Sunday 28th May.
We woke up to a fresh sunny day, which after yesterday’s huge storm, was quite a relief. Down the coast we pulled off the main road at Kalo Nero. and enjoyed ice teas in The Blue Cafe. Sitting beside the stony beach Rodney and Cliff Richards would be happy because the sky was blue, the sun shone brightly and the sea was blue and it feels like a ‘summer holiday’.
Further on south we checked into Camping Erodious at Gialova on Naverino Beach near Pylos. We tried to laze on the beach, but black clouds moved over, and thunder rumbled in the distance, so we nanna-napped inside instead. We’ve got a pitch with only one van between us and the beach. Perhaps we’ll hear the sea when we go to sleep this evening.
But before then, we walked along the beach to Gialova, a lovely spot full of restaurants and a few shops lining the waterfront. When we got back to the campsite, the sun was about to set. So we just had to keep walking on out to the point and watch the sun’s path as it sank down onto Sphacteria Island and spread its orange glow across the sky.
Monday 29th May
Our day started with breakfast outside and lots of “guten morgens” to our fellow campers. Then it was about a 7km cycle ride around the bay to Divari Beach where we locked up the bikes and started to hike. Up and up we went, along a narrow stoney path, with not much cover from the sun, to the Old Navarino Fortress on the top of the hill. There were lovely views up there and Rodney came up with the quote of the day during a discussion about Zeus and the things we had learned about him. Zeus slept with a lot of women, both human and gods. He had, a possible, 92 children, he kidnapped Ganymede and gave away one illegitimate child, Dionysus, to the nymphs. I didn’t think that last one was a nice thing to do, but Rodney piped up with “I think I would have liked being brought up by nymphs” !!!!
Just as we got back to the campsite the drops of rain started to fall yet again, but thankfully it moved more to the north of us and the sun was soon back out again. Beach time …. yippee! But not for long. It was a two-storm day today. By 4:30pm the thunder was rumbling again. Finally at 7pm it was all clear and sunny for our stroll along the water’s edge to Gialova for dinner.
Tuesday 30th May
What a great start to our day! The motorhome parked between Reggie and the sea packed up and left. We just sat and stared at the lovely view, while our washing flapped and dried around us in the sunshine.
It was sunny across the bay in Pylos too, but we couldn’t be bothered to pack everything up and drive around there, so we ordered a taxi. It felt strange sitting so close to the ground after getting used to sitting up high in Reggie. But it was rather nice being dropped off on the waterfront and not having to think about parking a motorhome. We opted to climb up to the castle first and were a bit peeved when we got to the gate to find it was closed on Tuesdays. Oh well.
There’s not a lot else to look at in Pylos, just a few shops, quite a few restaurants, a handy supermarket and the lovely view across the bay to our campsite and a different angle on Sphacteria Island. A long late lunch in The Gryphon Restaurant took up most of our time. And then we grabbed another taxi to take us back to Camping Erodios for our last night there ……. still with a view of the beach.
