selling my soul for a view

Helikon is a very lovely mountain, inoffensive and charming. It really doesn`t deserve what people have done to it! First :the Mornos canal goes through it in a tunnel, a change from its awful cement deathtrap mode. A tunnel ..that`s OK, one might think..except of course, that when one makes a tunnel through a mountain and it is IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT WORK, one obviously is in a bit of a rush, and one wants to do things as cheap as possible, because siphoning off money is, after all, the name of the game, then naturally a certain amount of wrecking of an iconic environment will be bound to occur. The more rush and the less expense the more horrendous the unrepaired damage to the unfortunate mountain will be. "What? you want water in Athens , AND you want Mount Helicon as beautiful as it was before? In your dreams, Sunshine" OK, before,during and after the tunnel there were lots of bauxite mines. No comment. And those rushing streams on Helikon, that make it a mountain of green glades, gleaming like emeralds amidst the malachite green of the fir trees? Needed elsewhere now. There are beach resorts developing (the very ones made out of ticky tacky photographed in "Little boxes") And monasteries. In spite of all EU directives about not stealing water from mountains, there are hosepipes from the very top of the mountain. These were not there six years ago. They cannot be legally there now. At the top of Mt Helikon is THE ultimate green glade. Exactly the place where Pan (not the mimsy Pan too often depicted on mountain tops, the one in children`s books, but the real one, with his mad goat eyes, and his mad wild pipe music specifically designed to encourage unspeakably disgusting behaviour ) I met a shepherd with his flock up there. He invited me to their May 1st celebrations. "We`ll all be up here on that day" he said " we enjoy ourselves very much" I bet they do. The latest human expiloitaton of Helikon is one I try hard to like: Windmills. At first I was horrified at the destruction they seemed to find necessary to put up these structures. Then I realised I had maligned them. The destruction had happened before.. the windmills were sited on an old bauxite mine. Is sanity finally prevailing? Surely building on an already ruined site can`t make economic sense can it? But perhaps, at last, people realise that there are other kind of sense than economic. Some people are worried about the effect of windmills on wildlife. The noise? Well it was REALLY REALLY windy, I mean fucking awful, when I was camped up there, so the windmills were REALLY going for it. But it wasn`t too bad. It was like being camped next to a giant tumble drier. You could sleep through it easily. When the wind dropped a bit the noise was really not loud at all. Yeah. Windmills might be OK. As we left the summit of the mountain and started down we were somewhat sheltered from the wind… but coming up the mountain was HORRIBLE. You can see poor George, very windblown, and, unlike his owner, unprotected by expensive sunglasses,with a lot of dust in his eyes. You can then see how very tiring it was trying to head into the wind. I walked all the way up because poor George had enough to do to keep going at all. You know how it is when you try to rides a bike into a headwind and the front wheel keeps turning back, and in the end you get off and walk? Same with George, except no front wheel. One other thing. As we started up this track, from somewhere near Thisbe, a large foreign number plated and driven lorry was just coming off it. The poor driver stopped, wound up his windows and was having an urgent phone conversation. In England recently a driver, following the instructions of his GPS had taken what appeared to be the most direct route to deliver whatever he had to deliver. Unfortunately the GPS told him to go through a small village. Here he got stuck. Couldn`t get over a bridge. Couldn`t reverse back round the corner, couldn`t go straight on. So he did the only thing he could do. Closed his windows and burst into tears. This driver seemed on the very edge of the same thing. But why would his GPS have told him to go over a precipitous track, hard going even for a horse, right through what obviously seemed to him to be bandit country? Because, naturally, there is soon going to be a road over the most precious part of Mt Helikon, and the GPS thought it was already there. Maybe the economic crisis can at least save us from this sacrilege. Because I know in my heart that that green place where I camped, and the shepherd and all the villagers were going to celebrate Mayday, has been a sacred place since time began. There are even the remains of some kind of ancient temple being excavated up there. Anyway, the way down was better, and we even saw a snake.. our first on this trip..so photo included. The wind was awful the next night too. We camped at a lovely place called Stiri. The local priest told us to camp near the Church. If it hadn't been so windy it would have been perfect. But when its windy like that everything blows away all the time, and anything that isn`t weighted down with a stone is gone for ever. This is very tiring and after 4 days of it I was exhausted. Luckily there are still tracks to follow in that area, so it wasn`t til we got to Dhistomo that the full awfulness of that road becomes apparent. In Marlow`s Dr Faustus, when Faustus is in the process of selling his soul to the Devil, he has a conversation with Mephistopheles. The road from Dhistomo to Desphina brought this to mind. Faustus remarks on the fact that Hell doesn`t seem that bad, as Mephistopheles is free to come and go, paying visits to people on earth etc. "Think`st thou that this is not hell?" replies Mephistopheles mildly "Nor that I am out of it?" Anyway there was no way out of this hell, because although the map shows tracks, I know from 6 years ago that the track is in very bad condition, and was impassable in places even then. So we went along this road, which every lorry in the world uses ..from where to where? I don`t fully understand the logistics. There`s lots of mines, and there`s lots of strangely secret installations along the coast, but all those trucks carrying trifili or frozen fish, how can we explain those? Anyway, near to Desphina is a little church Agios Trifonos. I wanted to revisit it, as 6 years ago I had found it a truly holy place. I know, I know, you can`t go back, I know, I know I was foolish to hope that such a beautiful place could be as it was. But I did. St Trifonos is another version of St Valentine, and he is also Bacchus, Christianised. So one thing that I had adored about that church was that it offered protection to birds. St Trifonas is responsible for birds, so this was appropriate. See the photo. A rock nuthatch has nested in the doorway, and a notice appears below it. Please use the other door, it said. I just LOVED that. But as we reached the Church I was filled with forboding. The fence and gate had been redone and the –lets call it a wild garden- around the church had been paved over with revolting pink and white cement slabs. (I know, too much pink is usually not enough pink for me ..but here pink just wasn`t right .) And the nest.. destroyed.. see the photo. Yes, something truly beautiful, truly a work of a deity had been smashed, because someone thought that it wasn't the right thing for a church door. Inside the Church there was a remarkable Icon of Agios Trifonos. It is in an unusual style and is extremely moving. But I couldn't get into the church to pay my respects to it. It was locked. So I peeped through a window. The icon was still there ( see photo) and at least one person had understood its meaning. Trifonos had been garlanded like the Bacchus he really is. At least folklore can still keep us in touch with the truth that myths can show us. I didn't stop at the church. I had promised myself that if it was still as full of truth and beauty as it had been I would stop for the night there.No need to stop. And besides, all unbeknown to me, I had already sold my soul to the devil in exchange for a view that I would see from my tent next morning. Faustus was prepared to sell his soul in order to possess Helen of Troy . I went through the hell of the road to Desphina in order to see the view from Delfi, I realise in retrospect You leave Desphina and climb into Mt Kirfi on a small but lovely asphalt road which soon becomes a very steep and demanding track which leads down into the deep Gorge below Delfi. I had to endure a bit more hell.. going through what must be the most iconic valley in all of Greece is… a cement canal…no!!!!!! not where the tourists might see it, natch, but where any wanderer in search of truth and beauty cannot fail to be offended by it. Below Delfi are wondrous olive groves and purling springs and nightingales. Where we stopped for the night I pitched my tent on the edge of a terrace where the view was of Mt Giona. Just as Dr Faustus says of Helen, when she makes him immortal with a kiss "Her lips suck forth my soul" So this view, and all the beauties of this incomparable place, sucked forth my soul. As they have sucked forth many a better soul over the millenia. And, like Faustus, I`d consider my soul well lost for this happiness. Certainly it was worth every step of that hellish road from Dhistomo to Desphina. Cheap at twice the price, even. The next morning we set off towards the mountain I most love in Greece , Giona. We went up from Chriso through the ancient olive groves towards Amphissa. The best olive groves in Greece . Certainly the least likely to be treated with herbicide, and so, exhuberantly green and full of life. The map show that this track doesn`t go all the way to Amphissa. 6 years ago I believed it, and so turned, as the map told me I had to do, towards Agios Konstantinos, and then up the asphalt to Amphissa. This year I didn`t believe it was possible that the track didn't go to Amphissa. So I didn't turn, and I found a way that led straight to Amphissa and my hotel. I had decided to have a break at Amphissa before taking on Giona, which is a very tough mountain. The people in the hotel recognised me from before. Soon George was happily grazing, I had found a place to buy grain for him, and I had a room with a bath and a bed. I had spent the trip from Delphi to Amphissa in some discomfort because my right foot and leg had swollen up grotesquely and were red hot and very sore. I had to have antibiotics and keep the foot up, emerging from my room several times a day to check on George and to get food etc. MY problems with vodaphone have already been mentioned. I also had the chance to check out my mattress for holes, because I had a bath to do that in. It did have a small hole, which I mended. It still didn't stay inflated. Grrr. I did ALL my washing. Spent the first night in my room working at my blog absolutely starkers while my entire wardrobe and sleeping bag dried. The next morning my entire wardrobe except those things dry enough for me to wear hung from my balcony. The hotel Amphissaeon is not pretentious or posh. But it is an excellent place to stay. Everyone is kind and helpful. I have still got the bathmat they gave me to make George`s pannier bags more comfortable. I loved staying there. When I needed something nothing was too much trouble. When I felt too ill to do anything everyone left me in peace. What more could you ask for?