Testimonials

In January 2010 we asked some of our guests to write about their stay at Gargarou Retreat. we asked only for a couple of sentences but were given much more. Here are several which we have reproduced in full:

We came to Gargarou looking for some serenity from the everyday throngs of the modern world...and well we found that and much much more. We found a little piece of heaven filled with beautiful landscapes, the bluest beaches, and incredible food but the most precious and meaningful part of it were the people we met and befriended. From Pete and Rachel to the villagers of Harakopio, we felt so welcomed and ultimately at home. We have travelled the globe from Africa to South America but no place will hold what Gargarou does...our hearts.

Tommy and Jeannie, Ireland & USA, stayed in 2009
 

I was only there for a few months but it was very sad to leave. I still think about my little villa and wonder who is in there and if they are looking after my little place properly. I think though that you guys were the reason why I have such fond memories of my time there. You made me feel so welcome at a time when I was truly wondering why I had thought it be a great idea to travel to the other side of the world on my own to a place where I couldn't even speak the language. I will never forget that first day when you opened the French doors of the villa and I took my first look across the valley at the view from my new home. It was magic. My best memories of all the places I ended up visiting in Greece. And all that walking in to the village, down to the beach, over to Koroni. And always a smile and a greeting from anyone I met on my travels. No matter the language it's all the same in the end. If I ever get the chance I'm definitely coming back again.

Gayle, New Zealand, stayed in 2009

If you are of a self-sufficient disposition, content with peaceful days and quiet nights, seeking eternal sunshine, in love with Greece, then Gargarou is for you. My home for three months in 2007 was Villa Fig, one of Pete and Rachael’s simple two-room villas, with white-washed walls, high timbered ceilings, tiled floors, and French windows filled with views of the valley below and the sea beyond.

The dawn, radiant behind the distinctive leaf patterns of my spreading fig tree, would turn without fail from silver gold to sapphire blue. Every awakening at Gargarou made me feel glad to be alive. I’d close and curtain the French windows and shut the door to keep the bedroom cool. Then I’d open the ones next door, leaving them open all day between the kitchen and the south-facing, covered, stone terrace running the villa’s length. The terrace was another room, affording a clear view of the ever-changing Mediterranean and the moody Taygetos Mountains beyond. It was quite easy to spend the day there, shaded from the hot sun, sketching, reading or writing, watching the way the landscape changed before one’s eyes. In the air, raptors called and patrolled the air currents, searching for anything that moved among the patchwork of vineyards, ancient olive groves and dark cypresses. Sun would scintillate off the roof-top solar collectors of Koroni, the little seaside town in the middle distance at the tip of the Peloponnese and, as the heat rose, so did the song of the cicadas.

Along a level path that wound its way past olive trees, grassy meadows and smallholdings, lay Harokopio, an unspoiled inland village on the main road to Koroni. Butchers, bakers (and possibly candlestick makers), two pharmacies, a post office, three or four coffee shops or tavernas, several small grocers, a few apparel stores, and a bountiful vegetable and livestock market on Sunday mornings supplied everything I could possibly need only a twenty minute walk away. Summers are hot in Greece and siesta closes almost everything for three or four hours each afternoon. If I needed supplies, I’d walk the path to Harokopio in the morning, making sure to return to the cool of the terrace long before the sun was overhead.  Or I’d go later, at about 5, after siesta. That was also the time I liked to take another path, down to the gentle shore of sandy Gargarou beach, to swim in the clean, warm waters of the Mediterranean sea as the sun sank towards the western hills. Returning to Fig, I’d shower, prepare my supper, and eat it out on the terrace, gazing out at the stars in the dark night sky.  The full moon rose directly in front of me, from behind the grandeur of the Taygetos Mountains, on three occasions. Unforgettable!

Once a week, I’d head to Koroni, a 20-minute trip by bus from Harokopio or an hour and a half walk along the coastal path, for a watercolour class taught by a local artist in the early evening. Koroni is a lovely town to spend time in. It has a bank and a fishmonger and a few internet terminals (not available in Harokopio when I was there) and there are many small shops that sell absolutely everything. Or you can visit the convent within the confines of the Venetian castle on the hill, or explore the tip of the peninsula until you come to the long sandy beach that stretches away on the other side.  For the price of a coffee, no-one bothers you if you spend all of siesta reclining on comfortable sofas arranged  in spacious, shady marquees along the harbour front, catching up on letter writing, people watching or reading the papers, or if you are lucky, seeing turtles swimming in the deep, clear water. With my classmates and tutor, after class, we’d enjoy an evening meal together.  I discovered many new and delicious foods in this way, as we shared dishes as well as the local wines.

In early May, a Canadian friend came to stay and once she’d turned brown we set off to explore parts of ancient Greece. First we visited Sparta and saw the ancient ruins there at sunset. The next day was spent among the ruins of marvellous Mystra, a preserved Byzantine settlement situated nearby. To get to Sparta, we travelled an hour and a half north from Harokopio by coach to Kalamata, a small port city (and, yes, the home of Kalamata olives) which is the hub for bus routes throughout the Peloponnese and beyond. (It has an airport too, increasingly served by international flights, and a station for trains to Olympia.) Greek coaches are air conditioned and supremely comfortable. Travelling the countryside, in well-upholstered seats with tall backs for privacy and big windows for the view, riding high off the road, no luggage underfoot (it’s stored in the hold) with melodic Greek songs playing softly from the speakers, it doesn’t get much better.  And it doesn’t take much to master them either. A rudimentary knowledge of the Greek alphabet, a schedule, and a map quickly made us into confident travellers. At the end of my stay, I went north by coach alone to Thessaloniki, and onwards to the ancient Prespa Lakes, where I stayed for a week among Dalmation pelicans and frescoes carved on cliff walls visible only from the water.

Gargarou is the perfect place to be. To go from and to return to in your discovery of the strange and marvellous things Greece has to offer. It will be your home away from home, from the moment the sun rises, during each cloudless summer day, to the cooling moment when the cicadas cease to sing, meditative or waxing philosophical through warm starlit evenings, and sleeping deeply through calm, peaceful nights. You are sure to come away, washed clean in body, mind and spirit. I did.

Jackie, UK/Canada, stayed in 2007

Our thanks to these lovely people and their generous words