We lazed around Monemvasia this morning enjoying the sun and doing a little exploring of the nearby village. But eventually it was time to get going so we continued our adventures on mountain roads and narrow village streets towards the west coast of Peloponnese to Areopoli and then a little south to the Dimos Caves.

Like many other places we have visited in Greece the caves were open but pretty much deserted as they are undoubtedly another summer attraction and at this time of year almost no-one comes to visit. We were surprised that they were open. So after buying our ticket we waited 20 minutes for "more people to come and fill the boat" which of course they didnt and so Nina and I got a little boat to ourselves (with driver of course, who pushes the boat along with a wooden paddle - mostly pushing against the cave walls) and off we went exploring these caves. Did I forget to mention that these are limestone caves (the typical kind) except that they are at sea level and are partly flooded by the Mediterranean and hence one explores by small boat not foot.

According to the brochure the tour covers 1.2km. We spent about 40 minutes winding our way through some marvelous natural caverns with active and beautiful formation and some times traveling through man made tunnels that connected the natural caverns.

After the caves we continued south along the west coast of the Mani Peninsula, rounded the bottom and then North up the east coast. Spectacular scenery, lots of old buildings and new building in old style, very narrow roads, and even narrower villages main streets. This made for an excisting and spectacular afternoon. We found it all very enjoyable. It was also a good place for a truck driver to practice his skills and judgement.


We ended the day just after the village of Lobkadika. We found a nice wide area off the road that even had a flat concrete pad for us to park on. Traffic was very light and we had a quiet night.