After Dafni, we take the longer route to Githio. The road goes up, and we stop for a while in Gorani. According to the itinerary, we should reach the highest point (1000m) just after Vasiliki. It turns out that "just after" means 5 kms farther away (oops!).
Each village on the road to the top had a bar, but once we're over it, all villages seem to be deserted. Fortunately, we find a restaurant in Petrina where we can get something to eat.
After lunch, we find ourselves on the main road to Githio. Until now we only saw a couple of cars, but this road is pretty busy. In Githio, we have a look around the harbor which looks really nice with its clear blue water. Instead of stopping for a drink we decide to continue a bit more, we're still 25kms away from Areopoli.
As the dutch say, the sting/venom is in the tail; the road goes up, very strong head-winds through the narrow valley, and no bars. We're tired so this ain't funny anymore. But we get there, and the cold drinks taste good.
It has been very warm the whole day long, but clouds are gathering around the tops of the Mani mountains. Beautiful colors at sunset.
The clouds make things much more interesting today. Rays of sunshine light up houses and small villages against the darker hills.
We take the road to Gerolimenas and Vathia, over the plateau on Mani's west coast. The tower houses are everywhere, old defences to protect families against enemies, sometimes even to protect against the neighbours(!).
Vathia is apparently one of the famous places, but as a cyclist, one has to work hard to get there; from sea level to 250m over a pretty steep road. Some cyclists should be able to recognise themselves in the bottom left corner of the photo (hi guys :-) Some houses in the village have been renovated but a lot of them have been abandoned.
Instead of taking the same way back to Areopoli, I went up to the pass (the highest point is actually near Lagia) in order to take a look at the east side of the Mani.
This side is much more interesting: no big road so almost no traffic whatsoever (5 cars in 2 hours?), and no plateau like the west coast so the road goes up and down from bay to bay. Very nice views on the coast and on the villages along the road. The light is also much nicer since there's a lot more shadow on this side of the mountains.
Areopoli is now on the other side of the mountains, so after Flomichori, the road is going up-hill until Chimara, after which one reaches an almost flat plateau followed by a descent towards the main road back to Areopoli.
(For those who plan to do the same trip: if you hesitate between going from Areopoli to Vathia and back and doing the round trip of the Mani, go for the round trip; the east coast of the Mani is really worth visiting, much nicer than the west coast and you'll see a lot more of those towers too.)