The missing church,,,

 Friday 30th December 

Another lovely meal last night at my friends. The pie was truly excellent, and we had a few games of the card game we played at Camaron the other night. It’s a bit like Monopoly, as the card you lay down can have a devastating effect on the next player, making them miss a go, or pick up extra cards and so on.  

A challenge I face every day is crossing the gravel, that is in front of this and other houses near me. It probably seemed like a good idea, nice stones glistening in the sun. But the gravel is gradually being invaded by weeds and being used by the stray cats. It’s deep enough to let them dig a hole in it and sort of bury you know what. Sometimes they don’t bother to do the burying bit. I try and avoid walking on it if I can. 

This morning, my friends had some chores to do, so I decided to walk the complete path that I started on with the dog and see where it went. Firstly I had a chore of my own, to buy my favourite pie, eat it and leave a bit in the bag it is given to me in.( for the dog)  There seemed some sewage works going on, by the beach,  one of those sewage tankers were on standby and an unfortunate smell was lurking around the port area! Meanwhile I also had my friends flask, they asked me to fill it, so they could pick it up from me, on their way out. I met them in their car and passed the things over. I headed out to St Catherine, and started on the path. Over on that side of the bay, the sun was out and it was getting warm. I had some water with me thank goodness. I carried on looking around me a bit more, not having the dog with me this time.

 When I got beyond where I had stopped before with the dog, it certainly got tricky, but there were some more amazing views. I would say that Serifos wins hands down on amazing rock formations, and variety. I know I have mentioned this before! There were a few cyclamen flowering, but they were getting lost in the other vegetation.

Eventually I realised the handy cairns had stopped appearing, the trouble is when you are walking in these environments, it hard to spot where the path is! I carried on. Eventually I reached the peninsula, at its point there was a navigation light, the path also reappeared! I went onto the peninsula but when the path got really suspect, I stopped, and  then turned around. So no church. Meanwhile I could Serifos from one viewpoint and Kithnos from another. There was a painted plaque near here, I don’t know if it’s a memorial or what?

On my way back I passed the ruin that I saw with the dog. I think this was the church, although it is round. I also saw a huge boulder with a small bulb growing in it.  There are two other churches on this side of the island, it may be one of those I have seen from the ferry. The ruin is not above ground level. St Catherine reappeared and I was on the home run. I had managed to keep on the path all the way back following the cairns. Sadly there were some arrows spray painted on some of the rocks, marking the way, pity they did not do the red and white stripes. 

When I got back to the beach, I met one of my other friends sunning themselves on the beach. We are going out with this person and two other friends and have dinner with someone I have not met yet.

This afternoon, I made some sausage rolls for tomorrows evening, I was not able to get belly pork for this recipe, some of them broke open too! They are not the best I have made, a bit more seasoning perhaps, but the Sage and Oregano came from this island. I gave the dog a short walk as he had a busy time in  Vathi this morning, and even had a swim!  He food tested one of the sausage rolls. It got the paws up…