On our way to Crete
For the last few weeks we have been drifting (actually
sailing or motoring) from one Ionian island to the next, with a few stops on
the mainland as we work our way south towards Crete .
The Ionian islands are like
beautiful green jewels floating on the horizon between an azure sea and sky. Some have high mountains, often with a halo
of white cloud around their peaks and a narrow rim of houses at the shoreline
around their base. The towns and villages on the islands are very small and
quaint. Life moves at a very slow pace on the islands.
Opening ceremony-Giostra do Zante |
We called in at Zakynthos town, on the island of the same
name. There we met two Aussie couples, all members of our sailing club in Sydney . As luck would have
it, there was a festival of Medieval Games between the Greek Ionian islands
& the Italian Aeolian islands, the Giostra do Zante. On our way to dinner, we witnessed Italian
flag waving and traditional Greek dancing from various islands, the dancers all
wearing traditional dress. We had a typical, traditional Greek dinner
accompanied by bouzouki and dancing. A
good time was had by all!
Next day our friends left, and we toured the island
by car— we saw beautiful mountains, bays and beaches including “shipwreck
beach” which is on all the tourist posters of Zakynthos. The water is the milky
colour of glacial water from a freshwater spring and the beach is surrounded by
a semi-circle of tall cliffs. The skeleton of a ship lies in the middle of a
fine white, sandy beach. Nearby are the “Blue Caves ”,
also with the same milky blue coloured water. Some of the beaches are protected,
as turtles still breed there!
When we returned to town, we noted a moped going
down the main road, with the pillion passenger holding the reins of a handsome
horse trotting alongside! The Italians were practising for the games with horse & lances and it
was fun watching them. That evening a
falconer brought a falcon to the games and had him swooping just above the heads
of the crowd! It was quite an awesome
experience. Zakynthos is a very pretty island, but it has only a few safe
anchorages.
We went on to Pylos on the mainland. It is situated at the mouth of Navarino Bay .
This was the site where the famous battle of Navarino took place, where
in 1827 the British, French and Russians sailed (knowingly) into an ambush and anchored in the centre of a semicircle
of 89 hostile Turkish and Egyptian ships,
also at anchor. The European superior
crews ended up destroying the foe, resulting in the liberation of Greece . There are memorials to the British, French and Russians who died in
the battle. The youngest of the crews were the cannon loaders – 10 year old
boys who could fit into the narrow cannon gaps. After the battle, France built Pylos and today it has
a very French feel, nestled on the slopes of a valley overlooking the bay, with
a beautiful piazza cooled by 150 year old plane trees. We were walking through the square when a
little old lady stopped us and asked where we were from. We told her.
She welcomed us to her village and asked us if we liked it. She told us that “It is beautiful but only small
and at the end of the world as, look, from here you can only see the ocean!”.
Just 25 miles inland from Pylos, amongst the mountains, is an ancient site,
reputed to be the palace of wise King Nestor from Illiad times. It is the best preserved palace from Mycenean
times. We took a walk up to the Neokastro (new castle , built by the Venetians in 1600 and later extended by the Turks). In it is the office of the Centre for
Underwater Archaeological Exploration.
They have a small museum of artifacts found from ancient shipwrecks in
the waters around the Ionian islands . Of
interest was a group of six statues and several columns found by tourists in
1980 and also a complex artifact which they think was probably the world’s
first computer. Only in the Mediterranean can
you go swimming or snorkeling and find ancient artifacts!
Underwater exploration centre museum |
On we sailed to Methoni, where there is an very large fort
and tower at the end of a long peninsula. This was a Venetian fort, known as the “eyes of the Republic” until
captured by the Turks. Cervantes was held captive there and wrote of this in
“Don Quixote”.
We moved on to Koroni, where there is another Venetian fort,
the second ‘eye of the Republic’, which now houses a monastery. We checked in
at the coast guard (as foreign yachts
need to do) and the coast guard suggested we see the Caves at Dylos, on the
opposite side of the bay, 20 miles away. They are over 14 km long, and we took
a ride 1.5 km into them on a small boat.
Inside Dylos caves |
As we move south, and now that we have entered the Aegean , both the islands and the mainland are becoming
drier, with few trees. We are also experiencing our first Meltemi, a strong
northerly wind, common in summer in the Aegean . This wind can get up to hurricane force and
is not to be ignored!
We have been
anchored off a southern beach on the little island of Elafonisos
(Deer island – I guess there must have been deer here in ancient times, but unfortunately
not anymore!) waiting for the wind to ease before we make the hop to
Kythira. The upside is that the beach is
lovely, long enough for a good walk, with crystal clear water and, of course, a
taverna just behind the sand dunes. This
taverna is in a camp site, the first we have seen in Greece . It has cabins and spaces for caravans and
tents. There are a lot of young people
here at the moment as the universities are on vacation. A lot of them are in the taverna as the beach
is not pleasant in the strong wind. They
are a quiet bunch, playing cards and computer games and interestingly, although
it was lunchtime, not one of them had an alcoholic drink on the table – just
bottles of water, juice and frappe. We,
good Aussies that we are, were the only ones with beer on the table!
That’s all for now folks.
Fair winds.
Artemis and Dimitri.