Walks in Stoupa and Kardamyli (book and map)

This book is an updated/expanded version of "Walks in the Stoupa Area".

25 walks explore the area around the attractive and popular coastal villages of Stoupa and Kardamyli in the Outer Mani region of mainland Greece. Most of the walks are also possible from nearby Agios Nikolaos resort.

The Peloponnisos (Peloponnese) could now almost be regarded as an island, since the cutting of the Corinth Canal through the narrow isthmus that connected it to the mainland has completely surrounded it by water. If the Peloponnisos is shaped like a hand, then the middle of the three bottom fingers is the Mani. The backbone of the Taiyetos ridge, which runs down through to the Mani, reaches 2407m (7895ft) at Profitis Ilias, and plunges into the sea at Tainaro, mainland Greece's southernmost point and the ancient entrance to the underworld.

The Mani was famous for its lawless autonomy even when nominally under Turkish rule, its Byzantine churches and its vendettas. The latter led to the development of tall towers from where the feuding families could shoot at their neighbours. The only people who weren’t targets were priests and, necessarily, doctors. The Mani has two halves: the area south of Areopolis, known as Deep or Inner Mani - brown, dry, barren and inhospitable, with villages full of crumbling battle towers, and the northern or Outer Mani, the more fertile area between Kalamata and Areopolis.

Stoupa is situated on the west-facing side of the Taiyetos ridge, some 25km southeast of Kalamata. Once a small fishing harbour, it became a small holiday resort in the 1980s, by virtue of its beaches, by far the best in the area. It was near Kalogria that the Cretan writer Nikos Kazantzakis lived for several years, and wrote some of his books.

Kardamyli, a few km north. is an attractive small town, with tavernas, cafés, cake-shops, many lovely old houses and a long, pebbly beach. Just behind, at the mouth of the spectacular Vyrou Gorge, is the 19th century (but much older-looking) citadel of the Petreas and Mourtzinos families.

Agios Nikolaos is an established harbour village to the south of Stoupa, with an attractive harbour. Facilities include a number of tavernas along the waterfront.

The landscape rises from the sea in a series of flat-topped hilly shelves, usually covered with olive groves, and riven by a number of gorges of varying sizes from the intimate to the awe-inspiring. From about 550m altitude the ground rises much more steeply, into impressive peaks, scrub-covered in their lower parts, bare rock above.

The area provides a very wide variety of walks, from the easy to moderately challenging in the Vyrou Gorge. Most of the walks have at least some partial shade, and plenty of ascents and descents. A major feature of the countryside behind the villages is a network of fine, well-engineered kalderimia (broad, stone-paved paths) - perhaps the best remaining in the country - which are excellent for walkers. The numerous paths and connexions mean there are many possibilities in addition to those described in the book.

Large-scale sketch maps of the villages Agia Sofia, Dryopi, Eleohori, Exohori, Kardamyli, Kastania,Milia, Neohori, Petrovouni, Platsa, Proastio, Prosilio, Pyrgos, Ringlia and Tseria are included within the text.

The 56-page book is A5 size, with a card cover. It is accompanied by an A3 double-sided colour walkers' map of the Stoupa Kardamyli area, at a scale of 4.8cm:1km. Book and map are supplied in a tough A5 plastic sleeve.

Book first published (in this form) 2007, slightly updated 2010; map first published 1994, updated 2007.

ISBN 978-1-905333-05-9

Walks in the Stoupa Area: "Excellent little booklet and map of local walks" - Nicholas Crane, Weekend Telegraph 7.1.1995.

UK ONLY Stoupa/Kardamyli book and map
Royal Mail 2ndClass Standard SKBM-UK-2nd Ł9.00
Royal Mail 1stClass Standard SKBM-UK-1st Ł9.50
Royal Mail 2ndClass Recorded Signed For SKBM-UK-RSF2 Ł10.00
Royal Mail 1stClass Recorded Signed For SKBM-UK-RSF1 Ł10.50
Royal Mail Special Delivery Next Day SKBM-UK-SDND Ł15.25 (not Saturday delivery)

Stoupa/Kardamyli book, map plus one EXTRA map
Royal Mail 2ndClass Standard SKBM+EXTRAMAP-UK- 2nd Ł10.85
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OUTSIDE UK Stoupa/Kardamyli book and map
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Lance Chilton and Marengo 2012

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