April 26 - The wheels on the bus go round

The bus tour begins!  The plan is to travel south from Athens, through Piraeus (Athen’s Port), across the Corinth Canal, to Navplion, to Kalamata and finish in Olympia. 

 

The Commonwealth soldiers who were sent to Greece mostly arrived through the port of Piraeus.  They initially stayed in Camp Daphne (just outside of Piraeus).  We didn’t stop… just did a ‘drive by’ on these locations. 

 

We did stop at the Corinth Canal. The Canal itself is a significant late 19 century engineering feat!  An Hungarian engineering team designed the project and the Greeks built it. The purpose of the canal was to save ‘sailing’ time for ships (it reduced the trip to Piraeus by 130 nautical miles)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canal 

 In 1941 (late in the campaign) as the Commonwealth troops were withdrawing it was feared that the Peloponnesian peninsula would be cut off.  The bridge across the canal was a strategic location.  The Germans thought so too, they attempted a combined glider and airborne operation to secure the bridge by coup de main.  A mixed force of Commonwealth troops held the Germans for a while but when it appeared the Germans were going to capture the bridge… the bridge was destroyed.  This kept the bridge out of German hands and allowed the allied troops some ‘breathing space’.  Unfortunately, it also cut off about 18,000 allied troops.

We looked at the area where the landings and attack occurred.  There was discussion about how defences were laid out etc… 

Onwards… Navplion was an evacuation port, and importantly for us… lunch stop!  Navplion was an ordinary little port town.  Of course it had its own Acropolis, a Venetian castle and another 16 century harbour fort.  The ATM didn’t work though!

From Navplion we went over the mountains. The road was steep and winding.  In 1941 it was equally as steep, a bit more winding and the young drivers mostly drove under ‘blackouts’ (ie lights covered, with only small slits of white light to see by and equally, or less, red tail lights to follow). We did the trip in a little over an hour… under blackouts, in 41 model trucks it probably took 6+ hours (all night- because the German Air Force were shooting at anything that moved during the day).

We drove through valleys that were covered (almost) with olive orchards.  The leaves of the olive tree are coloured… olive green (my favourite colour!) and the underside is a white-ish colour.  When the breeze blows the leaves it gives the olive trees a silvery sort of shimmer.   

There also a lot of wild flowers: small white and yellow daisies, dandelions, and red poppies (they seem very relevant given the purpose of the tour and Anzac Day).

There is a fair number pistachio orchards as well.  These will have a male tree (bigger, greener, and doesn’t bear fruit or is that nuts!) surrounded by about half a dozen female trees (these do bear fruit).  There were a number of citrus (orange/lemon) orchards also but nowhere near as many as the olive trees. Kalamata… olives, must be a connection!

We viewed the jetty at Kalamata where 20000+ Commonwealth soldiers were evacuated. The Germans actually got close enough to attack the jetty. A Kiwi sergeant led a counter-attack that restored order… he was awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions. Onwards to Olympia!

Our overnight stop was just outside the town of Olympia.  Olympia is where the very first Olympic games were conducted some 2350 years ago! 

PS. Now that we are on the move we may encounter some not so strong WiFi.  Please be patient, we will get the blog out!