Tuesday 9 September 2014

The Messinian Bay


'On the map the southern part of the Peloponnese looks like a misshapen tooth freshly torn from its gum with three peninsulas jutting southward in jagged and carious roots. The central prong is formed by the Taygetus mountains, which, from their northern foothills in the heart of the Morea to their storm-beaten southern point, Cape Matapan, are roughly a hundred miles long. About half their length - seven-five miles on their western and forty-five on their eastern flank and measuring fifty miles across - projects tapering into the sea... The Taygetus rolls in peak after peak to its southernmost tip, a huge pale grey bulk with nothing to interrupt its monotony'. Patrick Leigh Fermor.

The Messinian Bay is situated between two of the peninsulas, with Kalamata at the head of the bay. This is where we stayed during our time in the Peloponnese.





Our hotel was sandwiched between the Taygetus behind,






and the bay in front of us. This was the view from our hotel balcony.




 

The roads of Kalamata were flooded when we arrived as it had been raining very hard. The guy at reception told us that this was the heaviest rain he had witnessed in the 34 years he had lived in the town. The bay looked mournful when we first looked out of our window.






If we looked to the right, we could see both the sea and the mountain.





We found a delightful little taverna to have lunch upon arrival but we had to sit on the balcony with interrupted sea views as the garden was too muddy






The garden was full of fragosykies: google translates it as opuntia, nopales or paddle cactus







The sun shone the next morning and the bay was transformed







We had breakfast on the terrace that overlooked the bay







as well as pre-dinner ouzos






and saw some spectacular sunsets. 



 


The bay and Kalamata looked awesome at night - this spectacle was overwhelming and my photograph really does not do it justice






The photograph was taken from a bar on the mountain


 


and the silver path of the moon cut through the bay.




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