Thursday 13th October - Hora and Livadi
At a house above me they are doing building work. On the dusty track that leads along our houses and the taverna, there is a big pile of rubble that they have created. It will be interesting to see if it’s taken away, or pushed down into the ravine. The track is at quite a gradient, and a big van arrived the other day and it stopped by my house. It then tried to resume its climb up the track, and there was a lot of wheel spinning and dust thrown up before it got going. Yesterday two workers arrived on a very underpowered motor bike. Somehow they managed to persuade it to get to the property they are working on.
I missed the best of the sunrise this morning, I imagine these clouds had a lovely pink colour on them before I got up. I have managed to renew my mobile phone package, it looks like I am going to have to use the landlords Wi-Fi, mainly because the router I am using now has a limit of data, which after watching a few programs, I am going to reach. The previous month, it had unlimited data. A special one off offer! This means I would have to renew the package multiple times a month, it would not take long to spend as much as the landlords offering would cost me. Oh well.
One thing I am going to decide on is how I get to Livadi for my ferry Sunday night. The ferry is at nine pm, I can’t walk down there, even with a small case. Of course the buses don’t run at weekends. I think it going to have to be a taxi. I will book it early, so if it doesn’t turn up, I would have time to walk down or ring an alternative! The return ferry returns on Tuesday morning, so I won’t have the same problem on the way back. One thing I need to do is decide is what I need to buy on Syros, I hope I can get that all done in the morning, so I can take another look at the Hora on Syros. There is a modern bell tower up there, it’s modern because it’s predecessors had all been hit by lightening and destroyed. Which seems odd, because you would hope they all had lightening conductors.
The above is a nice shot of Syros from the sea. The capital has got a lovely Italian feel to it.
Last night I made myself a kedgeree meal, I used frozen fish I had bought, onion, eggs, rice and peas. With only two ‘rings’ it takes a bit of careful coordination! Food items are at least as expensive as the UK, I think fresh food like apples are more expensive. For some reason, they seem to favour red onions. The ones I am growing are white though. Talking of which, the first garlic that I planted in the original trough has appeared. It’s still warm enough for things to grow, unlike the UK. Hopefully the onion sets and the other garlic, will shows signs of growing soon.
It’s funny here, because I thought today, well not much is going to happen, but I was very wrong. I went into my local shop to pick up some cereal I had ordered and it had arrived, but it was in one of a dozen small boxes outside the shop. So between us we opened each in turn, no luck! But she had something that would do, so I took that. Meanwhile there was this guy in the shop, it was fairly obvious to me, he was English. I said if he fancied a coffee or a beer… , but he cut me off and said if it was ok with me, he was wanting to be on his own. He lived in Kato Hora, all year, had been there ten years.
I then went to the cafe, the two Swiss girls were there, I went inside and ordered, Marinos was not there, his wife who normally does the afternoon and evening shift was. Maybe they have swapped shifts. Inside was another couple, again he was from the UK, and from Scotland. He had lived in New Zealand for many years, had sold everything up, and had been travelling since. I then sat outside with the girls. They had not gone to Sifnos, had hired scooters instead. They are going to Piraeus today. Did I know where they could buy paper? I laughed and told them that I had tried to buy some. But I had a pad, A3 size, that they could have some sheets. They want to do some drawings of buildings for their friends. I spent a long time with them, later I went and got the paper, meanwhile Father Panagiatis arrived and we exchanged greetings. I wrote my number on the paper, and said if they wanted, they could WhatsApp any drawings to me. They had been feeding a cat, which one of them thought she would like to take home, would anybody mind? I said I did not think so, but getting it into their country might be difficult!
I decided to walk down the steps to Livadi, then decide on my return route. On the steps down, there are always loads of ants, usually all walking the same route, some of them carrying things bigger than themselves! There was a guy using his horse to carry ballast.
The horse in the field has munched a bit more of the field, it’s leaving lots of manure behind it. I had my lunch, then decided to walk on a path that goes right up to the dam of the reservoir. On the map and google maps, it’s not clear what happens then, but I know from looking from the dam pathway, up above there is a path that leads down to the dam wall. I remembered where the lady I asked in the supermarket said the hairdresser was, so I went in to the little arcade and found her. She doesn’t speak English but a kind lady who was having a hair treatment translated for us both, I am booked in for next week. I better have some Greek ready on my phone before I go !
As I carried on along the beach, they were trimming the trees growing in the sand back to the tree stump, they do this on Kamares beach too. I saw the Cocker Spaniel that myself and Ronnie met last week, Nala, with her owner. She, her husband and a friend were shutting their hotel up. I sat down and had a chat with Vivi. They live in Athens, will come back in May. They sometimes come in the winter to do renovation work.
The artificial football pitch has nearly been finished, it has it’s white stripes and goals put up now. I turned left onto a path I know from other walks, but soon turned left again to follow the dry river bed, towards the reservoir dam. On the right was the real grass football pitch. To the left on the mountain were beehives. Unfortunately there was also the usual rubbish, old washing machines, piles of rubble and so on. As I got closer to the dam itself, I was thinking of the amount of water the dam was holding back and of course the Dambusters! It is windy today, but doubly so along the river bed. I think I know why google maps shows the path stops, it looks like there was a wall going across the river bed, several metres away from the dam itself. But it’s been breached, so I I could carry on right up to the dam itself. Here there were loads of goats, and lots of standing water, feeding green growth and a strong smell of herbs. Ronnie would love this bit of the walk. Some of the goats had bells on them.
I found an easy way to climb up to the path I saw from the path on the top of the dam itself and I was soon walking up it, where there was a guy looking at the goats, were they his? My way took me up to the church and graveyard, where I took the photo below, there was a can of WD40 rusting away on the ground, so I removed it and some other rubbish, popping it all into a handy bin by the graveyard. A lovely walk, I will try it the other way round next time.
Comments
Post a Comment