For three days last week – Sunday, Monday and Tuesday – we rented a car. On our first day (Sunday 12. August) we decided we would head South from Sivota towards Preveza.
About 26km North of Preveza is the village of Kamarina (Καμαρίνα), near which is the ancient site of Kassope (Kassopi/Κασσώπη).
It must have taken us about 2 hours to drive down there from Sivota – from Sivota it is 77km. The site located on the side of a mountain with spectacular views towards Preveza, Lefkhada and the Rhodia Wetlands Center which we visited when we were last in this part of Greece, four years ago.
Its very impressive to see, and there are many notices located around the site so that you know what you’re looking at. The photo above shows me stood right in the middle of what used to be the town hall!
A couple of tips: you do have to pay to get in; during the winter months (November to March), entry is free on Sundays. The site is open 08:30 to 15:00, all year round (I understand the busiest days are August 15 and October 28 – the Panagia and ‘Ochi’ Day). The site is closed on January 1, March 25, May 1, December 25, December 26 and at Eastern Orthodox Easter.
We had a wonder round, took some photos, admired the view and even took a look inside the ‘Makedonian Tomb’, which was interesting. There are trees and benches so you can sit in the shade if you want a break – in mid August it is very hot in Greece! We sat down and had lunch when we were there too.
Later in the day we got back in the car and drove up to one of the beaches just off the main road from Preveza to Igoumenitsa – there is a nice beach just to the North of the village of Ligia (Λυγιά). Its a very long, sandy beach – but unfortunately for us it was extremely busy! All the Greeks from Preveza were coming for an afternoon away from the main city – also bear in mind that this was a Sunday afternoon, 3 days before the Panagia, one of Greece’s biggest public holidays.
It took us ages to get from one end of the beach to another: it is 18km long in total, we were at the Northern end… and there were Greeks double and even triple-parked all along the road; there were traffic jams in both directions whenever the road got a little bit narrower, and it seems that most of the Greeks when they get stuck in a traffic jam reach for the horn of their cars.
We had to go right up to the end – until the road started to climb back up to meet the main road – before we could find a parking space. After that ordeal, we went to the nearest taverna for a drink. By this time however, Dad no longer wanted to stop at the beach – he just wanted to get back to Sivota. He doesn’t like driving at the best of times! Which was a shame, because there were large areas of the beach without sunbeds, and which were quiet, where we could have stopped.
But maybe had we chosen another day, it wouldn’t have been quite so busy.
View Sivota 2012 – Σύβοτα 2012 in a larger map
Tomorrow: I’ll be writing about our journey to Gliki and the Acheron River.
FH.
