2019-02-19 Day 161 Tue

Catching another cheap cab we arrived at the National Library and entered. We asked if we could enter the main room and were told yes as there was a group of students there. As soon as the students left with their teacher we were also ushered back to the door. Obviously the library is for special use only.

At “The House” we packed up and left. It had been a great stay and made seeing the old city easy.

We drove to the port and picked up our water pump pieces and some Whale connections. That worked well.

 

Since we have been in Greece we have seen a lot of wild flowers. Also the fruit trees are in blossom

 A little over height!

North to find a camp up a track over looking fish farms and some islands. A very pretty camp but we didn’t quiet get level. The full moon rose up from behind the wind turbines.

126km
 

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2019-02-18 Day 160 Mon

Marianna was going to do my washing which was great. 

We again ventured into the center by taxi and visited the Old Stadium and the small Olympic museum

We thought this a rather odd statue to have in the stadium. One guy had a flaccid Penis the other an erect one!!! 

Looking back up at the Pathenon. Can clearly see the fortress walls.

Temple of Olympian Zeus. A  Huge temple with 3 columns wide around the circumference.

Then back through the old town to look at a few more ruins. 

We passed the administration building of a university and the parliament building. 

 

We made our way to the National library to take a look but it was closed already. Another hike back towards the hotel and we decided to stop at the same place for an early dinner.

The guys we had spoken to at The House this morning invited us to their table saying that Nikos and Mariana would be joining them. We had some great food and interesting discussions. I think it is interesting that both the Greeks and the North Macedonians feel they have both lost/given something in the new name. Sophia and Teo have invited us to drop by in Thessaloniki.
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2019-02-17 Day 159 Sun.

We arrived just before 11am and got EC parked in a car park. We could see half of her from our window.

Had a shower and went into town. Nowhere that Nikos had suggested we go for food was open till 2pm so we high tailed it to the Acropolis by taxi. 

A few hours wondering the Acropolis, Pathanon and the slopes.

 

The theater

 and it's seats

Walked back through the old town and the flea market, stopped at one of the restaurants for dinner. It was full so had to sit outside. Food was good and we managed to polish off a bottle of red.

Back at the hotel about 6:30pm so watched a movie then slept.

98km

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2019-02-16 Day 158 Sat

Still windy with a few small showers. We finally ran out of time and dressed in our wet weather gear and had a wonder around the fort the wall was 3km long which encompassed all the top of the hill. Amazing stuff.

 

John climbed up these old stairs in the minaret. He could only just fit!!

 

We then drove down to have a look at the old city. Just mind boggling. 5^th 6^th century BC some of them. Temples to Apollo. Healing baths and hospitals.

 

We went to drive across the north end of the Corinth Canal but limited to 3.5 ton. Interesting the bridge didn’t swing or lift so I guess it sinks to let ships through. 

Beside the canal we saw the old cobblestone road that the ancients use to roll their boats to the other side of the peninsular.

It is 6.4km (4 mi) in length and only 21.4m (70 ft) wide. We headed back on the orange to cross the canal in the middle. Wow such high cliffs they dug - perhaps 30m+. 
 

We then drove north on the other side of the canal and stopped at a pipe bridge and walked out to take some photos looking along the canal. Quite amazing.

We drove among an olive plantation in search of the hill side and a camp overlooking Korinthos bay. Not to be found, the tracks were all blocked off. back and found a little spot on the outside of a switchback on a quiet white road.

I booked two nights in Athens at a place called The House. The guy was very helpful and said we could drive at least to their place but not “into” the center.

47km
 

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2019-02-15 Day 157 Fri

Epidauros archaeological site today. Amazing amphitheater still in use today. Was enlarged by the Romans. Seats 12,000.

 

Huge temple to Apollo large hospital of 146 rooms. People would stay there while spending time bathing and talking to the gods. 

They would sleep in the temple and in their dreams they were told what medicines to take or what to do to heal themselves.

We visited a small theater at Palea Epidhabros. We drove past but did not visit the ruins at Nea Ephidauros. I made a number of wrong navigation errors….

 

John then took over and navigated us through some olive groves on dirt roads quite interesting.

 

At ancient Corinth we drove up to the fort and camped overlooking town in the wind.

The Toyota land cruiser that we saw yesterday was here. I went over and spoke to Aris, a German lady on the road for a year and going our way. She visited for a tea and to get out of the wind.

101km

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2019-02-14 Day 156 Thu

Chatted some more with our new found friends. Then time to move on.

We visited Myceanae, the museum first, wow they have lots of well preserved ceramics as the pieces were buried with their owner and the graves had not been ransacked.

I had deja vu as i entered into the beehive treasury . I remembered being here before around 38 years ago. 

 

Once again an amazing site but one does get weary of all the ruins. 

 
Amazing collection in the museum. Lots of burials here, and the hospital and temple of Apollo. Many water features and baths as that is one way to get close to the gods.

We camped on a very quiet bit of Lefka beach.

 53km

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2019-02-13 Day 155 Wed

The guys I had meet on facebook make it to Argos last night. We’ll meet them for lunch there. They are travelling east as well. 

The drive along the coast was pretty neat. Very very rocky shore line. 

 
We met at a restaurant, an Argentinian guy and an English lady. They had met in Nederlands and have converted a German ambulance into a camper, registered in Spain. A nice couple. Lunch ended at 4pm so drove to the castle and camped together. We had a good chat and would like to meet up with them again. Could very well happen as we are heading in the same direction.

 85km

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2019-02-12 Day 154 Tue

On towards the old town at Sparta. Only 15km. After 6km we came to a land slide and had to head back. Another longer and more torturous route 22km and slow going but we did manage to make it.

 The wattle made us feel at home!

Walked around and had a look at the buildings which are still reasonably in good nick as they only abandoned it in 1936 after a new town was built and the last person left in the 1950’s. The churches and monastery are still in use.

Drove up to the fort but by the time we had lunch it was just before 3pm and it was closing. 

Back down the hill and low and behold two big trucks parked for the night. We stopped and chatted for a while. Have not met many travelers.

A quick shop and with our chatting now only have 1.5 hours of daylight to get across to the East coast. A great road we came down out of the hills and followed a valley out to the ocean. Struggled to find a camp near the sea, so took a white road up and ended up finding, in the dark, a lovely camp overlooking Pragmateftis and the sea.

135km

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2019-02-11 Day 153 Mon

Drove down the way we had come up and on to the point. We noticed a track so walked out to the light house about 2 km out on Cape Tainaro. 

On the way passing more ruins with some great mosaics.

 

It is a manned lighthouse with a navy guy staying there 10 days on then 10 days off, seems like there is only the two of them..

Now north again, we are still driving through olive orchards with the occasional orange orchard thrown in. Didn’t know the world could eat so much olive oil and olives. A bit like the banana’s in Ecuador.

John is trying to stack and blend photos that have too much sunlight and shadow in them. The olive trees came out really well. We wandered around the orchard just looking and photographing them, wondering how old they were.

 

Up a hill with 10 switchbacks hoping for a bit of space on one of the corners for a camp but there was no room to spare. So out a little track to an aerial. 

 

A lovely spot and view - but the generator for power to the aerial ran all night. And we were pounded by wind gusts every 10 minutes or so. Slept with the lid down to reduce the buffeting.

122km

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