Preparing for a Road Trip to Mani
Patrick Leigh Fermor, referred to as Paddy henceforth for brevity, was one of the giants of 20th century travel writing. Once described by the BBC as a "cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Green" he published in 1958 Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese. It is an extraordinary book recounting how he and his wife Joan travelled to some of the most inaccessible parts of Greece, many years before proper roads could make the journey a much easier affair.
“On the map the southern part of the Peloponnese looks like a misshapen tooth fresh torn from its gum with three peninsulas jutting southward in jagged and carious roots. The central prong is formed by the Taygetus mountains, which, from their northern foothills in the heart of the Morea to their storm-beaten southern point, Cape Matapan, are roughly a hundred miles long. About half their length—seventy-five miles on their western and forty-five on their eastern flank and measuring fifty miles across—projects tapering into the sea. This is the Mani.” [Excerpt From: Patrick Leigh Fermor. “Mani.”].
There are some excellent sources of information about Mani and about Paddy. There is the dedicated site to him at https://patrickleighfermor.org with many contributions, a BBC Radio 4 programme introduced by John Humphrys and the really informative site of Mani: A Guide and History developed and maintained by John Chapman.
Travelling on foot, mule and bus, Paddy and his companions crossed the borders onto Mani following a South-West route towards Anavryrti and on to Gaites, Kampos and Kardamyli. Kardamyli is the village where Paddy and his wife decided to spend the rest of their days and where they built a house in 1964, a house that over the years was used by the Fermors to extend their hospitality to many of their friends, writers, artists, poets, film actors and directors.
This post and subsequent ones are about my short visit to Mani retracing some of Paddy's steps, using his celebrated book as a guide to my travels from Kita a small village in Deep Mani (also known as Mesa Mani) that I used as a base to travel to many other places in Mesa Mani but also further afield in Outer Mani (also know as Exo Mani).
Curtesy of John Chapman Mani:A Guide and History
This first post is about my plans for the trip and about my progress from Athens to the border of Deep Mani, with visits on the way there to the archaeological museum in Sparta and the Byzantine site of Mystra. Unlike the Fermors I am planning for a far less physically taxing trip, using my car on main and secondary roads. I expect the road conditions to be much improved from those of 60 years ago and as I only planned for a 5-days visit, I intend to leave hiking for another visit.
The Fermors' house at Kardamyli was bequeathed to the Benaki Museum with the understanding that after their death the house would be used by writers, artists and scientists. In 2011, after Paddy's passing away, the museum took over the maintenance and management of the house and arranged for it to be open to the public after prior bookings. While in Athens I visited the Benaki Museum to arrange for such a visit and also to buy a book published by the museum in 2017 titled Patrick Leigh Fermor - The journey continues. Alas, I was told that a visit was not possible as the house was under renovation. Disappointed and as I walked out of the museum with my newly acquired book under my arm I begun thinking of schemes for visiting the house. I will see how this turns out on this visit but if unsuccessful I guess I will have to visit Mani again not only to visit the house but to have the opportunity to do a much more expansive trip as I know even before setting off for Mani that 5 days is hardly going to be enough for exploring what is arguably one of the most interesting places in Greece.
From a photographic standpoint I expect to find many spots of natural beauty but I am also interested in exploring the traditional architecture of stone built mansions, towers and houses in villages some of which may have just a few inhabitants. I am also interested in exploring the human aspects of Maniots to observe and record their way of life and see how much different it is from that which is recorded in Paddy's book. I decided to travel relatively light packing all photo equipment in my Billingham Hadley pro which is durable but small. I am taking two cameras, one digital, the Leica M10 and one analogue the Leica MP.
I am taking 3 lenses, the Leica Summilux-M 1:1.4/50, the Leica Elmarit-M 1:2.8/24 ASPH and the Carl Zeiss Biogon 2.8/28mm ZM. For the M10 I am taking an extra battery and a few SD cards in their aluminium case. For the MP I am taking 5 films (2 colour and 3 B&W) in their Japan Camera Hunter case, in addition to the 24mm viewfinder. I am also taking the SF40 flash and two Kaiser remote triggers. Finally, I am taking a set of ND filters in their pouch, a lens cleaning cloth and a pen.