19th April 2017
I start by apologising again for being unable to publish this blog on the day, but we were again without any data signal on our mobile phone, nor had any wifi.
We finished last night by visiting the lonely Taverna at Cape Tenaro for dinner. We were, not surprisingly, their only diners. Suffice to say that it was not the best meal we have had in Greece, but on the upside the Greek salad had some unusual wild greens in it which gave it an interesting taste and it was the cheapest meal we have had so far on the trip.
We slept like logs in the complete silence of Cape Tenaro’s isolation. Even when the wind got up, the resulting rocking of Basil seemed designed to send me to sleep.
As we got up in the morning we were still alone and after breakfast of Greek yoghurt and fruit we set off to walk to the real Cape Tenaro. The walk was not long, perhaps 2 or 3 km each way, but it was slightly more difficult than we had anticipated. It was not the length, nor any particularly steep inclines which resulted in any difficulty, but the extremely rocky nature of the terrain. Several sections of the trail were made up of very uneven rock which required us to walk slowly, carefully placing every step.
Looking back to Basil’s parking spot from Cape Tenaro
What were merely broken rocks for us became an obstacle course for Melek, but he was up to it. He has proved himself to be an agile little dog and the requirement to jump twice his height to get up rocks, on a regular basis, did not stop him.
Melek on the Cape Tenaro Trek
Eventually Mabel got so excited, flushing out birds, that she had to be put on a lead. The problem with this on walks, is that an excited Mabel on a lead, substantially increases the difficulty of navigating rocky terrain.
Early in the walk we came across the remains of the remains of the Roman town which had grown up round the temple of Poseidon. It still has some mosaics which have been left open to the elements.
Melek engaged in some archeology on Roman mosaic
Sarah and I were distracted throughout the walk by the profusion of wild flowers. Because of the rugged and sparse nature of Cape Tenaro, the flowers were mostly small, but the number of different species were huge and the mix of flowers changed as we moved towards the most exposed end of the Cape.
Cape Tenaro
The scenery was stark rather than spectacular. There were no plunging cliffs. The spine of the Cape was made up of a series of barren hills with a lighthouse, together with associated buildings, being located at the very tip. The stunning colour of the sea, always in view, reminded us that were were in Greece.
Cape Tenaro
Our walk to the very end of Cape Tenaro took us about an hour and after a brief break to give the dogs some water we headed back. We had been the first of the day to make the walk, but on the way back we met a plethora of other walkers. One group were from Hampshire in the UK on a rambling holiday. We had a chat with them and they seemed more interested in the wild flowers than the walk. They noted, as Sarah and I had discussed, that if you could dig up any chunk of the ground on the Cape and translocate it to Britain, you would have the perfect rockery, the envy of all gardeners.
Cape Tenaro Lighthouse
By the time we got back to Basil, there were so many cars there was as danger of him being blocked in. We had a quick lunch and headed off. Back along the Mani, the way we had come and then cutting across the peninsular to the east coast where I had identified a potential overnight stop. It turned out to be a long shingle beach, at a place called Anatoliki, with a small strip of grass behind it. There were no buildings anywhere near. It was a perfect overnight location.(36.678855, 22.522754).
Anatoliki, Mani – Basil’s Overnight Place
When we arrived we were the only motorhome. We have now been joined by one camper van and Czech caravan! This is the first caravan we have seen wild camping.
Anatoliki, Mani Peninsular
Sarah has just returned from a walk with the dogs and Mabel has burnished her credentials as a tortoise hunter. Apparently she would not come away from a particular bush and when Sarah investigated – hey presto- a tortoise.
Tomorrow night we should be on a campsite and so hopefully will be able to publish the blogs from the last two nights.