Each day a few buses pass through the village but they don't run at convienent times for lazy beach bums. Car hire is expensive but a jeep for a couple of days is a great way to discover out-of-the-way places.

Crossing the central mountains of the Messini peninsula is moderately hair-raisng with shear drops which you have to get precariously close to when meeting on-coming traffic.

The beaches on the west coast are better than those on the east although they are more touristy with predominantly German visitors.

Homer mentions the town of Methoni & its position made it an important stop-off route for east – west trade. The castle is an impressive mix of 13th century Venetian & 16th century Ottoman architecture as both powers occupied & enlarged it.

The Bourtzi or tower, reached by a little bridge, is very Turkish in style while on the battlements there are crumbling emblems depicting the Venetian winged lion of St. Mark. The shallow water of the bay was very warm but something about the place made me not want to linger.

Just north of Kalamata is the ancient city of Messini. It seems strange that the seafaring Greeks built a major city 30km from the sea but that’s probably my ignorance about ancient Greek times.

Set in a baking hot dip surrounded by olive tree covered hillsides, this 300BC city was never built upon so its layout is slowly being uncovered & visitors can stroll around unimpeded.

Even though it was early October the sun beat down mercilessly & there was no shade; crickets & cicadas were happy enough with the heat, a herby fragrance hung in the air & tantalising underground water gushed underneath the amphitheatre of the stadium.

It’s a huge site that is fabulously open, there were only 6 other people at the site whereas someone who had just come from the less impressive Olympia said the place was packed with tour buses – I’m just glad they all stayed there.

Every morning 2 Greek women float in the sea and gossip to each other for at least an hour. The Mani opposite is shrouded in layered sea mist that makes it look as haunting as any Greek legend. Sometimes the coast disappears & mountain peaks seem to be floating above the sea on a featherbed of mist. By nightfall it has usually cleared & the twinkling lights along the waters edge are sharp & clear.

Early morning the sea is limped like softly ruffled cloth & the waves gently glide up the beach with a gentle whooshing sigh. Sometimes large shoals of fish, only discernable as thousands of little breaks in the surface glided along the coast like a large sea creature.

Mid-morning the gentlest of breezes ripple the sea into a swarm of tiny sparkles like fireflies - except for patches that are glass smooth like a frozen lake.

By evening the ripples are usually more vigorous, breaking out at sea as tiny foam silver slivers. They crash onto the beach even though there is no perceptible wind - it must just be the life of the sea!

I am constantly amazed at how useless & feeble most news reporting has become & shocked that this includes the BBC which, Jeremy Paxman aside, seems to have become incapable of exploring an issue beyond what the money men say.
  In terms of the Greek economic woes all we see is footage of some angry Greeks & stone throwing in Athens - the analysis is how desperate they are to borrow billions more cash to keep paying off billionaire investment organisations & what a tragedy it would be if they stopped paying those parasites!

Well that’s not what you hear ordinary folk in Greece saying.

  The financial crisis is a hot topic even in rural village tavernas & the key point seems to be - who borrowed all this money & where did it all go? Into the pockets of the rich & greedy is the common view – all colluded with by faceless & unaccountable Euro moneymen – which is often a euphemism for Germany & France.
  But for everyday folk life continues as its alway done, except with less cash in their pockets & a poorer future to look forward to. Nobody seems to have seen where the billions went & yet ordinary people are being squeezed to pay it back.

People said:

Why did we ever join the Euro? We were deceived & its brought us nothing but misery & debt.
  How is borrowing billions more going to help Greek people? We are borrowing billions more but for ordinary people life still gets worse every day.
  As for Angela Merkel’s visit to ‘help Greece’ there was muttering that ‘it’s 1940 all over again but this time they’re just buying Greece.’ ‘How can we be worse off if we default on the euro debts – its not ordinary Greek people that borrowed this money – maybe it would be hard to go back to the drachma, but its already hard & getting worse, with no end in sight. At least we would have our pride back.’

It seems that politicians have a different agenda from that of ordinary Greeks – no wonder they’re throwing stones.

  Chrani is a little village of a few hundred people on the eastern side of the Messini peninsula – the western most peninsula of the Pelopenese. The road is 200 yards back from the beach & all you can hear at night is the breaking of waves & the intermittant chrip of cicada. Most of the swallows & swifts have left for Africa & only bats patrol the beach front snapping up evening insects on the wing.
  Many of the taverna's are forlornly empty although the best are still making a living. This is old world Greece where there's no entertainment & nothing specific to do. Its not the place for the feeble minded looking for holiday entertainment, its for people who go on holiday to be themselves & are capable of living their own lives amongst Greek people.
  A typical day starts with toast & coffee on the balcony watching the sun rise, followed by a swim in the pool & a quiet read.

Then its a stroll along the beach to a beachside taverna (with free sunbeds & umbrellas) for a swim in the sea followed by an ouzo & Greek salad for lunch, then its more sea, sun, reading & perhaps a Mythos beer. Another stroll back along the waters edge, an iced coffee beside the pool, more reading & around 4.30pm a shower & change – nothing much to speak off, just pure bliss.
  Evening dinner is the highlight of the day. Greek food is some of the best in the world & anyone who says otherwise is confusing it with something else, hasnt been to Greece or has only been to one of those all-inclusive places that cater for tourists & have nothing to do with the people of Greece.
  A top taverna is a family run business that cooks for family, neighbours & visitors get to join in as well. Granny or mum are cooking in the kitchen dad runs the Bar-B-Q & the children serve tables. Because we liked everything on the menu at ‘The Garden’ we sometimes said – give us a plate of whatever’s on the go in the kitchen. This usually included fried feta, meatballs, stuffed vine leaves, pieces of melt in the mouth beef, luscious tomatos, the sweetest red onions imaginable, Kalamata olives and a few chips.

Landed in Kalamata, with a new airport building for the Pelopenese. The first time I was here it was a shack with a couple of armed police & it did exactly the same job, with the same efficency, that the new multi-million euro building does. Presumably this was part of the euro credit scam that conned Greece into hiring Greman/French or whoever to build a completely unnecessary & pointless debt for future generations?

I must stop grumbling!

  This late in the season a taxi took us to our apartment in the coastal village of Chrani. Tourist numbers are down which make bus transfers too expensive - but that's a plus for visitors & for local taxi drivers!
  We're at the Ilyra apartments, perfectly situated on low cliffs overlooking the beach & across to the Mani peninsula. Sadly out of 3 of 8 apartments are occupied & the local rep says numbers are down so low that they’ve also scraped excursions. Its unbelievable that this idylic location has been deserted.

Gatwick has never been a joy but after this summers 'improvements' it makes Heathrow seem good. Every change is a disaster:

• new lifts at arrivals take you further from departures than if you had walked up the slope
• the new automated boarding pass entry requires multiple passes before responding to baffled passengers & will be chaotic in high season
• airside entry forces passengers through meandering shops where most things can be bought cheaper in a supermarket
• some toilets are hidden down a 150 yard corridor with no hot water & hand driers blasting icy cold air
• the Pret coffee shop blares hideous music at 3.30am driving customers to take their coffee out to the worn & ripped blue seats outside the pub
• And all in a modern WiFi free desert

How come so many modern designers are useless? I suppose its just that the only criteria is how to make money out of ‘punters’

Thank God for the growing network of high speed international rail options.