up right next to the sea. We eventually got back to sleep and didn’t wake up again until 8.45am.  Mel was straight on the internet checking news reports to see if there was update on the earthquake.  It reported that an earthquake of 6.8 magnitude occurred just before 2am, off the island of Zakynthos, which had triggered a mini tsunami report.  At a depth of 16.6km (10miles) below the sea causing some damage to Zakynthos.  The effects were felt over 8 countries!  A few Tweets from holiday makers said there were no injuries just some structural damage to a few buildings and down near the port.  Greece lies in one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions and apparently the islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia (its neighbour) are no strangers to earthquakes.

So, following on from my last blog we left Nafpaktos and crossed the Rio-Antirrio Bridge to Patras.  It has got to be the most expensive toll going – €13.30 to go 2.9 kilometres.  That said it is an impressive bridge and one of the world’s longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges.

Lucky for us we got charged a car rate otherwise we were looking at €20!

Crossing the Rio-Antirrio Bridge - hardly any traffic, must be the costly toll!

We had already blown nearly 3 ½ days budget as we filled up with fuel for €90 (a whopping €1.44 per gallon in Greece, although we have seen it as expensive as €1.55 a gallon - taxes in Greece are very high!), followed by a big shop at Lidl €61 and then the toll for €13.30.

Crossing the bridge, we turned right, avoiding the motorway toll and followed the coastal road.  We had found a place on Park4Night at Alykon Port but when we arrived, I had a bad feeling about it.  What hadn’t helped was that the previous day I heard from Vera (we met her at Alexandrovo, Bulgaria and then again at Kerkini Lake in Greece) that her motorhome had been broken into on a service station in France.  You can park on some of these overnight, although Mel and I never have as we have always heard they are unsafe.  Vera, unfortunately didn’t have a choice as her chosen place to stop (a campsite) was closed and she had been driving a distance and was tired.  The scum bags stole her bag that had her passport, camera and money in.  She called the police who came straight away.  Fortunately, the thieves had dropped the bag with the passport and camera still in but had taken €300.  Now Greece is nothing like France and crime rates are very low with only really reports of pickpockets in Athens and major cities, so it wasn’t that I didn’t feel safe it was just a gut feeling.  So, we moved a bit further round and parked up alongside a German and Dutch motorhome near to a taverna, which unfortunately had closed for the season. Kato Achea (N38.15306 E21.55912).  Being out of season, the area was a bit scruffy but not a bad outlook.

Wild Camping at Kato Achea

We decided the following day we would treat ourselves to a few nights on a campsite (Camping Ionian Beach, Glyfa), plus we needed a washing machine and laundries are few and far between in Greece but most campsites have washing machine.  It is €19 with an ACSI card, although you can’t go on the front 2 rows overlooking the sea unless you want to pay €29 for the privilege.  We had wild camped alongside many beaches over the last few weeks and weren’t prepared to pay an additional €10 a night for the privilege.

The campsite is fantastic, we had to pinch ourselves that we were actually in Greece as most we had seen are very rundown.  This one definitely wasn’t!

One of the two large pools on the campsite

Watching the sun set over Zakynthos (AKA Zante) at the campsite.

Mel is swimming in there somewhere, with the beautiful island of Zakynthos for a backdrop

The morning after the earthquake, we took the scooter out for a ride around the little villages to the most westerly coast of the Peloponnese Cape, Tripití and the small village resort of Arkoúdhi.  It has a lovely sandy bay enclosed by a rocky headland.

Arkoúdh

Arkoúdh

From Arkoúdhi then rode to Chlemoutsi Castle, that looms high above the village of Kástro, and is visible for miles around.  

Chlemoutsi Castle

It is a beautiful preserved Venetian castle built 1220-1223, with its outer and inner enclosure.  The castle functioned right up until the Greek uprising in 1821, having had a turbulent history of being held by the Turks, then the Venetians and then back to the Turks again.

From the top you get fantastic views across to Zakynthos and Kefalonia

Museum Artefacts

Loutra Kyllinis, a little village we passed through, is known for its thermal springs, and we came across this old Roman Bath.  It still has the spring water running through and a rusty old bathing hut to get changed in – obviously not from Roman Times!!  I know it’s supposed to be therapeutic but it just makes you smell of bad eggs!

Old Roman Baths, with thermal springs

It’s been a lovely relax here, although mosquitoes have eaten us alive over the last couple of nights.  The owner of the campsite said he hadn’t known it to be so bad but with the wet weather they had 5 days ago, and then followed by the hot weather has brought them all out and they have certainly enjoyed feasting of us!  Before the earthquake, we had been talking about getting a ferry across to Zakynthos and spending a day or 2 exploring the island.  About 15kms from the campsite is Kyllini, that operate day trips across, but for obvious reasons we have had a change of heart!

We move on tomorrow to the home of the Olympic Games – we better start limbering up!

Sally x