From this beautiful bay at the Mani peninsula starts a hike which promised a castle, a village, a monastery and a canyon – we got all of that and more.
Thanks to the GPS data, we found the start of the hike up the mountains easily, otherwise we might have missed that big sign.
A steep path led up to the castle, which was built in 1670 by the Turks but was abandoned already 100 years later.
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| Reaching the fortification |
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| First glimpse inside |
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| Climbing the walls … |
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| … rewarded us with a great view |
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| We passed the village of Kelefa |
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| The Turks are back 😉 |
Many plants are bearing fruit now in autumn, but there are not only nice things to discover on our hikes. The philosophy that “what you don’t see any more is gone” hopefully is an attitude from the past and not lived by any more – I’m not completely sure 🙁
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| Later we will follow this valley back to the sea |
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| Reaching the monastery Moni Spiliotissa |
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| The crypt from the 15th century was built into the rock |
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| Descending into the valley |
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| Suddenly we felt watched |
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| They for sure wondered why in hell we walk down there |
Now a hike along or better in the river started, and it didn’t end. At the beginning, it was fun to walk directly over the round rocks of the river bed, but soon it got tiring. The vegetation was very dense, with blackberry shoots hanging from above and scratching us. The guide book had promised a path along the river, which we sometimes saw, but was only good for wild boar, everybody taller had no chance. At the end we walked about 3 km through the river and were truly relieved when we reached the end.
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| Seems to be a dangerous place |
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| Flower of the Day |
