Greece - Peloponese
Olympia – Katakolon
8 August 2015
On our way down the coast we called into a
small fishing harbor Katakolon – the closest port to Ancient Olympia.
The town harbour was set up for the local
fishing boats with yachts paying a fee to tie up for the night which I presume
helped with the running of the harbour.
As I have said it was extremely hot in Greece and the town harbour
seemed to be lacking a rubbish collection system – a tiny boat yard with a few
old wooden boats sat metres away from the dock, outside this was the rubbish
area – a massive pile of stinking black bags – you had to hold your breath and
walk quickly to pass. The rubbish pile
was the size of a small building. On our
first day there it spontaneously combusted – black smoke, flames and rats running
for their lives !!! No wonder every
boat had rat guards on their shore lines.
That was enough for us – that and a very irate local boat owner who didn’t
like us next to his decrepit open fishing boat – we left and anchored out in
the bay. The following day we caught the
(surprisingly modern & airconditioned) local train to Olympia.
The site of Olympia is a rambling muddle of
a place with a jumble of ruins overgrown by olive and maquis. Archaeologists hide from the sun under
awnings with their rocks and brushes.
The place has an amazing presence – I could imagine the site hosting the
ancient Panhellenic games for over a thousand years. One of the wonderful things about these
ancient games was that a sacred truce, the Ekeheiria, was observed for the
duration of the games and warring states would put aside their differences to
partake in the events. At the first
games the prize for winning was purely symbolic, a palm leaf and an olive
branch, later professionalism crept in and winners obtained monetary
rewards. The modern Olympic games were
revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1896 and when he died his heart was
buried at Olympia.The beginnings of the sanctuary and its games are hazed in myths: Zeus prevailed in Olympia after dethroning his own father Cronus, who was worshiped upon the namesake hill to the north of the sanctuary. As to who was the founder of the games, several heroes claim the title - among them Hercules and Pelops, ancestor of the Homeric Agamemnon and mythical king of the Peloponnese (the very name of the peninsula meaning the island of Pelops). The year of 776 BC records the first athletic event that we celebrate as the Olympic Games. Their ancient name was Olympia and they were held every four years in honour of Zeus. The Olympiad, the four year period between two successive celebrations, became the standard chronological system of the ancient Greek world.
The last Olympics of antiquity were held in
AD 393, shortly before the emperor Theodosius I banned paganism and closed down
the ancient sanctuaries. Then came successive earthquakes and river floods to
bury the ancient ruins for centuries until the archaeological excavations
brought them back to light in 1875. Twenty years later, in 1896, revived the
first, and now international, Olympic Games of the modern era, held in the Panathenaic
Stadium in Athens.
On our passage down the east coast of the Peloponese Don found a large bay, Navarinou, (11 August 2015) that was almost land locked – to me this means no waves and highly sort after. The bay was wonderful, we spent a few days exploring the castle fortress high on the hill and watching amazing sunsets.
Porto Kheli
20 August 2015
A wonderful bay to hide from the winds -
having noticed our Aussie flag the owners of a very large power boat invited us
over for drinks – the boat had staff to cook, clean, operate the tender to take
the owners into shore, make drinks etc. The inside was amazing – full size
board room table for meals, an original painting that was stunning – approximately
3 metres by 2 – a floating hotel. The owners were not happy, their monster had
dragged two weeks earlier and ended up on rocks bending a propeller blade. The
young Captain on watch had his earphones in listening to music and didn’t hear
the shallow depth alarm, other staff were vacuuming and in the galley preparing
lunch. They did not notice that the boat had dragged some 200 metres until
everyone felt a bump and screech – needless to say he is no longer employed on
this vessel. It was an eye opener and confirmed my opinion that our boat suits
us perfectly.
Poros
28 August 2015
The next sail was to Poros and we passed
Sandra and Jeff on "Nawaii" - Sandra called up on the VHF and warned
us it would be a bit bumpy further up and around the corner - we were heading
north, where they had just come from.
Nawii was heading to our anchorage. I boasted how wonderful our
anchorage had been - and to someone that hadn't seen a supermarket or bakery in
weeks, barely another boat or at least one that spoke English and no rocking
and rolling, it was wonderful.
Sandra was a little light in her
description of a little bumpy - it was horrible - several other boats turned
back but we soldiered on with one other - the anchorage awaiting us was
beautiful - it is in between an island and the Peloponnisos mainland - to get
into the anchorage we had to motor alongside the wharf/shops metres away - very
scary but outside of that channel was too shallow for our keel. We could see what people had on their plates
for lunch - it was very strange - once past the 2 kilometre shopping area the
bay ballooned into a large anchorage, calm, pretty with many boats - I felt
rather guilty telling Sandra the anchorage they were going to was wonderful as
it was nothing compared to the one they left, not surprisingly they came back
the next day. A third Australian boat was anchored near us – “Nick of
Time” with Alan and Gloria on board. The three boats waiting for the
meltemi to pass then we all headed off to Kithnos - the nearest island to the
east and the first of the Cyclades group of islands.
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