Mani Madness (2 of 4)

Mystras

While Anna and Richard slept in on our first morning, the rest of us took taxis 4 miles out of Sparta town to Mystras, a deserted and ruined Byzantine city spectacularly overlooking the Plain of Sparta from its mountain setting. The trick is to be dropped off at the top of the hill, where the Frankish castle stands guard, and casually wander downhill over the extensive site of chapels, mansions and frescoed churches that offer little relief from the heat of the sun. It was still a tiring excursion, but well worth the effort before returning to the hotel to catch the afternoon bus south to the mountain village of Paleopanagia.

At the village, we arranged to leave most of our baggage at the taverna where we had lunch and where a tractor and trailer were commissioned to give us and our overnight gear a lift up the mountain forestry track. We were dropped off half-way up, by then, completely covered in a fine grey dust. From there, it was a delightful 2-hour walk up to the refuge, though Anna and Richard stayed on the trailer and, arriving earlier, had the pick of the bunks.

At that time of the year, the sunlight filtered down through the strong-scented pine trees and was spotlighting a carpet of wild pink cyclamen. With bunk beds allocated, a small splinter group set out to recce the trail up to the snowline in preparation for tomorrow’s early morning climb to the summit of Mt. Taygetos. As the daylight faded, the views and the silence were magical. By the time we arrived back at the refuge, we had been joined by a local Greek family who brought their two children up here most weekends – what a wonderful alternative to visiting the Merry Hell Shopping Centre, I thought to myself.

With no electricity and no light pollution from any nearby town or city, and after a few bottles of the local red, we were all soon stargazing and swapping stories.

Mt Taygetos

By 6:00am, we were dressed and on our way to the summit of Mt. Taygetos (2407 m/7897 ft), all of us except Anna and Richard who had mysteriously succumbed to ‘altitude sickness’ and were resting at the refuge instead. After 3 hours of scrambling and slipping on loose rock and the lingering winter snows, we arrived at the top and sat there enjoying the tremendous views of the Taygetos range and the dramatic coastal incisions. It was cold and windy though, and after 40 minutes my inappropriate choice of shorts drove me back into action and I started down through a landscape now carpeted with opening alpine flowers.

Back at the refuge, Anna and Richard had made a remarkable recovery and kindly prepared lunch for us, which we eagerly tucked away before setting off back down through the forest to the waiting tractor. Back in the village, once again covered in fine grey dust, we collected our bags and caught the afternoon bus to Gythio, the main ferry port for this area with connections to the port of Piraeus in Athens.

With time to kill, we wandered around this fascinating port while Phillada used her charms on the local taxi men, trying to get the best deal for the onward leg to Areopoli, on the opposite western coast. Delighted with her efforts, Phillada rounded us up to proudly announce that she had commissioned the driver of the local school bus for half the amount the taxis wanted. It was just as well we weren’t staying the night as a riot broke out at the taxi rank while we drove past in the bus.

Read all four parts of Mani Madness
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

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