As I mentioned, going along the big road from Kalambaka towards Ioannina/Grevena is a bit of a turnoff... but at some stage you turn off towards Grevena.. which is still dangerous, still a turnoff, but about half as dangerous as the road taking all the traffic out of Kalambaka.(see photo of road sign to understand WHY its dangerous. The sign (which is not aimed at Brits, to remind them, if they happened to have just arrived in Greece, that we drive on the right here, because it is in Greek) tells everyone that we DRIVE ON THE RIGHT, we only use the LEFT when overtaking. I can`t help feeling that truck drivers and porsche owners and datsun pilots really OUGHT to know that, BEFORE they are let loose on the public highways. But apparently they don`t, so I suppose its good to remind them. A question, though.If these persons don`t know which side of the road to drive on, or which side to overtake, mightn`t it be a bit much to expect them to be able to read?
Eventually you turnoff this road and take the road to Deskati. It still asphalt, it still has reminders about which side of the road to use, its still a turnoff, but the whole thing is less urgent. There`s hardly any traffic, and you can hear it coming for ages, as it is normally something like a combine harvester or a milk lorry. These use the middle of the road, anyway. Your job is to get out of their way.
The roadside was FULL of flowers. Some of which I have never seen before. This exquisite wild clematis for example. It came in maroon or purple. Beautiful enough to make you stop feeling hungry (me. George of course seized the opportunity to graze while I looked at them)
And look at these wild members of the onion family.Maybe some kind of leeks?
And there were insects, big shiny buzzy beetles.
We got to a place, not on the map, but apparently called Agios Theodosios. There was a garage and a farm.. and a vast pastureland being developed as a leisure area.
Here incredibly vast sums of money had been squandered on.. a building and another building in a rock. Everything was as cheap and crap as could be.
They carved a path along the side of the rock to the cafe - or whatever the fuck it`s meant to be with such lack of respect.. I mean, we don`t destroy natural monuments nowadays- do we?
The local herdsmen use the park, as they are quite right to do.. it has been built, afterall, on the traditional common grazing grounds of the area. A shepherd told me that about every fifteen days, at this time of the year, busloads of children come to the "park". How many children? oh lots, whole busloads.
There was little evidence of this, but, I saw that, as an afterthought, someone had realised that busloads of children really couldn`t be allowed to climb along the side of a cliff on a narrow path without any guard rails. So they put some. Wonky isn`t really the word for them. Very wonky, perhaps covers it.
Well, anyone who has had anything to do with school outings can be nothing but amazed that a self respecting group of 16 year olds could leave such a feeble construction unmolested. It would be the work of seconds to destroy it. Even eight year girls could put down their Barbies for a few seconds and vandalise it. Are Greek children weirdly well behaved, like some kind of zombies? I believe they are as normal as kids anywhere. The only explanation for the fact that those railings are still in place is that no kids have been near them. That is to say all that money has been spent creating an unusable attraction, while at the same time destroying it aesthetically.
Also although there is a river (dunno) running through the park, it is somewhat inaccessible for cattle and sheep to drink from. So there are water troughs. (empty) But, when I tried to get water for George (also unable to access the river) There wasn`t any. A whole expensive system of pipes and taps had been put in place, there appeared to be taps everywhere.None worked.
Oh said the shepherd, The Dimarchos has turned off the water.
Why?
Its for the visitors.
And am I not a visitor?
The shepherd had rigged up a hosepipe arrangement for his sheep, to circumvent the problems of traditional watering holes having had their water removed and put into a system of pipes and then switched off, so the animals had nothing to drink.
Kindly, because it was a very hot afternoon, he was sprinkling his sheep with water from a jug he had specifically for that purpose. The sheep were politely waiting their turn to be sprinkled.
The hosepipe had so little pressure, that he couldn`t fill his jug from it, he had to dip it into a trough which had taken most of the day to fill .
When the trough was empty they moved off.
The leisure area was a LONG walk from the garage, but I had seen that the garage owner also had a cafe and when I got there he was sweetly anxious to make sure I got fed and watered and looked after. He gave me a great meal. Everything, including the toilets (always a slight worry about using the toilets at these kind of cafes) were clean, new and carefully maintained. Really an excellent place to stop.
Some miles down the road there was yet another "Leisure area". I had stopped at it in 2004, and planned to stop there again now, as the weather was going to get bad- soon.
Unfortunately the place had deteriorated in the meantime, and the roof of the kiosk was not quite what I had hoped for. There was plenty of grass for George and water though. I spotted a small empty house nearby. The roof of its verandah seemed weatherproof. That`d do.
The usual notice board outside the leisure area had a lovely subtle butterfly perched on it. I usually go for brash in butterflies, but this was so perfect in a good taste way that I thought you`d like to see it too. Also on the notice board was a new plastic label saying how much money had been spent recently. Readers... now that we know what we know about how the Greek politicians have been stealing from us... here is a very clear example which shows it isn`t just the bignames in Athens that do it.. Somebody in the Dimos Xasion has cleaned up BIGTIME on the leisure places.. the one at Agios Theodosios, the one here, and the one I would see the next day at Agios Jiannis claim to have spent HUGE sums. And yet, the money for the leisure place where I stayed CAN¬T have been spent on that. (nor could the amount designated for the others have been spent on what they were supposed to be spent on.) The roof of the kiosk, and the shattered remains of one remaining table and a fence that couldn`t even keep George in- George, who stays in a place if you just paint a white line on the ground, was out of the fence and into someone`s trifili like a rat up a drainpipe -means that no money has been spent on this place since I was last there.. and then it had already been grossly overfunded.Look at the photo..the land already belonged to the public..and you can see how exactly thy have spent all those millions. Yes. millions.
A LOT of money has gone. But no one is in jail.
At about 6am the rain started with dreary persistence. No way we could travel on. So I walked about 500 m down the road and came to a garage/cafe that I remembered from 6 years ago.They let me stay all day in the cafe with my computer plugged in to their electrics. I got a lot of blogwork done.. but couldn`t post anything because Vodaphone doesn`t have a signal in that area.. or not much of one.
When the rain finally stopped I decided to go for a walk. Wearing my usual wetweather gear (see earlier blog for details) I crossed the river (don`t know) and tried to climb up the hill to the Church Agios Jiannis. Because some dope with a grader had been up the track it was very hard to walk up. So I changed route and went along the first unimproved path I could find. And there I beheld a wonder!!! an orchid- but WHAT an orchid. So strange so exotic so - well peculiar. I`d never seen anything quite like it. Near where I live I found a Lizard orchid, but it wasn`t quite the same as this.. the Lizard orchids were greenish, and though spectacular, were also kind of ugly, didn`t have the oomph that this flower did. Never the less I suppose this is a kind of Lizard orchid.. they vary greatly, and the ones at Agios Jiannis are maybe a special subspecie endemic to that area.
I showed the old guys in the cafe the pictures, later. They all recognised it at once. Its name is Agia Jianni they said. The reason they called it that was that their grandfathers called it that. They thought it may be to do with the fact that it usually blooms at the time when they go to the Church of Agios Jiannis, Prodromos (beginning of May) to celebrate. This one, they said, was very late and so that`s why I only found one.
Though, as the cafe owner said, there isn`t so many of them as there used to be.
The next morning it wasn`t raining, and there was lovely light illuminating the hillsides.
That`s it for rain, I thought. There can`t be more.. and that`s why this post`s song is The Last Time. Because I thought I`d got soaked for the last time, baby. Any Greek will tell you that its very foolish to think like that, and sure enough..OH NO!!! it wasn`t the last time at all. Usually I say just listen to the music while you read, but.. this Youtube is worth a gander.. its Mick as a youth.. and how very very compelling he is.. I`d forgotten...
But for most of the day it continued warm and sunny. I found the most FANTASTIC insect on the road. He is the hopper stage of some very large locust type thing. he was the size of a baby mouse. Wow!!
The roadsides continued to be decorated by all kinds of rare flowers
As we started down the road from the top of Mt Deskati (the map calls it Vounasa) towards Elati we had a couple of nasty shocks.
First this was a track when I was last here. And now it isn`t. And why?? (there is already a road from Deskati to Elati) lining pockets again I`d say..
and to make this crappy road they have killed not only the trees that were on the new road but also many beside it, The other shock? Well look at the sky behind those dead and dying trees,
OH NO!!! not the Last Time at all.
The light which now reaches the ground because the trees have gone means that many plants that can`t grow under trees can now . Strawberries for example.
Luckily about halfway down the mountain they have either run out of money or those in charge of the Elati area have decided to spend the money on something else, not having a brother in law with a road building company. So it reverts to being a track. Hurray!!!.
However someone HAS got a grader, so when the rain began to fall in buckets, the track became almost impossible. Either like glue, or like icerink or like paddling pool. All because some dope had removed the grass that was holding everything together.
But now came a very great thrill. I saw bear foot prints.
But you`ve seen billions of bearprints! you`ve already bored us with more than enough info about bears and their prints! don`t tell us even more stuff about bears! just shutup about bears!
Sorry, I can`t.
You see a bear on Mt Deskati is a sign that bears are really doing well. Deskhati is a small mountain, though it is suitable bear habitat. But no bear lived there - and now one does!!!
It isn`t possible for a bear to live on a mountain without the people who have animals there knowing. So - this means they are learning to tolerate them. To welcome them. To understand why a mountain that has a bear is a mountain that is healthy for all of us.
I`ll probably read in the newspaper that someone has shot the bear on Deskhati.. but for now, I am full of optimism.
In this mood of exhileration and hope I reached a little church outside Elati. MrLeonidas and his wife were just leaving the church having lit candles. They told me I could sleep there, that George could graze there and that the Panayia would take care of us.
"If anyone asks any questions, just tell them Leonidas told you to stay here" siad Mr Leonidas "I`m in charge of this church and I have told you to stay here."
Brilliant.
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