Pelopponese - The Mani peninsula

We wanted to stay in Kardamyli, Greece since Rick Steves (RS) suggests it, but there are no campgrounds there so we headed to Camping Kalogria which is nearby and close to the beach. Though the area is full of twisting roads that overlook cliffs with few guardrails, the driving here is much more relaxed as there are very, very few people driving the roads. Actually, everything seems so much more laid back here.  I suppose it's more crowded in the season but we enjoyed that. The downside is that many establishments are closed. 

Sitting in camp finishing Sunday breakfast we saw a big fruit and veggie truck start driving by slowly. I was enchanted - it was like the ice cream man, except with produce! How could you resist? I over-bought because I forgot Europeans count their thumb first so everything I asked for two of, I got three. Hilariously, Dermot said "I hope the butcher comes before dinner."

We relaxed in this area for three nights then set out south along the coast and went to the Caves of Diros. We took lots of pictures but since the lighting was low, they aren’t great. I included a few but this link has both better pictures and all the fascinating information I’d write if I were less lazy: 

Diros Caves

We then went to Camping Meltemi along the Eastern Mani coast and our campsite was through an olive grove and right on the beach (if you ignored the fence and short line of cactus - which we did). We enjoyed the sound of the surf and the nearly completely deserted beach. We rode our bikes on the compacted sand/roadway on the beach and walked to a nearby restaurant three days in a row.

One day, we followed RS' suggestions for a loop trip around the Mani peninsula and many of the gorgeous photos in the album are from that trip (see explanations on most photos).  

Click here for photos

Random observation:

There are stray cats everywhere and its hard to imagine what they’ll all do when the tourists are gone. The first night we arrived, two fluffy kittens turned up at our campsite seemingly ravenous. Lacking anything like cat food, Dermot suggested we feed them Proscuitto ham we’d brought from Italy! On a subsequent night, the cats arrived as soon as Dermot brought out the grill.  When we ate out at restaurants there was always a plethora of cats around looking for handouts.