11 March
2025 – The Exo Mani
Miles
driven today = 58
Total Miles
to date = 1,851
We are on
the Mani!
The middle of the three
downwards pointing fingers of the Peloponnese.
There are no campsites down here and supermarkets are equally scarce so
we did a food shop before leaving Messini and also popped in at Camping Fare on
the outskirts of Kalamata to make sure our waste tanks were empty and fresh
water tank full before heading into one of the most notorious areas of Greece.
The Exo
Mani, or Outer Mani is the coastal area which stretches from Kalamata south to
the bay we are staying on tonight near Oitylo.
We initially climbed steeply into the foothills of the Taygetus mountains
and through the town of Kampos before stopping at a viewpoint from where we
could see along the coastline with the town of Kardamyli below us.
We dropped down into Kardamyli and initially struggled to
find somewhere to park until we were almost through and out the other
side.
But we managed to squeeze into a
sloping parking space looking down over a small bay to the south of the town.
Believe it or not this is the newer part of Kardamyli down
by the seafront.
Lisa has been here before. She had a holiday on the Mani
nearly 30 years ago and she thinks they might have stayed in Kardamyli although she
wasn’t sure exactly where. But there were a few places we drove through today which gave her deja-vu moments.
It’s certainly a very attractive little town with lots of
traditional stone built houses.
We took an uphill path which led us to Old Kardamyli.
The Maniots had a reputation for being ferocious
fighters.
When they weren’t repelling
common enemies like the Ottomans or other invaders from overseas they were constantly
fighting amongst themselves and the blood feuds which existed between the
various clan lasted for many years.
They therefore built these tower houses to defend themselves
against their enemies.
When a feud was
declared between clans the men would confine themselves to the towers and attack
their foe from there.
Women on the other
hand were free to go about their daily lives, bringing food to their menfolk in
the towers.
At harvest time a truce
would be called but once the harvest was gathered the feud would
recommence.
A bit like the famous
football match between the English and German soldiers in No Man’s Land on Christmas
Day in World War I.
Lisa found some wild sage.
She carefully brought it back to the van, at which point I promptly sat
on it.
She wasn’t best pleased but I do
have a very fragrant bottom now.
The van was
parked at a rather jaunty angle which wasn’t conducive to happy eating so we
drove on a few kilometres to somewhere flatter where we could park up with a
view while we ate our lunch.
Then we
drove on to Stoupa and we nearly got ourselves stuck trying to find somewhere
to park, so we baled out and also bypassed Agios Nikolaos before
climbing back up into the hills.
I’ve been very impressed with the road today.
There have been a few lumps and bumps and I
can’t even start to count the number of hairpin bends we have negotiated but on
the whole the surface has been surprisingly smooth.
And it’s also been wide enough as well.
There were only a few occasions where we
passed through villages with their tiny churches which obviously weren’t laid
out with large motorhomes and cement lorries meeting head on in mind.
But we only had one relatively narrow scrape
and survived intact.
We stopped for a quick look at Lagkada.
I’m fairly certain that most of the
buildings here are genuine and have been renovated but there are other areas
where lots of holiday homes have been built to look traditional and it’s often very
difficult to determine between the authentic and the imitation.
We dropped back down to sea level again for tonight’s park
up at Karavostasi.
Another really
terrible choice of view from the windscreen.
We really must do better!
Coming down the hill it almost felt as though we were in a
holding pattern approaching Heathrow Airport with sweeping 180 degree turns and
the engine braking to slow our descent.
At the top of the hill is
Oitylo, which historically was the capital of the Mani. Apparently the Maniots used to run a slave
trade from here, selling Turks to the Venetians and Venetians to the
Turks. There’s a castle and a Monastery up
there somewhere but both seemed pretty inaccessible so we’ve not bothered.
Just along
the way is an example of two traditional homes which have been renovated either
side of a fixer-upper in the middle.
With the
lack of campsites we are having another taverna stopover and are camped in the
car park for Taverna O Faros.
Once again
the deal here is that we can stay for free if we eat at the taverna.
We were the only customers.
Mein Host set up an electric fire for us
despite the fact it was still 20 degrees outside.
We had a
proper blow out.
Without doubt our best
meal out of the trip so far.
We shared a
huge bowl of fish soup, grilled filleted sardines and prawn saganaki, which was
actually 4 massive crevettes served up with tomato sauce and feta.
There was also
a plate of greens, which were described as “Greek Vitamins”, which we got for
free as they were missed off the original order and likewise a complimentary
plate of pear and orange in honey and cinnamon.
We were introduced to the owners wife, who is also the chef, and their son,
Gregory, so I left a decent tip and was promptly presented with a 50ml bottle
of wine to take back to the van.
We’d
already drunk 2!
Tomorrow we
go around the Bay and where the main road heads over the hill towards Yithio on
the East coast, we continue round the headland and South into the real badlands
of the Mesa Mani.
I’ve no idea if we
will have any data signal down there so if I don't get to post anything tomorrow please leave it a day or two before
search parties are summoned.
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