1 September onwards…
The anchorage at the northern end of Navarinou Harbour is idyllic and the castle – Palaiokastro – beckons us from the high escarpment overlooking the large brackish inland lagoon and wetland just across the narrow bar of land from our pristine anchorage.
It strikes us as unusual that there appear to be few birds here except for the lonely white heron we spot on the golden sandy beach early one morning. Later we discover this is the most southerly wetland habitat in the Balkans, known as Dibari. It is the final European stopover for 225 bird species as they head south to the Sahara Desert for the northern winter. Of these, 79 are protected by international conventions. As if this is not special enough, also residing here is the African chameleon (under threat of extinction) and the turtle species Caretta-Caretta which also comes here to reproduce. It is good to read that the birds know about this place too!
We sit on this anchorage waiting for the right weather window to make our last leg to Zakynthos Island, north west of here, then the crossing to Sicily.
Friday 2 September
On our first morning here we wake up early and take a walk ashore before breakfast up to the entrance of the castle. It is a very rugged site but does not take long to climb up to the crumbling entrance, then back down again. We feel like walking some more so follow the sign to Nestor’s Cave skirting the lagoon under the escarpment. Soon we realise it is further than we thought so turn around and make our way back to the boat for a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, yoghurt and oats.
It is not long after a relaxed breakfast when Pippy is sitting at the nav desk doing emails, when she has a strange episode. She glances up for a moment to find the saloon rocking about violently, then it turns on its side, then she either blanks out or closes her eyes … not sure but its pretty scarey. Half an hour later she is a bit shaken but fine again. She has lived with vertigo on and off for a couple of months now, and has seen a doctor in Turkey who prescribed some medication, but this is much worse than anything experienced before and we are not sure if it wasn’t a mini stroke. We contact our medical insurance company who suggest we go to Kalamata Hospital and get checked out. Its blowing quite hard by now and predicted to be worse later so Pippy doses up on aspirin and we elect to wait until early the next morning to take the boat into the marina and go to the hospital.
The next day, feeling like a complete fraud as she is now quite normal and well, Pippy reports her symptoms to the doctor at the hospital, and is admitted for tests to ensure there is nothing nasty causing the problem. Richard goes home alone for the next 5 nights and travels more than 3 hours each day to visit Pippy in hospital. We thought she might be in for a day or two, but not 5 days! Kalamata Hospital are very thorough in their investigations and Pippy has blood tests, cat scans, MRI scans, X-Rays and ultrasounds. She is seen by a neurologist and an ENT specialist.
BPPV is initially suggested (plenty about that on google), which the Ear Nose and Throat specialist gives her an Epley manouvre for, plus a neck brace to wear for the next four days to stop her head from moving too much. He also says he wants to see her in 10 days time, so that is the end of our plans to sail to Sicily to meet up with Emily and Marc and Karen and Nick. We reluctantly accept that we have to sort this out before moving on.
We are so fortunate to have good friends in Karen and Nick who do not mind changing their travel plans to fly to Kalamata instead of Catonia. It is also very reassuring to us to know that we have backup cew on the way. As it turns out later on, backup crew are essential on our passage from Greece to Sicily… but more about that later. In the meantime, Richard enjoys some nag free nights on the marina in Pylos which thank goodness is free of charge! He eats pork chop every night in the same restaurant while in hospital Pippy is dished up with boiled chicken for lunch and dinner each day. She is in a room with two old ladies who are both very sick and have relatives visiting and nursing care 24/7. They are so very kind to Pippy and try to communicate with her in sign language as no one speaks English.
It is the following Thursday and not until the results from the MRI are in before she is back on the boat again, albeit with an infected and swollen arm from a catheter, which was never used and left in too long. We have to see a doctor here in Pylos about that, then we go back to the anchorage in the north and hang out for four more glorious days while we count down to Pippy’s last appointment and Karen & Nick’s arrival at Kalamata.
Its beautiful here but we need a change, so on Thursday 15 Sept we hire a rental car for 3 days and plan to travel on and see some ancient sites in the Peloponnese after the hospital appt and before picking Nick and Karen up on Saturday.
We get the result of all the thorough X-Rays, ultrasounds, blood tests and MRI scans – all fine, nothing sinister going on, which is great but there is one more test we must do as the BPPV diagnosis now seems unlikely. This means waiting until Monday and the specialist urges Pippy to take the test as it might show something. Okay then, we will wait. He is very thorough and we do appreciate that.
We find the road to Mystra and drive on.
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