CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 302 km round trip from Kalamata - roughly 5 h 26 in the saddle. It goes by way of Archaeological Site of Mystras, Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae and back through Archaeological Site of Mystras.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 31 km this is Greece Mani Peninsula Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Kalamata is the doorway to the Mani, and the olive capital of Greece, as the dark purple Kalamata olive is known the world over. Groves of olive trees fill the plain of Messenia, and the city sits at the head of the gulf with the great wall of the Taygetos range rising behind it, its summit at Profitis Ilias well over two thousand metres, often capped with snow into spring. The city is a lively mix of seafront, markets and a pedestrian old town, and was rebuilt after a damaging earthquake in 1986.
Read the complete Kalamata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalamata is where the day begins. Next is Archaeological Site of Mystras.
Mystras is a whole Byzantine city draped down a steep hillside, a few kilometres west of modern Sparta, at the foot of the Taygetos mountains. It began in 1249, when William II of Villehardouin, a Frankish prince ruling the Peloponnese after the Fourth Crusade, built a castle on the summit. Within a few years the Byzantines had taken it back, and Mystras grew into the capital of the Despotate of the Morea, a centre of learning and art in the last centuries of the empire. The philosopher Gemistos Plethon taught here, and in 1449 Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, was crowned here before leaving for Constantinople, where he died when the city fell in 1453.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Mystras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Mystras comes up 27 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Mystras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
54 km in you reach Archaeological Site of Mystras. Next is Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae.
At over a thousand metres in the mountains of Arcadia, on a rocky shoulder above the gorges of the Neda, stands one of the best preserved temples of ancient Greece, and since the 1980s it has stood under a vast white tent. The Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae was built in the fifth century BC by the people of nearby Phigalia, who dedicated it to Apollo the helper, it is said, for saving them from plague. Ancient writers attributed its design to Iktinos, one of the architects of the Parthenon. It was the first Greek monument in Greece to be listed as a World Heritage Site, in 1986.
Read the complete Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, about halfway. Next is Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae sits at 109 km, about halfway. Next is back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae comes up 136 km in. Next is back through Archaeological Site of Mystras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Mystras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
163 km in you reach back through Archaeological Site of Mystras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Mystras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Site of Mystras, late in the day. Next is Kalamata.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalamata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 302 km.
Kalamata → Archaeological Site of Mystras is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Site of Mystras → Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae → back through Archaeological Site of Mystras is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Archaeological Site of Mystras → Kalamata is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.