Monday 16th May 2011 – Above Prodromou Monastery, Dimitsana, Greece

Jane thought (and I agreed) that our route north would be quicker if we took the main Sparta to Tripoli road and then cut across west. The Sparta – Tripoli road was very quick but the next section was mountainous and slow. We would have been better off on the, apparently more minor road directly north but we did at least get some lovely views of the Taygetos mountain range.
Our first target was the small village of Pellana where there is a group of five Mycenean tombs. The number of tombs and the richness of the finds from them have lead some experts to suggest that this might be the early site of Sparta before it moved further south. It was obviously a very significant place, which it isn't now! The site of the tombs is closed but we were able to look up to the site on a low hill and see some of the tomb entrances.
Onwards and definitely upward we headed north into the centre of the Peloponnese. We arrived at a huge plain with the once great city of Megalopolis at its centre. The modern town of Megalopolis is an important centre but is a nondescript, rather drab place that retains little evidence of its glorious ancient past. Parts of the plain were known to spontaneously combust (a phenomenon that must have cause quite a stir in antiquity) and this lead to the discovery of vast brown coal deposits. This is why the plain is dominated by open cast mines and three massive power stations with their red-striped chimneys spearing the sky and white clouds of steam from the cooling towers spiralling past. The plain is surrounded on all sides by high mountains, creating a bowl in which the power stations sit. This is not good news, as on calm days such as today, the pollution stays in the bowl creating a layer of smog that covers the plain. This was clearly visible as we climbed up into the mountains where we selected a picnic spot that had a view of the mountains and not the power stations.
Continuing to climb we arrived at Dimitsana and headed for the Open-Air Water Power Museum. This is run, like the excellent Olive and Greek Olive Oil Museum in Sparta, by the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation. We had visited it before, probably when it had just been set up in the 1990s, and thought that it was very good. It didn't disappoint us. The information boards were very good, telling us all about the installations and the life of the millers and local people. There was a fulling mill for washing cloth, a flour mill, a tannery and a 'black powder mill'. Huge volumes of water flowed through the site from a very strong spring just above and this provided plenty of power for the fulling tub and the flour mill, using a horizontally mounted water wheel, that were both operating. The 'black powder mill' produced gunpowder in a complex and dangerous process using a vertically mounted water wheel to power a series of vertical wooden posts that pounded the ingredients to the fine powder required. Dimitsana produced much of the gunpowder used in the long war of independence fought by the Greeks against the Turks in the early 19th century.
We also bought the excellent 'Walker's Map of the River Lousios Valley with Cultural Information' from the museum that had many suggested drives and walks in the area complete with a very good map showing the roads, trails, remains of watermills and other points of interest.
We intended to visit the Prodromou (St.John the Baptist) Monastery in the morning so, given that there are no campsites in the area, we decided to try to find a wild camping pitch close to it. We drove back towards Stemnitsa and took the right turn signposted to Prodromou. All of our maps show this as an un-asphalted road but during our brief trip through the area three years ago, I was sure that I had seen an asphalted road. This was the case although minor rockfalls littered the road and there were plenty of potholes to be avoided. The road descends sharply into the gorge on a series of hairpin bends but it was not far below the main road that I spotted a suitable, nearly flat area of land and we were able to keep far enough from the edge for Jane's comfort. The views over the Gortynian mountains and the Lousios Gorge were magnificent. We could see the Philosophou Monastery over the other side of the gorge but could not see Prodromou that was obviously far below us and tucked into the side of the gorge. We could see a few villages from our pitch but as night fell more appeared as their lights started to twinkle far away on the mountainsides.
Photos: This rather lovely building in Pellana must surely have been a mill at one time. High up above the plane in Georgitsa we came across this aeroplane and at the entrance to the village was a sign to 'The Airport' – a strange place for it but there was obviously an Air Force base nearby; The Dimitsana Water Power Museum - water runs in front of the building housing a fulling tub and flour mill; The Fulling Tub; The Gunpowder Mill; Jane admires the view from our wild camping pitch.