"Farms, Mountains and Sea (Pg.12 of The... " a Prefecture of Elia Travel Page by nickandchris

From Golden Beach, near Pilos, it was straight up the Messinian coast. We called at Kiparissia and not liking the cramped and popular campsite (with a lack of shade)
we pressed on. We did find an excellent, huge supermarket on the outskirts of the town which sold absolutely everything. We only went in for milk and beer but ended up buying allsorts!!!
After looking at various bits of the beautiful, endless coast we ended at Apollo Camping at Gianitsochori. This was a large, well-shaded site with good facilities. It was about a 5minute walk to the beautiful sandy beach.
We spent three days here and we celebrated Michael's 11th birthday by cooking sausage rolls and cheese pies and eating in the camp restaurant that evening. We also met up with a family who had been camped at Kronos near Ageranos so had a long chat to them.

Zacharo is a few miles down the road and is a very busy, very Greek town with lots of character and traditional shops. We enjoyed shopping here but it was definitely very hot work.
There is a road from Zacharo down to the beach, a continuation of the miles of coastline on this western stretch of the Peleponnese.
Elias is an area of contrasting scenery, with the fantastic, long ,flat coastline and the mountainous interior of Mount Minthi and Foloi.
It has some of the best farming land in Greece, the main agricultural areas follow the rivers Alfios and Pinios. Pinios has been damned to create Lake Pinios, the Peleponnese's water storage facility.
There are ancient sites at Epitalio, Phia, Samikon as well as Olympia and numerous small sites. There is also Kaifa Lake with it's thermal springs.

There are some amazing villages in Elias, probably the best known being Andhritsena. Where the border meets Arcadia, you cross the Alfios river on a modern bridge built over two older ones. There is also a little church built into it. It's an amazing piece of architecture.
The villages perch on hillsides, accessed by ever spiralling roads. You have the feeling of never getting any closer to your destination!!
Although Elias has such a tremendous coastline, it remains largely untouched by mass tourism and remains wonderfully verdant and lacking in huge resorts. For an escape to "real Greece" try the little coastal villages of Neochori and Kakovatos.

Continue to Page 13 of The Adventure