Sparti

After yesterday's wild wind at Methoni, we woke up to find our car covered in Sahara dust and sand from the Sirocco wind! The wind 🌬💨continued throughout the day so the trees were whipping about and the sea looked wild.🌊 Glad we weren't on a boat! The drive south to the Diros Caves was 90 kms and it took us 3 hours! The coastal and mountainous roads were narrow and full of twists and turns through small villages. In one village we had to reverse to find a space to allow oncoming traffic to pass us! We arrived at the Caves with 20 minutes to spare before the next tour so it was time for a snack only to discover Bob had left the food bag back at the hotel reception when paying the bill!
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The Diros Caves were discovered by a local fisherman in the early 1900s. Cave divers have continued to explore and map it. To date, 14,700 meters of routes have been mapped. Most of the Cave is located below the surface of the water. The Caves are full of stalactites and stalagmites to a depth of 80 meters. Fossilized bones from panthers, hyenas, lions, deer and ferrets, and the largest deposit of hippo bones in Europe, have been found in the cave. Our little boat trip through was less than 2 kms but spectacular! We chatted with a couple after who are traveling in their motorhome. They came from the Netherlands and are wandering about. They advised that the road to Sparta from the Caves was a good 2 lane highway - whew! They recommended staying in Mystras instead of Sparta. We set off after stopping at a market for a snack, ate in the car with the wind whipping about then made the 55km trip in an hour! It felt like we were race car drivers compared to the morning's trip! We arrived in Sparta where there were no hotels available and it was a construction zone so we drove down the road to Mystras, a beautiful village nestled below the Byzantine castle and Monastery of the 15th century, and booked into a guesthouse with a friendly owner/ hostess. Dinner and a stroll around the village with a view to the next day's climb to the top ended our long day!Read more