Pilos to Kalamatta via Koroni

A decent wind came up as we headed off so main and spinnaker went up even before we had left the bay. Typically it all came down by 10:10 as the wind died, but a big swell made the journey a little icky...

There was a foreboding storm brewing to our west moving quickly towards us with much thunder and lightning. It kicked up an 18 knot westerly which brought out the spinnaker once again and at 9 knots we beat the storm to Koroni although we anchored in a 20 knot wind. No Med mooring here, which was fortunate I guess as it would have been a mission to achieve.

Koroni is a handy, fairly protected stop between Pilos and Kalamata and that was about the sum of what we thought until in pretty rough water we launched the dingy to go and take a little look see.

The overwhelming feeling about Koroni was that it is a town with a real civic pride. It is immaculate with the waterside row of tavernas and bars all too difficult to choose from, a back lane, cobbled in patterned cobble stone where you find the butchers, the bakers but no..., no candlestick makers...

Well, not that I could see.

We thought we'd take a walk before dinner and followed this lane up the hill. It took us to the fort. This was the funnest fort so far because there were dungeons you could climb into and secret passageways to get out of them.

Occ Health and Safety has yet to materialise here. There are no notices telling you how to take responsibility for yourself. There are no guard rails to stop you from throwing yourself over a precipice if you so wish. It is very refreshing being in a place where you are not told how to behave, nor how your children should behave either by the people or their signage. This results in far less rage funny enough. No busy bodies wagging fingers at you because they feel it is their right to do so or authorities taking advantage of being in uniform. It is all just so laid back...





The shot above is this huge chamber with a conical roof held up in the centre by a massive column. You access this place by total flook, no signs, just a small path leading to a hole in a wall. Step through and you are here. Breathtaking. Then to exit, you discover, using the light on your IPhone, this secret passageway which takes you almost to the domed roof through another hole we had missed on the way past!

We were blown away, can you imagine the kids...! We couldn't get them out of there and with the lack of aforementioned signage, it made it all the more edgy. Thoughts of earthquakes never far from your mind.

There were, for the first time, people actually living within the walls of the fort with healthy looking Mediterranean gardens overflowing with organic produce.

On leaving the walls of  the fort, all a little disoriented we were greeted with this. A view of the other side of the peninsular, a beautiful church, a tree lined promenade leading you back to town.

So much for our little look see!

After finally choosing a spot, we had dinner at the waters edge, dingy moored right below us, home in the background.

Home to be rocked to sleep in unsettled waters, up early to pick up some freshly baked bread and provisions for the day's sail and at 10:45 on the 16th of July we weighed anchor and made for Kalamatta