Shipwreck

Friday 26 July 2013

Driving south from Nafpoli we followed the coast and passed a huge ship moored 'stern-to' in a little bay with its anchor out and a line to the shore. It was an unusual scene as we are more used to seeing yachts anchored this way in the Med so we took a couple of photos and carried on.

The road headed inland and climbed up through the Parnonas mountain range before descending to the coast on the southern Peloponnese. With temperatures reaching 40 degrees it was a long hot day driving along hairpin bends and through very narrow villages - with roads not much wider than the van itself, but the scenery was stunning.

Turning west towards Githio / Gytheio we came across a rusty shipwrecked hull on Valtaki beach and found the road down towards it ended in a fantastic wild-camping car park with 3 campers already squeezed under shady trees.

This link leads to a site with information on the wreck and here are a few of the 64 pictures we took of it in the afternoon sun, in the moonlight and at sunrise. Dave doesn't believe there is any truth in the superstition that changing a ships name is unlucky, not sure I agree on that. But it does have something of a happy ending in that rather than having been sold for salvage and dismantled it has now become a popular tourist attraction.  

Sunrise

Dave and Gareth up close to the wreck

Waves crashing through the holed hull

Eerie moonlight scene