RAMBLING AND SCRAMBLING

Panormo to Skepasti

We made the most of the beautiful spring weather by planning a walk along what would be called the coastal path in the UK except that here along the North Coast of Crete there is not what you would call a footpath – as such. Still, Brod the Guide for this excursion had done the walk before and we met at Base Camp (the Cafeneon in Panormo outside the Bakers) at 0900 hours on Thursday. After a long glass of water and a metrio (small, semi-sweet Greek coffee in a tiny cup) we set off with our Archeology hats and fibre glass walking poles. I was a bit self-conscious carrying this hikers equipment but we soon found out that we would need them.

We trudged up the path past the cemetery and around the cliff amongst a large flock of goats – all with bells donging and clunking. The path was good at this point – well rutted with tracks of 4 x 4 vehicles until we turned into a dip between the coast cliff where the lighthouse is and another lower hill. The terrain was easy with herbs, wild flowers and small rocks on either side. Eventually though we reached the point of no return and planning our assault on bandit country, we telephoned HQ (Brod and Carolynn's house) in case a search party needed to find us!

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At this point the ramble turned into a bit of a scramble and we hair-pinned up amongst rocks and gorse bushes on a very steep slope with a fence along the top. I was using my walking pole to lever me over difficult jumps and puffing slightly, as we reached the fence and tried to decide how to tackle the next field which was entirely enclosed with wire fencing. Unhitching the wires of the fence and slipping through (this was much more of a struggle than it sounds and we were grateful for our walking poles to keep our balance) we mended all the fences as we went and crossed two or three enclosures until we reached a large radio/telephone antennae on the top of the hill. At this point, we sat down on large rocks amongst the butterflies, sipped from our water bottles and soaked up the vista of the mountain ranges, hill farms and patchwork carpets of olive and orange groves before us. The national road looked minuscule and we worked out the various towns and villages in the living map in front of us. The birdsong was uplifting and all around our feet, little crickets jumped in all directions to avoid our boots. If my hands had not been full, I would have been tempted to pick some of the wild oregano growing amongst the rocks. As it was, I took a few photos and slowed down to pull grass seeds, thistle and gorse prickles out of my trainers at regular intervals.

There was only one more gateway to negotiate after this but it was padlocked so another fence unhitching and hitching was required and after this the tracks were easy to follow from here on – all down hill. The height of the cliffs (all volcanic rock) were very high and the little coves over the edge remote, but it was much too high and steep to investigate too closely. We met an Albanian shepherd who asked if all the fences were OK and we assured him that all the fences were sound in our wake!

It was very hot – nearly mid day as we trudged down the back lanes into the village, but the walk (4 miles or so) had been well worth the initial scramble. After a cooling drink in Skepasti, we drove back to HQ in Panormo where Carolynn had made one of her famous soups. I think we will have to collaborate and produce a recipe book entitled Carolynn's Cretan Soupbowl Recipes; it is either the fresh produce, herbs or seasonings, (or C's secret ingredient) that makes them such a winner. Deeee-licious!

DOUBLE 'YOKED' EASTER

CHRISTOS ANESTI! It has been a peculiar sort of week with two Easters a week apart. Our Easter (“Catholic” Easter) was a busy time with a visit to an archaeological site on the Friday and Saturday, staying overnight at a Hotel at Agios Nikolaos. We studied maps and plans via a slide presentation from the Curator at Knossos from the British School of Athens on the Friday night in preparation for a full morning looking at the Minoan Site of Gournia (approx 1450-1500 BC) on Saturday.

After a hearty breakfast, the Group travelled by coach from Ag. Nik. along the coast to Gournia, well supplied with bottles of water and a sizeable crop of “Archaeologist” hats and sunshades because the weather was at last very hot. Turning our plans and maps round and about to fit the puzzles together we tripped up the steep cobbled pavements between the solid looking walls and traced out store rooms, staircases, window ledges and door steps. We could just make out the remains of columns in wider courts, ledges for pots in tiny downstairs rooms, carved out stones and small corners for some kind of divine ritual, the full explanation of which is now lost in the mists of time. However, it was a beautiful place and amongst all the dried up stone walls and porticos, wild flowers blazed, peeped and spread in carpets creating vistas which kept us snapping with our cameras. The explanations about different sorts of graves and burials in caves and house graves was a fitting reminder that it was Easter Weekend and the examples reminded me of photographs I had seen about tombs, caves and burial practices in Jerusalem later in history.

Kimon drove me to the Anglican Church on Easter Sunday and it was lovely to meet up with friends from previous visits and to talk to the Chaplain there who has been in Crete for about the same time as K and I have. He gamely offered to pay a visit to our end of the island later in the year when I can gather all the interested people from hereabout to meet up with him and find out whether there are enough of us to form a small group hereabouts.

Emerging from church with joyous Easter hymns, it was hard to remember that all the folk in the village were still in their Holy Week leading up to their Orthodox Easter celebration a week later. Their Holy Week is extremely austere, with no meat eaten at all and the fish van calling every day with its raucous tanoy to persuade one and all to come and buy! The Church bells rang at odd times without rhyme or reason to us. By Friday, the weather was grim and the village church bell tolled non-stop from 7.00 in the morning until 11.00 at night and as I had moved on from Good Friday, I felt curiously disabled by having a foot in two camps simultaneously! However, we joined the procession following a funeral byre made of flowers and candles and walked amongst about 100 people around Panormo, our nearest town, on Friday night. The weather was so wet and windy, all our candles blew out and we lost Kimon very early in the proceedings finding him miraculously by the car once it was all over!!!

After all this gloom on Friday, we expected lots of fireworks at midnight on Saturday night and joyful noise as people returned from church, but sadly, we fell asleep early and missed all the fun (if there was any). I discovered later that the long wait in all the churches is because the Easter light is brought to Greece from Jerusalem by plane and carried around the country by police cars and further light carriers to complete the journey. It is amazing to think that candles are then lit from the church locally and the light of Christ is taken back to every little home to make the sign of the cross with candle smoke under the door lintel after the midnight service. It is a lovely symbol.  The Olympic torch should have no problems - Greeks have obviously been solving the logistics for aeons!

No bells could be heard on Sunday morning as we closed the house and loaded things into the car. Everything was deadly quiet as we left for the South Coast where a large group of us were meeting at a family restaurant with a clay oven for Easter Sunday Lunch (Orthodox style). We ate Easter pastries, cracked our Easter eggs dyed red (Kimon had a 35-er and was declared champion), were presented with ¼ of a lamb to eat each which tumbled out of the clay oven once the door was chipped open. After all the austerity of the very long Orthodox Lent, Greeks are very glad to have a large meat feast on Easter Sunday which is always spent with their family. So our group was a convivial gathering with good friends and we enjoyed it immensely.

The next morning we took a gentle walk around the harbour, the beach path and the local camp site before slogging up the steep cliff path back to the hotel to pack our bags and drive home. We stopped off at Spilli – one of our favourite watering holes where streams tumble down from the mountains through waterfalls and fountains – and sat under the shade of the cool plane trees for elevenses before completing the second half of the journey. The icy cold water melting from the mountain tops was as refreshing as ever and we soaked up the atmosphere glad to enjoy the warm weather and arrival of tourists after the winter.

ALITHOS ANESTI!