Paul and Jane’s visit to Deja Vu had had to be rescheduled due to a mix up on dates in the earlier planning phase of this trip, so we were glad to be able to welcome them in Kalamata on Thursday July 5th although had no idea what cruising opportunities lay ahead.
They are both very keen sailors and we went out on daily adventures to discover the good and bad local anchorages, returning to the Marina most nights for shelter. The wind forecast was for very strong winds around the south western cape so our cruising range was limited by this We had some good sailing and did manage to visit several really nice anchorages.
We rented a car and ventured inland for a day to explore the hinterland and were treated to some amazing scenery on the road to Sparta. We took a winding route up into the mountains with plenty of hairpin bends to negotiate and stunning scenery to enjoy. We diverted down even smaller roads to find a monastery which we never found, but we did stumble on an amazingly fertile valley with quite a large population buried away in the middle of the mountains. Goodness know what they all did there.
We came across the amazing site at Mystras, a naturally fortified hill town which played an important role in the history of the Byzantine Empire during its final centuries until it fell to the Turks in 1460.
It was from 1262 that the Byzantines became the rulers of Mystras which was a brilliant period for this medieval fortress-state. The hill filled with houses, mansions and palaces, churches and fortified monasteries and the densely populated city had two enclosure walls. After the mid 14th century the imperial family of Constantinople assumed rule and the Despotate flourished and developed into an important cultural centre closely connected with Constantinople. Here the arts and letters were cultivated by important artists and men of intellect who would play a significant role in the growth of humanistic studies and the evolution of artistic trends in 15th century Europe.
The mountains we drove over gave way to a large interior plain, quite fertile with plenty of olive groves and citrus orchards. Sparta was nestled in this wide plain.
We did get to Sparta which was a disappointingly communistic and ugly city, rebuilt after earlier earthquakes. The ancient history associated with Sparta was poorly remembered in a small park showing off the best of the remains.
Back on the boat the next day we had a most enjoyable sail across the top of the gulf to anchor off the town of Petalidihion. On the way the wind was from the north on our beam, on the way back it was from the south, on our beam until we were a couple of miles away from the marina, when it died altogether for a while. The next thing we knew was we were in a 25 knot northerly! Such is the fickle nature of the winds in this part of the world .
Thursday 12th July came around all too quickly and Paul and Jane headed off to the airport to return home. We were trying to negotiate a satisfactory sea berth for our winter storage which rapidly turned into an offer to be lifted out to over winter on shore. So on this our penultimate day, we are cleaning and packing up to bring the 2018 sailing season to a rather early close.
Kalamata is an interesting place, the views of the mountains around are stunning and we know there are many more places to explore inland as well as west when we get back out to sea. Plenty to look forward to in 2019.
Deja Vu 
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