CYCLING THE MANI PENINSULA

IN THE GREEK PELOPONNESE

Riding from Gythion to Gerolimenas and Return

For more images of our bicycles, click: Hewitt Tourers Images.

For the full set of images of the ride, click: Cycling the Mani Peninsula

For the story of our motorhome journey, click: From Finikounda toTurkey

For more accounts of cycling in Greece, click: Riding Among the Greeks

Distance: 59 km (37 miles). Riding time: 4 hrs 27 min. Max speed: 44 kph (27 mph).

Max height: 1,085 ft (330 m). Total height climbed: 2,200 ft (667 m).

Setting out at 9 am from Camping Gythion Bay at Mavrovouni (by the beach 4 km south of Gythion), we battled strong gusts of wind from the west as we rode south-west for Areopoli. The road rolled gently at first, through wooded hills with a glimpse of the restored battlements of Passavas, a Frankish Crusader Castle high above on our left after 6 km.

Shortly before Areopoli we paused at a new memorial on the left, dedicated to a 43-year-old fireman who perished in August 2007, when deadly fires ravaged the country. The blackened trees on the charred slopes bore witness to the tragedy. We reached a high point of 1,085 ft before dropping about 200 ft into the picturesque stone-built town which is the Capital of the Deep Mani, 875 ft above the Gulf of Messinia, whose waves crashed below. Away to the north, across a deep gorge, we could see the familiar outline of yet another castle: that of Kelefa as far south into the Mani as the Turks were willing to venture.

Having ridden 21 km through empty country, mostly into a head wind, a well-earned coffee was needed. From our café on the square, we admired the more-then-life-size statue of Mavromichalis (Black Michael), the local hero of the 1821 Revolution, the 100-year-long struggle for freedom from Turkish domination. Down a cobbled street to our right stood the lovely little cathedral with its signs of the zodiac and a separate bell tower in the Italian fashion.

Our route down the west side of the finger of the Mani Peninsula was easier now, with a gentler side wind. The rolling road trends downwards from the heights of Areopoli, running above the cliffs with frequent views of the rocky coast. It stayed fine and warm, though threatening dark clouds shrouded the high mountain tops behind us. Soon we passed the right turn for the Diros Caves, which are well worth seeing (as we did on a previous visit). The ticket covers a 2.5 km (1.5 miles) boat trip through the floodlit caverns and entrance to the museum showing evidence of Neolithic inhabitants. Today we continued southwards, stopping 20 km after Areopoli for a picnic lunch in the shelter of the tumbledown walls of an abandoned stone house.

Rather than riding straight down to Gerolimenas, we soon turned right to climb to the tiny village of Stavri, in search of the Castle of Mainis Tiganis on the headland of Cape Tigani. At the centre of a confusion of signposts, a helpful villager advised us that it was not possible to cycle right out to the Castle, as it was a difficult footpath - and he was right! We rode the lane he indicated, first downhill and then up, until it became a rough track, along which we wheeled our bicycles. We could see the remains of the castle and the outline of its walls covering the plateau of the Cape in the distance, high above the sea. When the stony track came to an end, we were at least near enough to photograph the inaccessible castle. It was 2.15 pm and we had covered 6 km since our lunch stop – time for a chocolate bar!

Returning to the main road via Kounos, we freewheeled down quiet back lanes and into the splendid little fishing port of Gerolimenas – the only village on our route round the Mani where food and accommodation could be found off-season. We had booked a room at the Hotel Akrogiali and the warm welcome included a safe place for the bicycles in a locked store room. We were the only guests and we had a corner room on the first floor, with a splendid view from our balcony of the harbour directly below. The restaurant was open all day for meals and we dined there later on cheese croquettes, followed by pork chop and beef stew, very nicely cooked.

A national strike was promised for the next day, a protest at proposed reforms to pension schemes for public employees (just about everybody!) All the channels on the TV high above our bed promised a complete disruption to their programmes for at least 48 hours: the diet was to be old films and game shows but no news – so what was different?

It didn't take long to walk round Gerolimenas, a port only accessible by boat until less than 50 years ago! It has a small supermarket, a phone box (which worked), a couple of cafés and another hotel/restaurant open near the harbour: the Akrotenaritis (tel 27330 54205), which also looked very accommodating.

Despite the windy night, sending the waves splashing over the harbour walls below our window, we slept very soundly after welcome hot baths.

Distance: 67 km (42 miles). Riding time: 5 hrs 9 min. Max speed: 59 kph (37 mph).

Max height: 1,322 ft (400 m). Total height climbed: 3,660 ft (1,110 m).

As we woke, the weather remained windy and dull, but was warm and dry.

After a light breakfast in the hotel (coffee, bread, jam and honey), we climbed out of Gerolimenas and turned SE, riding into the wind (which had kindly changed direction) to Alika, a village large enough to have a little school. We could hear the teacher's voice above the children's chatter inside, as we paused before the start of the serious climb NE, for the route up the rugged east coast of the Mani Peninsula.

By the next village, Tsikalia, we had ridden only 8 km around the head of a valley, but reached a height of 984 ft. From here the road swung south, with a good view of the stone towers of Vathia, before turning north, with an easier wind, climbing through bleak mountain country over the top of the range and down the east side. In Lagia, 7.5 km from Tsikalia at 1,322 ft, we rested by the church porch on the little square while we made coffee on our gas stove. This is a good place for a break out of the wind, we've seen it change over the years from an old church with a patch of overgrown garden and children's playground into a scene of 'restoration', with stone cladding and stone paths – and nowhere to play, the basketball goal lying rusty and forlorn on the yard, the swings gone.

We enjoyed a 7 km descent from Lagia to Kokala (a village large enough to have a supermarket and a butcher). Then the road climbed and dropped, twisting and turning, with superb views of the coast below and the clusters of original Maniot towers and their stony terraces, where stunted olives struggle to survive. The spring flowers flourish, though, to the joy of the black bees and colourful butterflies.

A wayside church porch gave us shelter for a picnic lunch at 300 ft, about 10 km after Kokala. Another 4 km of rolling road brought us to the village of Flomohori, followed by a 1.5 km climb to a road junction at 736 ft. The choice is: straight on to return to Areopoli (a steep climb over the spine of the peninsula); or right and downhill to the little port of Kotronas (from where a largely new road returns to Gythion). An easy decision!

A swift 3.5 km descent brought us down to sea level at Kotronas (41 km from Gerolimenas). There is a Taverna with simple rooms above, where we once spent a night after cycling from Areopoli. Now we simply needed a break and a brew-up of tea on the camping stove, sitting by the harbour, before completing the return to Gythion.

Having climbed eastwards out of Kotronas, the narrow lane becomes a splendid new road, whose purpose still mystifies us. It climbs a lonely route above the sea, round a headland, with very little traffic – the dead badger we saw along the way was truly unlucky to meet a vehicle! Since we last rode it, the new road has been completed, bypassing the little resort of Skoutari, to meet the main Areopoli-Gythion road 18 km after Kotronas. Truly a road to nowhere!

We turned right for the final 8 km, past the scarcely discernible landmark of Passava Castle high above on the right, and on to our campsite (the middle one of a row of three, set along the beach of Mavrovouni, south of Gythion).

Arriving before 5 pm, we found the campsite in the throes of a power cut: 'A government problem' explained the site owner, who had tried (and failed) to get his generator to work! No problem for a motorhome, though, with a gas cooker and 12-volt battery lighting, TV and water pump! Welcome home.