Orthodox Easter Sunday remained a day of rest for team Basil. The campsite spit roasted two lambs which it served up free of charge to guests, but not us. Unfortunately they informed us just after we had had lunch and in any event, with Sarah being a vegetarian, there wouldn’t have been much for one quarter of the team to eat, although I’m sure Mabel and Melek could have made up for it.
There was a little excitement as a kite surfer came off his board some distance out to sea and was unable to reflate his kite. I happened to notice what was going on from my reading position and I hurried down to the beach, binoculars in hand. There was group of wind surfers watching from the beach, including the kite surfer’s wife, and they weren’t concerned and thought that he could make his own way back, which indeed he did, but it took him over an hour, swimming with all his gear against the wind. If there had been nobody else on the beach I think I would have called the Greek equivalent of the coastguard.
Sarah, the dogs and I wandered into Finikounta in time for an evening meal and then waddled back again, with my scaling of the hills somewhat impeded by half a kilo of roast lamb sitting in my stomach!
Today we made our way north to the swish port of Napflio via some more ancient ruins. On our drive we entered a village to be surprised by the sight of a human replica hanging by his neck from a scaffold! It was quite a shocking sight but I have read tonight that it is meant to be a replica of Judas Iscariot and it is a grisly Greek tradition to hang a replica of Judas and set fire to it as the bier is paraded round the town on Good Friday. Why this particular Judas had been left unburnt I do not know.
Once we hit the main road from Pylos to Kalamata stalls suddenly sprouted next to the carriageway with people selling oranges, lemons, oil, honey and various other home produced goodies. Luckily for us one of the stalls had set out the price of oranges in writing so when we stopped to buy a net of about 40 oranges I was able to counter the asking price of €3 with the €2.50 we had seen written earlier. Afterwards I felt a little mean haggling over €0.50, but I suspect we still paid more than the locals.
The journey also saw the latest unfortunate Basil incident with one of his wing mirrors mysteriously falling off without us noticing. It’s only the glass and I have a second smaller one on the same side, so it’s not disastrous, but being a custom Hymer part there won’t be much change out of €150!
We stopped for lunch at the ancient acropolis of Tiryns. This is a somewhat overlooked Mycenaean citadel again referred to by Homer in his epics. The site has been occupied for over 7,000 years and the current ruins date to the late bronze age at about 1200 BC. A roman visitor in the the second century AD claimed the ruins to be more impressive than the Pyramids at Giza. That would be a bit of an exaggeration today, but they are certainly the most amazing Mycenaean site we have seen including Mycenae and much more awe inspiring than the more famous Nestor’s Palace.
The site has been given UNESCO World Heritage status and the walls, made up of enormous blocks of stone, are in some places still fifteen metres or more in height. Within the walls are the remains of the old palace, and this is little more than a series of walls only half a metre high. To walk round the site and imagine how men, at roughly the same time as the ancient Britons were building a basic stone henge on Salisbury Plain, is extraordinary to comprehend. Another example of Greece’s exceptional wealth of ancient sites.
We finally parked Basil in a car park next to the docks in Napflio (37.570798, 22,800956 – Free but with no facilities). We hadn’t thought about today being a bank holiday in Greece, which it clearly is. Napflio is well known as a favourite weekend retreat for Greeks and the place is absolutely choked with people. Sarah just took the dogs to look at the waterfront and was not able to progress very far because of the crowds. Apparently all the restaurants are packed. Our spot, with a few other motorhomes, is probably the most peaceful in the town and we will stay put and have a delicious, home made, ratatouille.
