We didn’t visit Zante on our way through the Ionian back in 2019 so didn’t want to miss out this time. My brother, Tony, and his wife Linda joined us here in Agia Nikolas in the northwest of the Island. Zante is famous for turtles and Shipwreck Bay. We decided to take a local boat trip to Shipwreck Bay as it would be quicker and fitted in with our itinerary better. The driver must have gone to the same driving school as Ian! He whizzed the boat in and out of small bays, so close to the cliff face, we could have touched it. It is no longer possible to anchor in Shipwreck bay or go ashore but we got pretty close.
The wreck was the “Panagiotis” which ran aground in stormy weather on the 5th October 1980. It appears that the ship was smuggling contraband cigarettes from Turkey and was allegedly on its way to Italy.
On the way back from the bay we were taken into a small cave. We were told to keep our hands in as it was a little on the narrow side.
We had a good weather window so we decided to make the trip across to the mainland to Katakolo where we could make a visit to Olympia. It was the centre of worship of the Greek God Zeus, his wife the Goddess Hera and the home of the first Olympic Games which began in 776BC. Cruise ships come into this small port and luckily, we were there on a non cruise ship day so it wasn’t so crowded at Olympia. There is a train but it doesn’t run on a Sunday so we hired a car.
The Ancient Stadium had a seating capacity of 20,000 and most seats were made of mud. The Stadium also used to host the Heraia Games, games for women and was held in honor of the Goddess Hera, Zeus’ wife. The racetrack of the stadium is over 200 meters long and nearly 30 to 34 meters wide. It was 40 degrees and yet some people still decided to run up and down the track. It was exhausting just watching. Having seen many sights around the Med, Ian was now “ruined out”.
Inside, out of the heat, we visited the Olympia Ancient Olympic Games Museum which details the history of the Olympic Games.
We were going to anchor in the quieter bay of Keri just along the coast from Laganas, which is similar to Magaluf, but first we needed to get some provisions so we anchored in Laganas first. We felt ancient walking around here. A real treat here though was the turtles. The turtle spotting boats started arriving late afternoon, we were pretty much surrounded! Ian jumped in the water and was within touching distant of a turtle and it swam alongside him for a few minutes. Quite an experience. Then off to Keri Bay for the night. It was now time for Tony and Linda to fly home and for us to head to mainland Greece, Pylos our next stop where we spent ten days. A lovely spot.
