Polilimnio & Voidokilia

We had a nice long breakfast at our place overlooking the Gulf of Messenia. I'm getting better at my Greek. There are a LOT of Greek loan words in English which helps. One that isn't is "Limani" (port), "Limnio" (lagoon), and what we saw today, "Polilimnio" (several waterfalls). This root always seems to relate to water, in addition to the more familiar water root "pot-" which one sees in English words like potable (drinkable), Mesopotamia (land betweeen the waters), and hippopotamus (water horse). Here I see it in things like the "Frouto Poto" (fruit drink) made from pomogranate that we had for breakfast.

Our goal for the day was originally to do an olive oil tasting and tour, but that was unfortunately unavailable. Off-season here a lot of things really shut down. Apparently Greece doesn't have European snowbirds the same way Florida does in America. We settled for seeing the beach at Voidokilia per the recommendation of the guy who owns our AirBnB. He also provided olive oil from his personal farm which we've enjoyed greatly.

Well, we didn't make it to Voidokilia straight out, because we past a sign on 82 that said Polilimnio - Waterfalls. I have a serious weakness for waterfalls that my children also share. We planned a nice little hike, but these where unlike any waterfalls we'd seen before. The mountains to the east of Kalamata are also limestone. The water is perfectly clear and has a lot of dissolved calcium carbonate - so much that as the water deposits rock as it flows over the falls. They looked like the hot springs of Yellowstone, but they were freezing cold. I swam in the largest pool and it was colder than the North Sea!

After our adventures in the limestone canyon we headed down the mountain toward the beach and stopped in Gialova for lunch. It's a cute little town with a beach. We parked on the quay and ate at a little restaurant called Elia. It was easy to pick out because it was packed at 2 PM whereas most other restaurants along the beach were empty. Some of the best Greek food we've had so far, from the baked sfela cheese to the rabbit with prunes to the Taygetus mountain trout to the local olives to the kebab and souvlaki. We've also discovered that the Hellenes keep their good wine for themselves.

After lunch we completed our drive through olive groves to the beach at Voidokilia. There is like a giant rock wall along the coast. The Venetians built a castle above the Novorino dunes, but tomorrow Dean Karnazes is having a triathalon there. We climbed the rocks (pumice - ouch!) and swam in the incredibly salty water of the Ionian Sea. Incredibly it seems saltier than the Aegean. Cara & I didn't even need to tread water to stay afloat. We didn't manage to climb to the castle, but we did find a Mycenean tomb that was over 3000 years old.