Happiness is......finding two olives in your martini when you're hungry

Chestnut Grove

Our friends, Rob and Heaps, have recently swapped a life of bobbing for one of flat calm. We hopped on a plane to Greece to find out what life on land was all about. We met up with them at Athens airport, jumped into their hire car and raced south to Kalamata on empty roads. Apparently all the traffic uses the long way round rather than pay for the fast and plentiful toll roads. Kalamata lies on the Peloponnese peninsular in southern Greece and at the head of the Messenian Gulf. It is also renowned for its olives. The Peloponnese has always been a special area for us and we have enjoyed cruising this quieter part of Greece. It was strange not to be arriving by sea. Once we'd reached Kalamata we continued west towards the coastal town of Petalidi and up a bumpy track for the final journey to Chestnut Grove.

Heaps and her olive trees

Beating the Bounds

The boys hard at work with the chainsaw

Solar panels going up

Larger Kalamata olive and leaf on the left

The house is off grid so not much change from a boat. Just a lot more solar panels and a much larger generator. We had lots of fun outside making bonfires, chainsawing logs, and learning about compost heaps and of course, olives. We Beat the Bounds most days. Beating the Bounds is an English ceremony dating back to Anglo Saxon times. It involves walking the boundaries of the property beating the ground with sticks to establish its outer limits and ensure a good harvest. The grounds include numerous fig trees, a recently discovered lime tree (essential for the G&T's) and a large olive grove which produces olives of both the eating and oil variety. We are now experts at telling the difference between the trees. The Kalamata eating olive is plump, dark and from a tree whose leaves grow to twice the size of other olive varieties. Kalamata olives, which cannot be harvested green, must be hand-picked in order to avoid bruising. Looks like Rob and Heaps have their work cut out! They are already cooking with their own olive oil and no doubt come summer the vines will be bursting with grapes and the wine production will begin in earnest. 

View from the terrace over the bay

Local vines

View from the terrace down to Petalidi

The views from the terrace over Kalamata bay were stunning. The weather was a bit mixed but thankfully the mountains across the bay eventually showed themselves. We had a lovely week catching up with old friends and sharing their new found paradise.

The mountain tops finally show themselves!

A Ride of a Lifetime 2012

 

 

Methoni

Kioni

We set sail again early May in company with our friends and retraced our steps west along the north coast of Crete. With a good weather window we finally departed Crete from Rethymnon and did an overnight passage back up to Elafonisos where we planned to spend a few days enjoying this lovely deserted sandy anchorage. With the need for water and food at the back of our minds it was soon time to continue our journey west round the Peloponnese. We managed to stock up with food in Methoni but had to continue to Pylos before filling the water tanks. Our next stop was Katakolo harbour. From here we took the train to ancient Olympia but unfortunately were just a few days too late to witness the lighting of the Olympic flame and the start of its journey to London. We were soon back in the Ionian and stopped at Poros on Kefalonia and Kioni on Ithaca before finally tying ourselves ashore in a bay on Meganissi for a well deserved reading and swimming rest. We spent the next couple of months chilling in the Ionian and partying with old friends and new.
 

Chilling on Meganissi

It was soon time to tear ourselves away from familiar waters and set sail for Rocella Ionica,Italy, in August. The free marina was no longer free but you could still order pizzas by the metre. We retraced our wake from 2005 up through the straits of Messina and on up the coast of Italy until we reached Ponza. From here we set sail for Sardinia and after an overnight passage dropped anchor in the lovely turquoise waters of one of the many bays in the Tavolara national park. We explored the numerous stunning anchorages in this area before heading up the Gulf of Olbia and into Marina di Olbia for winter.
 

Gulf of Olbia looking East