Interlude 4. Kamena Vourla—and Thermopylae!: September 17–20
We planned our 2024 trip through Greece with breaks throughout, during which we could stay in apartments and live semi-normal lives for a few days between multi-day hikes. Trekking Hellas hikes are extremely well-organized and the hotels are always comfortable and hospitable, but it is tiring to move from place to place every night, and keeping up with laundry can be a challenge.
So every week or two, we’d stop someplace, live in a house, and catch our breaths. We picked our break locations for geographic convenience, historical interest, and nostalgia. These interludes were just as much a part of the trip as the hikes.
The morning after finished our tour of Mount Pelion, we awoke in the charming hill town of Portaria. An hour-long taxi ride returned us to Milies and our Skoda, which was safe in the parking lot where we’d left it looking out over the Pagasitic Gulf.
After a quick drink at our favorite café in Milies and a quick conversation leading to a plant identification, we drove back down the mountain to the coast, north to Volos, and then headed south on the A1/E75. This took us down to the Malian Gulf. We turned west to reach the town of Lamia, rounded the gulf, and then returned east through Thermopylae on our way to Kamena Vourla, where we would spend the next three nights.
Kamena Vourla, for those unfamiliar, is a beach town on the south side of the Malian Gulf. It’s not the best beach; the water is kind of dank and the shore is all pebbles, but it’s a short drive from Athens. I didn’t actually choose Kamena Vourla as our location; I just searched for accommodation near Thermopylae and Lamia. Our house wasn’t even in town; it was a good two miles away. But the house looked nice, and with a car, we didn’t need to stay close to shops or transportation. The thought of a “villa” was most appealing.
The whole point of staying here was to put us near Thermopylae. As everyone no doubt knows, Thermopylae was the site of a battle fought in 480 BCE between the Persians under emperor Xerxes (the invading force) and the Greek city-states (defending their homeland). Spartan king Leonidas and his force of 300 Spartan warriors famously held them off at the “Hot Gates,” a narrow pass on the coastline. We were keen to see this landscape!
To refresh our memories of the details, we watched the movie 300 as historical prep. It really isn’t bad for a quick and engaging refresher of the key characters and events. To sum up: Persia is invading Greece. King Leonidas of Sparta leads an army, including 300 special forces dudes, all the way to the “Hot Gates,” a narrow pass where they set up shop and manage to keep the Persians at bay until they’re betrayed by one Ephialtes, who leads the Persians up and around a “goat path” to get behind the Spartan forces and kill them to a man.
This story is a great favorite of burly American guys. It give us the phrase “Mōlon Labe”—Μόλων Λάβε, which modern Greek often transliterates to “Molon Lave”—“Come and take them!”, or more literally, “Having come, take!”, uttered by the Spartans in response to the Persians’ demand for their weapons. It’s the origin of the line “Go tell the Spartans”, which itself is the title of a 1978 movie about Vietnam starring Burt Lancaster; my uncle Frank had this film on videotape, and my military-minded cousin Mark adored that movie.
We wanted to see the terrain. “Thermopylae” does mean “Hot gates,” but what are the gates? The movie portrays the gates as a narrow pass between two high cliffs, but that’s not what you see on the ground. There are fairly steep mountains to the south of the beach, but then there’s a coastal plain at least half a mile wide.
The answer to this question lies in the gradual silting up of the Malian Gulf. Over the centuries, the beach on the south coast has become wider and wider. 2500 years ago, though, the beach might have been only a few feet wide in places. This would create a narrow corridor of flat land between the mountains and the water, which would indeed function as a sort of gate.
The “hot” part of the hot gates refers to the hot sulfur springs in the area.
How did Leonidas and his gang, from distant Sparta, formulate this plan? Everyone knew where the Thermopylae were, since the “Gates” were on the main route from the north to the south, dodging the high mountains around Parnassus. Any army aiming at Euboea, Attica, and the Peloponnese would have to walk through the “Hot Gates”. Some places tend to be places where battles happen, based on their geography; the fight between Greeks and Persians was not the last battle to be fought at Thermopylae over the centuries.
The “goat path” is plausible enough. Those mountains are still riddled with high paths, many of which are hard to find and would likely require a local guide. Certainly some of the trails marked on maps looked daunting! Thermopylae may have a little unusual in that it had only one path up and around. The path seems to have been at the same time well-known enough to have a name—the Anopaea—but obscure enough that a guy from Trachis, Ephialtes, had to show the Persians. (The whole “Ephialtes was a deformed failed Spartan” thing was made up for the movie.)
The site at Thermopylae isn’t terribly illuminating; this is the kind of place that might benefit from an enthusiastic guide to make it come to life. The famous monument with the poetic epigraph by Simonides was under repair and blocked off. The museum isn’t bad, though. The staff were really nice, and the CGI film you can watch is cool.
Our location on the south short of the Malian Gulf gave us a good perspective on the geography of the whole area. The shore of Euboeia was clearly visible across the water, as was the strait of Artemisium between Euboeia and the mainland leading toward the Pelion Peninsula.
Other than pondering the battle of Thermopylae, our main objective for these three days in Kamena Vourla were to get our laundry done, catch up on work, and eat at home for once.
We walked around the neighborhood, which was mostly olive groves.
We made trips into town to shop at the Galaxias grocery stores (two within half a kilometer of each other!) and to stroll the waterfront. I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad place to spend a few days in the summer, especially if you like ride in boats. The waterfront strip has all the expected touristic tavernas.
In addition to 300, we watched Life of Brian (perhaps the funniest movie ever) and part of 300’s sequel about the Battle of Salamis (unwatchable, stupid, and a complete waste of money).
It was nice to have our own house for a few days. And then it was time to head south to the Pelopponesus and the Menalon Trail!