Day 592: Temple of Apollo at Bassae

Left our hotel room amidst howling wind and torrential rain. We discovered later that it was a mini-hurricane that sometimes occur in the eastern Med at this time of year. The water isn't warm enough for a full-on hurricane, but it still gives it a right old go.

First part of the drive was quite intense, as we headed westwards on tiny roads and mountain passes to Bassae. Here we found the Temple of Apollo Epicurus, dating from 420 BC and looking very similar to the Parthenon. It's in fantastic condition and has been an important sanctuary for years, but due to restoration work it's covered by a huge tent.

We could go inside the tent, but with the wind and the rain it felt like the tent was going to blow away! Even though it was mounted on foot-thick steel poles embedded in concrete, the whole structure seemed to be shaking. It was far too noisy to film inside, so we just got some clips of the temple, filmed an open and close just outside and then retreated to the car.

We had it entirely to ourselves again, as this is a very isolated area. We've both been quite surprised at how sparsely populated the Peleponnese area is, though it is admittedly very rugged as well. We pressed onwards to Olympia where we had a large house booked for the night.

It felt quite odd to have an entire four bedroom house just to ourselves, but hey. It was comfortable enough once an issue with the wifi was rectified. The storm had mostly blown over by the time we arrived, so we could afford to relax a bit now.Read more