Olive Groves and sunshine

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Well, we have found the sun and its hot, hot, hot. Driving through olive groves perched on the sides of mountains with the Mediterranean on the other side is what we came here for.

Yes, we are having a ball and still enjoying the ride...except for one small incident where some lady cut the corner and nearly wiped us out – thank goodness for ABS brakes cos they brought us up very quickly, and the other driver got a few choice words.

We drove down the Western side of the Peloponnese from our overnight campsite just north of Pylos, and kept on looking at all the lovely little coves on one side and the rugged mountains on the other – beautiful. One thing we couldn't figure out ( there's lots of these we know), was the new buildings that seemed to be everywhere – its a remote part of Greece with no airports within striking distance and not a particularly wealthy area, but there are heaps of huge mansions being built – all very nice but where is the money coming from? Very strange. We were also amazed at 2 Greek jet fighters doing big loops and making a real racket – breaking the sound barrier for about 2 hours and zooming in close overhead. We found a sandy little beach to stop at for lunch – even had a shower and changing room in the middle of nowhere – so we bought some fruit and bread and had a break for a couple of hours – very nice too – it did make the ride through to our next campsite quite long though as we arrived at a little place called Gythio about 6:30pm, very tired.

Today we decided to do a day trip to Monemvasia, a walled village on another little island – when we arrived we didn't think it looked much until we drove onto the island and walked through a little tunnel to come out in this fantastic village – cobblestone streets and stone houses, no cars at all – and a castle and ruins and byzantine church of Agna Sophia from 12^th century perched above. We thought we were just walking through the village and made the mistake of not taking our boots in and then decided to go up to the castle in jandals – dumb idea but we made it without any twisted ankles. The pictures will show what a lovely place it is, and Carolyn even found some little shops. After a couple of hours wandering the streets, we found this neat little swimming spot where we could jump off rocks and do some snorkelling – that filled in a few hours very pleasantly.. before the drive back to our tent. The colour of the water is the most amazing blue and so clean and clear. We also love the little fishing boats in all the small towns. We wouldn't be going far out to sea in some of these as they are so small, but obviously the locals do.

PS from Carolyn …. Aaaah – this is what we came for. Now I have come to realise that Warwick was right all along - 3 months is NOT long enough!!!!!!