9 March 2025 – Finikounta & Koroni

Miles driven today = 21

Total Miles to date = 1,768

Lisa’s sore foot was much improved this morning, which was just as well really because I forced her to do 14,000 steps today including up and down hills.  Not really!  She did it entirely voluntarily, brave soldier that she is.

Leaving Methoni behind us we initially only drove 10km eastwards along the coast to the resort town of Finikounta.  As soon as we were parked up we could hear the amplified warblings of the local priest.  The Church must have been packed out as there were a good 20 to 30 people stood outside and listening intently to the broadcast caterwauling. 

We moved swiftly on and headed for the harbour, which looked very serene and pleasant.

There were plenty of well maintained villas getting spruced up to welcome the new season tourists.

Finikounta is apparently very popular with British tourists who are attracted to a string of golden sandy beaches which stretch for several miles to either side of the resort itself. 

We jumped back into the van and climbed up and over the headland, with ears popping several times en-route, and found our way to Koroni on the east side of the peninsular.  Camping Koroni has been here since the 1980’s and is the first proper ACSI site we have visited on this trip.  It’s heavily shaded by tall eucalyptus trees and olive bushes, many of which could do with a trim and made maneuvering a 7.4 metre motorhome onto a level pitch a lot more challenging than was strictly necessary.

But we are in and so after a quick lunch we wandered down the hill to have a look at the town.

We are really quite taken by Koroni.  Even at this time of year a lot of the harbourside tavernas are open and several were very well populated with predominantly German tourists.  And of course it has yet another huge Venetian Castle sitting on top of the hill which overlooks the town.

Once again the ever-present winged Venetian lion is here too.

A lot of the buildings are very well cared for and looking very smart to attract the tourist Euro but equally there are some very noticeable exceptions, even in the town square.

Some of the vehicles have seen better days too.

There is a concreted path around the foot of the castle walls so we went to have a look around some of the towers and bastions.

Some sections of the walls have fallen away and have been replaced by rather ugly looking concrete reinforcement.

The stones that make up the chunks that are lying around at the base of the walls look as though they may have been used before in earlier buildings judging by the carvings which have been exposed on this piece.

I really didn’t think Lisa would be particularly keen on clambering up the steps to the castle but the Rough Guide promised a few things within its walls which caught both of our interests.  So up we climbed.

There was certainly a great view from the top of the steps looking back down over the town and its harbour.

We entered through the impressive North Gate.

Inside the stone path initially continued upwards through more olive groves and past some tiny privately owned homes.

We reached this rather unassuming looking gate.  Two ladies entered just before us so we decided to follow them.

This is the first of what looked to be at least 5 different Churches all within a stones throw of each other which, together with a number of other buildings make up a nunnery.

Two more churches.  The one on the left is the Church of St Sofia, which partly dates as far back as the 8^th Century AD.  It was in turn built on an older Temple dedicated to the Greek God, Apollo.  

I understood this to be the main nunnery building.

These bells hung above a gate leading into an almost secret garden.  We walked through but were almost immediately told by a Nun that we had to leave as the gardens were closing.

But we did find our way up a narrow staircase onto the roof of one of the buildings for an alternative view of the nunnery.

And also some amazing vistas looking along the coastline.

I took this photo through another locked gate just before we were chased out completely by another stern looking nun.  I’m guessing this must be their dormitory.

Next we made our way to the East Gate from where we could look down on the path we had followed along the base of the walls earlier.

Another great view to the east.  I’m loving the vibrancy of the colours of the Spring flowers.  I’m sure this would be a very different scene in the height of Summer.

We took the slightly less steep roadway back to the harbour to save my aching knees and had a couple of beers while we watched schools of small fish darting around in the clear waters.

And then we headed back to the van and had a couple more amongst the Eucalyptus trees.

We also made a new friend who seemed very interested in Lisa’s book.  She devoured a bowl of chicken stock which has been taking up fridge space and still hung around the van door looking for more.

So, looking forward we are in a bit of a quandary as to our next move.  Most of the Campsites we have been on here in Greece have been virtually deserted.  There’s only ourselves and a young German couple here at Camping Koroni tonight for example.  But when I double checked on our proposed stopover for tomorrow night near Kalamata I read some recent reviews saying that people had struggled to find space.  And sure enough when I dropped them an email earlier they said they were currently full and would only be able to advise if they have room for us based on tomorrow morning’s departures.  There are no other campsites in the area so we are going to have to come up with a Plan B, and if needs be we might skip Kalamata altogether.  Time will tell.

10 March 2025 - Sun, Sea, Sand & ... Snow!