Leaving the Peloponnese and heading north

The bay at Gerolimenas 

Greece has a lot more in store for us! After a wonderful stay at the tiny bay of Gerolimenas and some brilliant cycling we headed towards the busier area of Kalamata overnighting on a beach by a busy road which we didn't enjoy - much too noisy for us! From there we headed to the archeological site of Messene, the ruins of a city built in the 4th century BC through some very narrow and winding roads. This vast ancient city stands on a hillside with panoramic views across to the sea and has an amphitheatre, agora (market), a temple and most spectacular of all is the enormous stadium and gymnasium. We were taken aback as we came down the hill to suddenly see this massive complex devoted to sport (and later used by the Romans for gladiator sports including the use of animals)

Just half of the Messene stadium with an old relic in the foreground 

As with all of these ancient sites you need to sit quietly and imagine the lives of the people who lived, worked, played and maybe fought for their lives in this place. The magnificence of the structures just brings home how sophisticated their culture was over 2000 years ago and for the wealthy what sumptuous lives they led.
And talking about sumptuous- our next stop was at the port of Napflion where we arrived at the start of a four day Yachting show, the Marina was filled with over a hundred yachts all showing off their finest assets and plying their potential customers with expensive champagne.

It was interesting to see how the other half lives, but it was a noisy place to stay so the next day we headed a few miles along the coast to a quiet bay where we were joined by Linda & Andy again. We stayed for a couple of nights, enjoying a bit of company and a cycle ride together before we headed further north to Acrocorinth where we parked high up on the hillside with Linda & Andy, the massive fortress towering above us. We had a wonderful peaceful night, the views were stunning as were the wild flowers. The flowers of the yellow broom giving off a heady fragrance.

If you look carefully you can just see 2 vans middle right

The next day we said goodbye to Linda and Andy and headed towards Athens, crossing the Corinth canal, an incredible feat of engineering,  it cuts through the narrow isthmus between the Peloponnese and mainland Greece. We decided not to visit Athens, we just couldn't face the hustle bustle of such a big city but continue travelling north, on our way discovering an overnight stop on a hillside in the middle of nowhere - the silence was deafening!
We just love the freedom of travelling to new places and finding somewhere to park up in the depths of the countryside. It's not to everyone's taste to be out there completely alone and isolated, but we feel much safer there than on a busy harbourside, it's all part of the joy of motorhoming.

 In the middle of nowhere, hardly a car passed us by