Γύθειο / Gytheio, a tale of two halves
17th – 26th October 2020: After our short stop in Sparti, we were relieved to reach Gytheio, a gorgeous, rather small coastal town in the middle ‘finger’ of the Peloponnese. To get here from Kalamata, you have to drive quite a distance north, through Sparti, and then track back down through the mountains again to reach the coast once more. It’s a 152km trip.
As per the previous post, on our way to Gytheio, we stopped for a quick recce in Sparti, little knowing that we would end up back there in the days to come. Olwen’s feeling unwell in Kalamata turned into fever and vomiting by the time we got to Gytheio. We tried for several days to manage this from the van, due to our reluctance to attend a medical facility because of Covid. After four days of her feeling ill, we contacted a nursing support line. They told us to take her to hospital if her fever persisted longer than five days. It is unnerving to have a sick child when you are away from home, and even more so in the middle of a pandemic. You have to make what you hope are the best decisions in less than ideal circumstances. In this instance, we ended up taking Olwen to the local health centre on day six of her illness. We waited outside the health centre while staff, clad in PPE, came to ask us what the situation was. As soon as we mentioned that Olwen had a temperature, they told us that we would need to take her to the nearest hospital. So, off back up to Sparti with us (50km).
At Sparti Hospital, there was a Covid testing centre situated near the car park and, once Olwen had tested negative in her rapid test, the excellent staff of Sparti hospital took bloods and various samples in order to ascertain what was causing her illness. They diagnosed her with a UTI and told us that she would need to be admitted for IV fluids and antibiotics, and that she would also need to undergo a further Covid test (PCR) because of admission. This was all very distressing for an already unwell child, but we did not have any good alternatives.
Sparti hospital is very run down, but the staff are incredible. This would, unfortunately, not be our only experience of hospitals in Greece but we have to say that the service and the staff are outstanding. Although we do have health and travel insurance, we just followed the guidance of various people we met along the way and ended up in the public system. We don’t know how the Greeks do it, but they manage to have a very efficient health service (albeit in pretty run down buildings) with little to no waiting. Maybe the HSE could look into how they manage to achieve this?!
The campsite we stayed at in Gytheio was one of our all-time favourites, Camping Gythion Bay:
Best camping Greece Peloponnese beach swimming pool family nature (gythiocamping.gr) Coordinates: 36.72948875303481, 22.545087454754768
Spacious plots situated under olive, pomegranate and citrus trees, warm and welcoming staff, a playground, a fabulous pool, access straight onto a beach, a washing machine…. sure, what more could you want?! They sold products made from their own organic fruit and so we bought delicious plum jam and lemon marmalade from them, along with some olive oil, of course. Two adults, two children and EHU cost €20 per night and we stayed for eight nights (mainly because of the hospital visit and recovery time needed afterwards).
The beach just outside the campsite was calm, wide and empty:
The site is located a couple of kilometers outside of Gytheio town itself but, due to Olwen’s illness, we didn’t really spend much time exploring the area. We did take a couple of spins into town though and were impressed with what we saw.
On 26th October, we were ready to make tracks, heading north once more. The scenery en route was incredible.
