Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble
         
     
   
 
 
 

Cruising past Mt Athos +
the Castle and Aqueduct of Kavala
 
Thursday 16th October 2014
  
Our route overnight took us from the port of Thessalonica and around the Chalkidiki peninsula as we headed towards our next port of call, Kavala, where we were due to arrive at around lunchtime.
By early morning we were approaching the autonomous Mount Athos region, which is the easternmost part of the peninsula.
We sailed past here on this ship in September 2012, en-route from Istanbul to Athens. It was a day very much like today; calm yet cloudy.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
By 9:30 a.m, we had left Mount Athos behind us and were making directly for Kavala. At approximately 12:30 p.m, a pilot ship approached and we knew that we were close to our destination.
 
 
 
 
Our first impressions of Kavala were good. It looked as if there might be enough here to keep us occupied for the afternoon, so we made a spur of the moment decision not to take the afternoon coach excursion to Philippi. Instead, we decided we would get some exercise by climbing up to the castle and walking through the town to see its aqueduct, which we had read was quite spectacular.
That little path leading upwards on the right of this photo looked promising. Once we were ashore, we'd give it a try.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thank you to Tom (below) for the above photo.
 
 
 
We were intrigued by these strange marks on the side of our ship. We did ask about it, but got a somewhat vague reply.
By the time we returned to the ship after our walk, it had all been cleaned up.
 
Geoff did quite a lot of plant spotting this afternoon!
Oxalis
Creeping yellow cress
 
We began our climb up towards the castle. There was quite a lot of up!
 
Before too long, we found ourselves in the old town of Kavala.
 
The birthplace of Muhammad Ali Pasha on 4 March 1769. He is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt.
 
Church of the Virgin Mary
 
Halil Bey Mosque
 
   
If we thought we had finished climbing, it was time to think again!
   
 
   
It was worth the climb. The view from the entrance to the castle was very good.
 
 
Layout of Kavala Castle, which we were about to visit (not our photo)
There is an inner and an outer enclosure. Within the inner enclosure is the arms and food depot, which later became a prison. There is also a water cistern, guardhouse and a round tower. The outer enclosure has an open air theatre.
 

1. Main Circular Tower.
It is definitely worth going up to the top of the tower because that’s the highest point and offers the best view, although it’s a bit of a tight squeeze getting up there and the steps are uneven.
 
Geoff played it safe and let Bruce take photos from the top.
 
 
 
 
 
In the meantime, Geoff was admiring the local plants (and taking photos of Bruce up the tower!)
 
2. The Water Cistern
 
 
3. The Guard House
4. The Armoury and food depot (later, a prison)
 
After the views from the top of the tower, the next best views come from climbing up a few uneven steps and walking on the inner and outer walls of the castle, which Bruce decided to do...
...while Geoff preferred to watch from a distance and enjoy a cold beer!
 
We decided to make our way down from the castle towards the modern town and that amazing aqueduct.
 
 
The aqueduct is well preserved and is one of the city's landmarks. We read somewhere that it is probably of Roman origin,
however the present structure dates back to the 16th century and was still in use until early in the twentieth century.
 
   
 
After all that exercise, we were just in time to get back to the ship for afternoon tea... now that was well planned!
 
A lovely evening in the port, as we were only scheduled to leave at 10:00pm
Next stop, Lemnos.
 
 
©Geoff Brock and Bruce Gamble