End of the road

 Sunday 

So last night I had a meal in a restaurant I have been to before. I started with a local soft cheese, they have gave me a mountain of it, I  then had  a burger, I know not very Greek! But it came in a black bread bun. I asked the waitress if it had a special name, it did not, their bread delivery from Hora had not turned up, so this is what they had left. Walking about, it seems these places are not busy, they are barely ticking over. Even here they are having problems finding staff. She was Albanian. She said they had snow here by the sea this winter. They had to close for several days until it cleared. There was a lovely tall ship in the harbour and it looked nice with the sunset. 

 While in the town this morning, after buying lunch, I heard Welsh accents. So I thought, I bet that’s the group who the lady from Mani was guiding and sure enough it was. They were heading home, they all lived on Anglesey which I know. The yacht above is no longer there, it must have slipped out earlier this morning.

So for today I was heading out East after going to Batsi. This was unchartered territory and likely to not feature many village names. After driving around, I was so high up, I was almost in touching reach of the thick clouds rolling in. 

I decided to have a walk in what we would call a hamlet in the UK. I met this Greek couple, they had a pick up truck crammed full of sheep and they were just putting a few lambs and an adult into a mini pen by the side of the road. They also tossed some hay in there. So I said hello and we managed to have a sort of a conversation, with the aid of hand signals etc. In a nutshell this group in the pen were munching their last meal. I guess the lambs were big enough, but the adult, the man made it clear it was no good anymore. I guess someone was going to pick them up and turn them into… the ones in the pick up truck were off to the other side of the mountain. Oh well. I then drove as far up as I could and then had a wander round on the rough track, as far as I could go. The views were amazing.  Afterwards I drove part the way down again into Katakilos.

I then saw this walk sign, number eleven.

 A few metres up the path was the first  church, when I got there it was protected by a wire fence. I don’t know sheep would damage the church. I remembered the walk went up to another church, which I thought was one I could not get to when I had my wander round further up. So I carried on. I must admit the signs were excellent, they were every few yards, it looked like there were proper steps at one time, they just needed a bit of tlc. I saw these three small houses, all for sale. They needed some tlc too, but up there unless you were keen to be up in the mountains, they were never going to sell.. Where a farmer wanted to keep his animals in, there was this Heath Robinson metal fence gate affair, with a little sign on it saying Open then Close. No kissing gates here then. There were some amazing meadows with wild flowers in them.

I also saw a prickly pear cactus and the huge succulent they use for Aloe Vera I think. I also saw Hawthorn flowering too. Eventually I got to the church, it had a graveyard by it too. This was called Agio Anargyroi. There was a rattling noise in the wind, it was the glass in the grave memorials, they have boxes with photos and things of the loved ones and these are sealed with glass. The clouds were getting dark by now!

 

I then had a dilemma, try and walk down by the road or go back on the path. I decided google maps was not up to the task and went back the way I came. On the way back, I had a closer look at the  old ruins, probably farm buildings of some description. 

After the walk ended, I drove again, going much higher, actually in the clouds, so I had to put my lights on. I was now in the part of the island called. Arni, this area is covered in trees and very different to other areas I have seen. But sadly they have had a big fire here recently and the some of the mountain was bare except for blackened skeletons. Hopefully it will grow back. At the very summit were these enormous stones, with weird shapes. They looked so precarious, you sort of felt that a little bit more soil washed away and it would go tumbling down the mountain, destroying anything in its path. 

Looking down, I could see Andros Town and the road here was sound and I was soon going over the middle of the island, back to Batsi then Gavrio. I put some more petrol in the car then handed it back. Tomorrow it’s back to Athens, then across to the more familiar port of Piraeus, my ferry to Milos is Tuesday morning, so I won’t be writing anything tomorrow. I shall miss this place, I like it a lot!