GREECE

Monday 7^th December

Up relatively early as we are only going about 50km to Corinth which has ancient ruins and a village nearby which means we don’t have to go to actual Corinth which is a city and we don’t need that. We shop before we go at the supermarket down the road as they have the best Feta, Greek yoghurt and olives and we want to stock up. Half a kg of feta costs about $3aud so can’t let it go by. We are starting to get addicted to Greek salads with the local ingredients real easy & delicious even on the run. We drive up the windy roads and find the camperstop which is well signposted and well set out.

We find a sunny spot in the corner and meet the owner who we converse with more in French than English but that is ok as we are learning that anything goes with communication as long as everybody is understood and smiling. We settle in then walk into the quaint little village to look around. What we find unusual is that a lot of the homes have high walls, gates, dogs (and dangerous dog warning signs) and even razor wire around their properties. In such a quiet far away village where we would expect safety and no crime it is weird to see such security measures. Maybe there are people around that will exploit these places but we can’t see how.  We take the long way (which isn’t really that long!)to the ruins and end up at the main entrance but it closes at 3pm and we are too late to bother at 6euro but there is a museum so maybe tomorrow. But really we saw a lot of ruins over the last few days and we can easily see the Temple of Apollo nearby. The local dogs hook up with us and accompany our walk around and remind us of the local dogs in Rarotonga that adopt you on the beach until they get a better offer.

We look into the souvenir shop and the young girl comes over to chat and see if we want to buy anything. Not pushy which is nice but interested in where are from and I spot a Greece t shirt I like so say we will be back tomorrow. We stop at a corner café and sit in the sun having a wine and beer and playing with the cats and dogs as they scrounge a peanut off us. Back to the van for dinner and I buy a 1.5l bottle of the owners red wine (3Euro) and some of his veges for tea.  Very nice too. We are up to a lovely sunny day and walk to the village collecting a grapefruit on the ground and a few overhanging mandarins. The citrus fruit are everywhere but I am not sure if they are open season so have to be discreet. Mind you the ones in the city taste like crap real bitter but the ones in the country are really nice. We say goodbye to our friendly host who wish’s us bon voyage and head towards to Mani Beach about 200km away. We can’t believe the amount of rubbish that line both the highway and the other roads, it is never ending and we can’t figure out why the 200km of road we travel is like this. The toll roads are pretty empty but we are only on these for a short while before we head over the mountains to the central part of the island. It is very ordinary country and very rugged and boring. The main towns/cities are uninspiring and not the sort of place I would want to stop at let alone stay as a tourist. Cities like Tripoli and Sparta were very ordinary.

We go right through and over the ranges to the coast and through a town called Githio which wound around a bay and was quite picturesque. As we came upon the café area fronting the waterfront we noticed a crowd gathering in panic out the front of a café. There was a car in the middle of the road and it seems that we had arrived just as a car had hit a pedestrian. They were obviously trying to help the person and waved us around the site and it didn’t look good going by the look on their faces but we did the right thing and didn’t become gawkers. We did stop for lunch around the corner and it was literally ages before we heard the ambulance siren even though we actually passed their station 200m away from where the person was hit.   We think this would be a nice place to explore but travel on and find the Mani Beach Campground which even though it is closed for the winter is very untidy and derelict looking. The camp is sort of an olive grove with sites among the trees and the pitches which are unsuitable for campers as the trees are too low. There are no reviews for this camp and I can see why even in the summer I can’t see a lot of positives except for the beach. We find the manager (can’t see him being the owner) and find a sunny place near the beach. There are only a handful of campers here a French family, an older couple and the usual single retired men who stay because of the cheap price and the cheap wine!  We go to have a shower (which are filthy and incredibly ordinary) and chat to a nice chap from Holland and he says that they meet for a drink after 7pm so we will wander over after dinner. Meanwhile we go down to look at the beach and though it is windy it is still warm enough for me to have as swim in the Med Sea. The water is still quite pleasant and great to stretch out after a day in the van. We can’t figure out why these people would spend 3 months in a dreadful place such as this but when Peter says he pays 7euro a night that explains it all.

They started a bit late but there was the Greek manager (GM) and   the Dutchman Peter and a pom Dave. GM was slitting olives for the owner (Then they are soaked in water for 20 days then in salty brine for a week before put in oil. They were nice large juicy kalamata ones. In fact it is only after travelling through all the different areas we see how much the olive is king along with the citrus fruit. Literally the whole countryside is covered in olive trees and they are intensively harvested. In all the villages we pass through there are factory’s that the locals take there 50kg bags to. We are not sure if there is a main man or they are coop owned amongst the growers but they are evidently the cash crop and have been for hundreds of years.) We find that we get a free red wine each for staying as a thank you from the owner which is a nice gesture which is followed by a local Mythos beer and an Ouzo which is a generous measure and Vicki has another local red. We all chat amicably and learn a little about each other. GM calls it a nite by 10pm as Pom Dave will drink red wine all nite, Peter will beguile me with his tales of travel which are very interesting and I will drink too much ouzo and Vicki will feel like shit tomorrow with the wine.

We have the typical camp cats hanging around in the morning and Vicki feeds them with some yoghurt she isn’t going to eat along with some bread to fill them up a bit. Some of them are friendly and some are terrified but Vicki has most of them coming for a pat by the time we leave.

We leave early enough and travel towards the coast as this is where the sights are and we know by now that all we will see on the highway is dullsville and the payoff for the scenery is the uncertainty of the roads. All of a sudden the total dynamic changes completely and it is beautiful and accepting with lots of towns and villages hugging the coast and inlets. There is no or very little rubbish in this part and the coastline is inviting and though we are not sure where we are going other than towards Kalamata we hit the crossroads and though we were going to head back to Tripoli and across the country to Kalamata but at the last second we say f**k it lets take the uncertain coast road and bugger the consequences and we are so glad we did. It is beautiful though rugged land, the hills are not too bad and easy enough for our van, Vicki is driving so I can take plenty of photos and take in the sights. We pass some lovely little towns and want a coffee but there is not always anywhere to park a car let alone a van, though that doesn’t seem to stop some people as rules don’t seem to apply in Greece! Finally we go through one that is exceptionally cute and inviting and we get a park near the bakery and café. This is called Kardamyli and is to be our home for the next 5 days and best of all we end up right on the beach 1km out of town free of charge.  This village is where Helen of Troy left to fight with her armies so has a significant history.

We have a couple of cups of coffee and after asking a local if it is ok to park along the beach front for the night. We find 3 other vans along a bit further so stop close to them as it seems to be the spot.  It is warm enough for us to have a swim so we plunge in the crystal clear water that is cool but very refreshing.  You can see everything it is so clear.  There are some little fish swimming around – a little like those we have seen on Lady Elliott island that are quite territorial and I get one bite me on the leg giving me a fright.  It would be me and not Scot that the sea creatures seems to like to gravitate to.  After a swim we sit and read and Scot decides he will ride into the village and get a couple of things at the supermarket.  Funny, he stops at the local café for a beer and meets up with a couple Zak and Nicki who are actually from Woody Point but have moved over here to Greece to live as it is too expensive In Aus for them to live off the pension.  They are building a house up the hill in Agia Sophia.  They tell us some of the incredible challenges they have come up with here in Greece where the corruption is rife.  Payoff seems to be the only way around things but it doesn’t always work.  It is interesting to hear that people don’t pay taxes/rates (the same thing) until they actually finish building their house/business/unit block etc.  So Greek people have learnt that in order for them to not have to pay taxes they never finish their homes even though they may be living in them.  They leave a few pieces of reinforcing sticking up from their roof and this is considered to be incomplete.  The Govt need to change their laws as everywhere you look there are unfinished homes where people are getting away with not paying the Govt anything (hence rubbish that cannot afford to be collected).

If you have money in a Greek account here you are not allowed to take out more than 60euro a day no matter what your problem.  So god help you if you want to pay someone cash for something, you can not do it.  Tourists are different, we can withdraw what we like.  Zak and Nicki were saying that one week they got fined for something and because the police wanted cash they were unable to buy food that week as they couldn’t withdraw any more money.  There are 2 atms in this town but one is closed for the winter.  Go figure. Of course locals don’t need to withdraw money from it over winter, they can live on olives….lol.  There are still a lot of people here who are unfriendly and appear to look at us with contempt.  I can’t figure out why as we are spending money here and not causing any problem which I thought they would like since there is little money coming from outsiders at this time of the year.

Anyway I go back with Scot to the café and meet Zak and Nicki and we end up having a couple of drinks with them until they leave and we stay for pizza for tea.  The standard local cats come around our camper for anything there is on offer which isn’t much.  Scot ends up biking into the town the next day to get a bag of cat biscuits as these cats are really hungry and I can’t bear to see them like this.  We are told the locals hate tourists feeding the cats as they want them to catch the mice and rats (likely that the rubbish brings around), but the cats are also destroying their bird and reptile life here which I don’t think they care about.

The second day we are here we take a hike up to Agia Sophia to see Zak and Nicki’s house building location which is right up one of the gorges and has a lovely ocean view in between the hills.  The hike up is about 1km up a very steep rocky narrow pathway on the side of the gorge.  It is interesting and we get great views as we climb up.  It is a beautiful day but by the time we get back down the hill to the camper about 3 it has cooled down and a swim is out of the question.  We sit and decide dinner is best at home tonight.  The cats congregate around for theirs and it’s like I now have 5 cats of my own to look after.  The littlest one is hardly more than a kitten but I am sure she is pregnant.

It is raining the next day so we sleep in and end up going in to the village for coffee and free wifi on the laptop.  We have lunch in the café and see Zak and Nicki as it is too wet for them to be working today on the land.  Eventually we finish up and head back to the van.  It is a very cool day so we snuggle up in blankets on the bed and read.

Saturday dawns as a clear day so we decide we should stay another day here and enjoy the sunshine.  Most of our day is spent sitting reading and we have a swim at the warmest time of the day.  A camper near us tells us that the guy whose place we are slightly parked in front of doesn’t like people parking where we are and may tell us to buggar off, but this doesn’t happen so we are fine.  Late in the day we head into town and have a drink and pizza for dinner and go into another little bar near the waterfront to have one drink before heading home.  We have decided that we need to leave in the morning as we need to have a shower, charge the battery and empty the toilet, plus we have washing that we need to do since it’s been a couple of weeks.

Sunday  13 December

We head away from our lovely seaside campspot and I say goodbye to the cats.  It is another nice day and it would be so nice just to stay put but we really need to leave Greece.  We travel north along the coastline up to Kalamata.  There are lovely little villages down on the water front from the road we are driving along.  This part of the coastline is still mostly free of litter but only until we get to Kalamata.  We stop on the esplanade and have a coffee before continuing on our way up to a camp ground about 60km south of Patras.  As we reach the road on the west coast the rubbish is becoming the most horrendous thing we have seen and there are piles and piles of rubbish strewn all over everywhere.  There is definitely a problem here as there is more rubbish than we have seen and one can only blame the Govt for not doing what it needs to, to keep the rubbish at bay.  This is a recipe for disease and there are cats scavenging and I can only imagine the rats and mice this rubbish is breeding.  The smell is dreadful and we are really shocked.  We have to buy a couple of things from the supermarket and we feel we are in a very unpleasant part of the country and can’t wait to leave with our groceries. We pass up to 5 of these dumpsites in something like a 100m. Just so sad and unnecessary.

We continue to travel until we reach the campsite at Ionion beach which is a pleasant surprise.  It is clean, well maintained and the facilities are not only great they are clean.  Nice for a change.  We need to do washing and the guy promises to bring us tokens for the machines, but we see nothing of him until we have to go back up in the morning to remind him we need tokens.  There are only a couple of us staying here so there is no excuse for him not remembering us.  Anyway we decide our washing is more important than leaving so get it all done and hang it up all around the campsite to dry in the sun.  We balk at paying 5euro to wash and again to dry our clothes, it is a ridiculous price to pay. Our campsite resembles a gypsies camp on washing day and we are happy that there is no one here as probably not a good look for relaxing campers but we save 10Euros and the clothes dry with healthy sunlight instead of a machine. We read all arvo then have a walk along the beach but it is a bit ordinary and again rubbish everywhere and looking like it has been there for a while and not recent. Couldn’t be bothered swimming either as not overly inviting as our previous beach and also not as warm today. Funny enough we see no cats anywhere which is a first. We settle in for a quiet nite as we want to be away early tomorrow as we have about 330kms to go to “Eatallmypizza’ (Igoumenitsa) to get the ferry at 1am Wed morning then a full days drive across Italy to ‘Civinoceva’  (Civitoveccia) to get the ferry to Barcelona – our 25 country. Three countries and two ferries in three days. We will look forward to relaxing days in the south of Spain and we are also looking at a trip without the van to Morocco for a couple of days as everybody raves about it and very cheap for a B&B so will see what happens.