Climbing 1,000 steps to Nafplio Castle

We find it a constant problem that there are simply not enough hours in the day to get done the things we want to get done!

We've been getting up at 6:30am and it doesn't even get light until 7:30 or so. Yesterday morning, we wanted to climb the many steps up to Nafplio Castle for the view. It didn't seem like it would take a lot of time, but it was still after 11:30am by the time we got on the road and left town.

A beautiful coastal drive to Nafplio, Greece

It's still a little cool out, but with the blue sky and sunshine, it really doesn't matter. We don't mind having to wear a sweater, and we're well equipped to deal with the cooler nights... it's the rain that really bothers us.

Hardly a cloud in the sky yesterday, so we had hot morning showers, emptied our holding tanks, filled our fresh water tank, paid for our four nights of holiday camping, and set off on a gorgeous coastline drive heading north to the small port city of Nafplio.

Australian Road Trip Guide For Horseracing Lovers

We all know that Australia is a big country and there’s no denying it, but for the horseracing fan who loves to road trip here are a few suggestions for where you can go to enjoy your favourite sport at multiple venues on the same trip. The key is obviously to pick a few places that aren’t across the country from each other, so here we have picked Queensland and New South Wales. You can go from Brisbane to Melbourne in around 19 hours in light traffic, but why rush? Here are some suggestions for stops on the way!

Bike and hike to a monastery

Thursday late morning we set off on a bike ride. It was only 10 kms (6 miles) to the monastery we wanted to visit, but it was a steady incline that gets steeper the higher we go. It was pretty chilly out, but since we were going uphill it didn't take long to warm up. Still, we were glad to have our hat and mitts on. 

We got past the town of Leonidio and the incline got a little steeper.

Great views above Leonidio, Greece

Sorry to go on about the weather, but that's kind of what is affecting our travels right now. Wednesday was about what they said it would be... chilly and windy and not much in the way of sun. Fortunately the rain was finished and we managed to get out for a couple of hours and do some hiking.

The area around the town of Leonidio isn't really a big tourist area, except for the fact that it's popular with rock climbers. The town is surrounded by some sheer cliff faces, and apparently there are something like 1,400 different climbing routes mapped out if you're into that kind of thing.

Glad to have electric heat!

We're enjoying our mini holiday at the campground. Although, we didn't get outside much yesterday. The temperature peaked at about 10C (50F) and it was raining most of the time. Yuck.

Of course we're paying for the privilege, but it sure makes us glad to have our little electric heater. We see some of the vanlife people camped out at the free spot down the road and we don't know what kind of heating system they have, if any, but I can't imagine they are too comfortable when the weather turns bad like this.

We're on holiday! Staying at our first official campground in Greece...

It was a bit chilly when we woke up Monday morning! The temperature outside was only 5C (43F) and it wasn't much more inside! We've been following the coast for the past couple of weeks and kind of forgot that it might be a few degrees cooler inland.

So we decided to get up and drive right away to warm things up. We were only going 45 kms (28 miles), yet the GPS suggested it might take an hour and ten minutes to get there!

Shipwreck of the Dimitrios

We were out for a walk before 8:00am Sunday morning! We still wanted to go over to the lighthouse in Gythio, and it wasn't raining at the time so we decided to go for it while the going was good.

After that, we drove to the very cool (and a bit spooky) shipwreck of the Dimitrios just north of Gythio, then we headed inland to a little village that doesn't get many tourists.

No sunshine, but we still managed to get out for a bit

We woke up to rain Saturday morning, and it really poured down for a couple of hours. Eventually, the rain stopped and we got on the road. 

We're only doing short distances each day because we like the area. If we have to do a few longer driving days as we approach our Turkiye border crossing around the 20th, then hopefully we'll be in an area where we don't like it so much! And if we do happen to miss some things along the way, it will give us reason to return some day.

This should be listed as one of the world's great scenic coastal drives

Before we left our parking spot on the basketball court, we had to wander down to the historic village of Vathia to have a look around. 

The village of Vathia dates back to the 16th century. It's such a remote area that it has never had a large population, however the population has fluctuated wildly. They say that at one point in the 1800's there may have been as many as 400 people living in the area, and even as recently as 2001 there were almost 200. 

However now, there might be 20 living in the area full time, if that. And even fewer in the actual village itself.

Unfortunately, we got there and someone else had beat us to it.

We're supposed to be getting some rain through the weekend, so we wanted to take advantage of our last really nice day to stay outside as much as possible. 

So we drove to the seaside village of Mezzapos, found somewhere amongst the narrow streets where we figured Max would be safe, and set off to do some exploring.

We are liking the scenery in this area!

So much so that we're not getting very far each day! Not that we're in a rush... although we've got a loose goal of reaching the Turkey border by the 20th, which is now only two weeks away. 

And the border crossing is 1,400 kms (868 miles) away. I know, that's only 100 kms (67 miles) per day so we've still got quite a bit of time. And as I've said before, if we have to hop on the motorway towards the end to make up some time, then that's what we'll do.

Beautiful drive south of Kalamata

We slept fine parked on the street in front of the cycling path. When we woke up, there were four other vans that had parked there, as well as three more on the other side of the small river separating the two beachfront areas.

Almost all other vans and motorhomes that we see are from Germany. We've seen a couple from France, and one from Slovenia and one from Austria. But nobody from the UK. We think that because of Brexit and the fact that the British now have to deal with Schengen visa rules, the British are staying closer to home, like Spain and Portugal.

It's illegal, but I'll go ahead and do it for you anyhow!

It's been really nice during the day, but it still gets a bit chilly most nights. So normally, we have to put the heat on for twenty minutes or half an hour when we get up just to take the chill off. 

But Monday morning we were heading into the city of Kalamata (pop 70,000) to do some chores, so we got up at sunrise and drove in right away. Might as well warm up with engine heat.

The ancient city of Messene

On the first Sunday of every month, the ancient sites of Greece are open to the public at no charge. So we took advantage of that by going to the ancient city of Messene. 

We had been parked only a few kms away, and they open at 8:30am. We didn't figure we would need to be there that early though, so first we explored a couple of nearby sites that were not part of the old city itself.

Well that was a great way to start the new year!

We had spent a quiet New Years Eve in the parking lot of the Polylimnio Waterfalls. There was one other van there, also with a Germany licence plate.

On the first day of 2022, we were on the trail by 10:00am to the waterfalls. I hadn't actually done a lot of research, other than knowing that the trail was about 3 kms (1.9 miles) long, and that there were a series of different waterfalls.

December Expenses, and 2021 Expenses Review

Well, 2021 was our most expensive year since we set out with this abnormal lifestyle in 2007. In fact, it may well have been our most expensive year ever. We spent a total of $38,665 CAD  ($30,595 USD, more or less).

But before we get into more details on the full year expenses, let's talk about December. We spent a total of $2,494 ($1,973 USD). Overall, it was a decent enough month considering we paid for Ruth's Invisalign dental treatment in full during that month.

Great meal at a rural taverna, then to Voidokilia Beach

When we left the camping spot on Thursday, the rains had pretty much gone. Looks like we are ending the old year and starting the new year with beautiful blue skies and sunshine!

The people there had told us about a taverna in a small village at the base of the mountains. Apparently it's well known to the locals, and the best place for miles around to have great traditional local food in a homelike setting at cheap prices. They said the roads were good enough for Max to get up there, the only thing we weren't sure about was finding an overnight spot. But we always figure something out!

2021... Our year in review

We started 2021 in Turkey, and we ended it in Greece. Two countries that are very close to each other. But in between the two, we did a whole lot of traveling. In fact, we were in a total of 13 different countries this year!

And of course we did all of that travel during the Covid pandemic, but it really wasn't that difficult. We did a total of 5 or 6 PCR tests (all negative) until we were able to access a vaccination shot in July and that reduced the need for the PCR tests. 

Remember the package we were waiting for?

Just thought I would give you an update, just because it's so ridiculous.

To give you some background, we were in Albania when we decided to order a motorhome water filter from Germany. Prior to ordering, the company said that it would take "6-8 days, although likely sooner than that" to ship it to Albania. Their exact words. So based on that, we ordered it on November 24th, prepared to wait around for 8 days.

The place is getting pretty busy

Once again, it was mostly overcast and we didn't see the sun all day. But we did manage to get out for a 5 km (3 mile) power walk along the beach road Tuesday morning before the showers began shortly after we returned to Max. We timed it well!

There are now five camping vehicles here. It's all young people... or at least younger than us!

Thinking about boosters, and renewed our medical Insurance

Pretty quiet day for us yesterday. It was supposed to rain all day, but by 11:00am it was still not raining, so we decided to take a chance and hop on the bikes and go to a grocery store about 6 kms (3.5 miles) away. 

6 kms uphill all the way! And with a bit of a head wind. At least it was paved. And it made for a pretty easy ride back to Max, although we sure got our exercise on the way up.

We ended up at an interesting spot!

We had a stretch of decent weather the last few days. Highs around 17C (63F) and lows around 10C (50F) which is pretty typical for this time of year in this area. Certainly not tropical, but not cold either. 

But they were calling for some steady rain Sunday night through Wednesday, so we figured we had better find somewhere to ride out the bad weather.

A Christmas feast

We woke up Christmas Day to a few raindrops, and it was mostly cloudy all day but we did manage to get out for a bit of a walk. Otherwise, it was a relaxing day and we played a few games of backgammon, cribbage, and yahtzee.

Then later on, Ruth made a fabulous Christmas dinner, and we had a good zoom call with my side of the family.

Christmas in Greece

Merry Christmas morning!

Last year on this day, we were getting ready for Christmas Day eye surgery in Turkey. Of course Turkey is a Muslim country, so they don't celebrate Christmas, and Christmas Day is just another day.. But here in Greece, the day before Christmas is when children sing carols in the streets, families gather together to play games, go to midnight mass, and end their advent fast.

Ancient Olympia... birthplace of the Olympic Games

Having been to both Mexico and Turkey, we have explored a lot of ruins sites. But Ancient Olympia in Greece is a little different because it is where the Greek Olympic Games took place every four years without interruption between 776 BC and 393 AD... a period of 1,169 years!

Sure, to look at the ruins themselves, it's all very similar to the ruins we saw in Turkey. But it's the information learned here to do with the games that we found really interesting.

The photos don't tell the whole story.

We arrived at the seaside port town of Katakolo fairly early. They have a huge parking area that the motorhomes use, but there was only one other rig there when we showed up.

Katakolo is on the Mediterranean cruise ship circuit, so normally there would be between one and three cruise ships docked here while the tourists they carry made their way to nearby Ancient Olympia. But there is none of that happening right now.