Another walk around Hora

Saturday 2nd July - Hora and thereabouts 

One problem in this traditional Cycladian house is ants. There are minute little ones and some  that are a lot bigger than the ones we get at home. I imagine the foundations and water systems are havens for them, so they can come and go as they please. They don’t really cause problems to me, they don’t bite, but if you leave any small amount of food like a little bit of breakfast cereal in the sink, the little ones are all over it in a rash. Food bins are also a nuisance and can end up with them piling into  it. So I have two lots of waste, dry and  wet. The wet stuff like peelings, and other food waste, I try and remove as quickly as possible. In most cases I am going past a dumpster, so I throw rubbish in there. This keeps the little monsters down!

Although I haven’t heard back from that Serifos group that I hoped I could volunteer for, I got my first email from a Serifos mail alias that I joined. It had an attachment,  a poster which was in Greek but it was for a music event. It’s when I am not on the island, which is a pity, hopefully next time I will be here, I can then get someone to translate for me, so I know what I am letting myself in for.

So this morning I have decided to walk towards a church, Agia  Kyriaki, there are other churches around about on the walk, but their names are in Greek! Before I started, I popped into the bakers for my lunch, which was to be a bit like a quiche. I asked the young guy what his name was and it’s Manorlos, but I need to check that, and I when paid next door the lady owner said her name was  Markla. So the route took me past the windmills and up and round a mountain which might be the tallest on the island. There was terracing and the usual dove or pigeon breeding buildings. All around there were always plenty of small ruined builds on the walk. 

As I went around and further up I could see the reservoir I went over yesterday and Hora then disappeared. There then was an area of vines which were clearly were subject to a fire recently. As I got to where the path where the church was meant to be, it was clear it wasn’t obvious where the path was. So I gave up going to that church and I  decided to carry on on the road. I had my quiche, unfortunately it wasn’t a good choice, it had got shaken up on the walk and it was quite hard to eat. I had a big bottle of water with me too. There was a concrete memorial relating to something in 1988 and within yards a little metal memorial box with just room  for an oil lamp and a couple of small items relating to the person remembered. Apart from the usual rubbish randomly thrown away,  there was this white van just sitting in a field. It has to be said it was very windy throughout the walk, which was good as it kept me cool!

There was as an area where canes and other vegetation were growing, you could see an obvious water run off from the mountain and I could see someone was growing some produce there, it looked well watered. There were the remains  of a couple of windmills about to see too. There were not many people on the road, a few of them waved at me, thinking mad Englishman perhaps! Hora then reappeared and I could hear a ferry was coming into port. At this point there was a junction, where I  turned left towards the heliport. The other road goes to the Monastery which I thought was a bit disappointing when I looked at it last time I was here.

There was some Thyme flowering by the roadside, I crunched a few leaves, boy what a smell! It did not see any bees on it, but I did see a couple of beehives nearby. This bit of the island is quite green, other parts are very barren.   I then got to the Heliport, to the right was this almighty pile of rubbish by a house. I wonder if they are doing a sort of rubbish collection/recycling business. It’s pretty horrible and ruins this pretty island. I could see the Church of St George in the distance, it did not look a very exciting building! But around us was amazing rock formations. There was a huge hole in the ground here, it wasn’t clear if this was the result of human activity or nature. In any case there was a few items chucked in it. There was a small barn with what looked like a goat in it.  To the church was a walk over an  unmarked path over a few fields covered in herbs. As I crunched unavoidably over some of them, a series of strong herby pungent  smells were released. Eventfully I got to to the church. There was a lady sitting down and I said hello. She was Swedish and her son was scrambling up a big rock formation opposite us. She said she wasn’t going to stop him. She loves Serifos. Eventually he got to the top and he waved to us. 

So I left them to it and carried on. The path suddenly became a wide track. You could see it was very well made, built many years ago, an original track for carrying things across the island perhaps. It was supported on huge rock banking and around us more amazing rock formations and fantastic views of Hora, Livadi and Sifnos. I could see the Zante ferry rolling in, the Sea Jet nearing Sifnos. I could see another walker in the distance.

Eventually I caught up with her, she was with the other two, she the God parent of the boy. Eventually he and his mother caught up with us. The path then degraded as we all dropped into Hora right by the New House. I walked into town, bought myself an ice cream and a snack for doing such a long walk.