Michael and Pam's Travels Our European Motorhome Adventures and other Travels
Michael and Pam's Travels

Ancient Theatres, large & small, Epidavros. Greece. 2015 🇬🇷

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Travelled: 41 kilometres from Korfos to Archea Epidavros, Peloponnese
Visited: Ancient Epidavros and Archea
Stayed: About 200m south of the marina in Archea Epidavros, a PJs spot N37.63703, E23.15720, no services, but if you follow the roadway around the bay, there is a shower and tap available.

We wander up to this lovely little Church in Korfos before we depart.
We wander up to this lovely little Church in Korfos before we depart.

After a walk up to the church in Korfos we say goodbye to our host and take the long and winding road back up the hill, before rejoining the main road.  At one point the road swing around providing a fabulous view of the Gulf of Saronikos, so we stop for a look and morning tea.  Within a minute we are joined by an older English couple, and we have a chat.  They have been sailing in these water every summer for almost 20 years.  Sadly he tells us they have just sold their yacht, just saying at 78 he feels he has lost confidence to open water sail should something go wrong.  I immediately wondered if he had seen Robert Redford’s ‘All is Lost’.

The Peloponnese is the land mass below Athens, almost an island thanks to the Corinth Canal, it has the shape of a hand, the thumb of that hand is the Argolis region.  It’s in that region we will travel for the next few days.

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A Russian camper In the carpark at Epidavros, Hymer want to parked next to it for a chat while we look at more ruins.

The road is surprising good as we now climb into the mountains away from the coast. A tourist coach blasts is way past us. Looks like we won’t be alone at the Ancient Amphi-Theatre of Epidavros. It’s only a 20 kilometre drive and soon enough we turn into a massive carpark. There are 5-6 tourist coaches already in the carpark, but more interesting we see four French motorhomes. Looks like where back in motorhome friendly country again.

Epidavros was established by the Greeks in the 4th century BC, but became a famous healing spa in Roman times. Apparently wealthy Romans would travel here to escape the various plagues and epidemics that struck the city. It is now famous for it massive limestone theatre built into the hillside. Completed in the 300 AD it is in fabulous condition and acclaimed for its acoustic quality, tested by the various tourist who tried out their singing voices during our visit. We then went on to visit the museum which had a number of interesting exhibits.

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We have added two panorama photos of the theatre, just click either one and they should open for you.
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The theatre is in wonderful condition given its been sitting here in the weather since 300 AD.  Though that may be because it constructed of marble block rather than local stone.
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The museum had an interesting collection of artefacts, the tablets are a series of endorsements from prominent people who had visited and been rejuvenated by the healing powers of the area.  Bit like magnetic pillows, ‘I don’t know how it works, I just know it works’.
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Pam is becoming quite the archeologist.

The afternoon heat called us to return to the coast for a swim and some down time. The Lonely Planet warns it a very confusing area to travel by car as there are several villages with Epidavros in their title and our eventual destination is one of those, Achea Epidavros. We soon find it is a yachties haven.

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Our sleeping spot just up from the Marina in Epidavros.  We originally planned to stay a little further around near a rocky beach, but a few car loads of people with their children arrived in the early evening, it got a bit busy so we moved.
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There is a large yacht hire fleet in Epidavros as well as many private yachts, lots of little taverns on the waterfront.  We have eaten out for a few nights now, so we decided to make a paella and drink at home.  Pam found this lovely little necklace, which she richly deserves for putting up with me.  So we’ll eat in for a month to get the budget back on track !
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This Church sits on the headland above the Marina, it has an elegance about it we thought.
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Walking around town in the morning we found the local fish shop.  We purchased some beautiful fresh sardines and prawns.  We chat with the proprietor for a while about Australia and he offers us a free fillet from a large swordfish he is filleting.  He must have heard about the necklace.
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We move back to our original parking spot for breakfast and a swim before we leave.  We see a small tourist sign (there always brown) to some archeological site.  So it’s a 10 minute walk up from the beach and we find this.  A mini version of the theatre we visited the day before at Ancient Epidavros.

Michael and Pam

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