Saturday 19th April 2008

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Martin is fifty three
Happy Birthday to me
Just think yourselves lucky that you don't have to listen to me singing it!
We woke and I was greeted by “Happy Birthday Martin – you are as old as me now” from Jane. I think that it should have been “as young as me”, but there we go.
The saying is that one should “beware Greeks baring gifts” but I have rarely found this to be the case. Tackling Manolis, the campsite owner, and asking him whether he wanted any money for our stay, he insisted that he didn't and wished us a good stay in Greece. In return we wished him good luck for the completion of his work and for his first major test of the season, Easter, next weekend.
We took the old national road West along the coast, turning inland on the road to Kalavrita and started the long climb up into the mountains. The scenery was spectacular and we started to see shepherds and flocks of sheep and goats. When we stopped to admire the view, the sound of their bells drifted over the mountain and also the sound of the shepherd whistling. Some of the shepherds had dogs to control the sheep and goats but most didn't, just using whistles to direct the flock. Having read 'Driving over Lemons' by Chris Stewart, it appears that Spanish (or at least Alpajuran) shepherds do exactly the same. It makes me wonder how long it takes the sheep and goats to learn the meaning of the whistles. I don't think of them being as intelligent as a dog and there are a lot to train. Back on the road, driving through the flocks became quite common, with some proving quite difficult to move. Mind you, I didn't try whistling, perhaps that would have worked?
Our first stop was the oldest monastery in Greece, Mega Spileo (Big Cave). The monastery was founded in 362 AD at the spot where a shepherdess (Saint Efrosyni) noticed that one of her goats disappeared and returned later with a wet beard. She was directed by the voice of the Virgin Mary and discovered the holy spring in the cave and next to it an icon of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. We were told that the icon, in wax and mastic, was 2,000 years old, which is interesting as it meant that, as experts tell us that Jesus was actually born in 4 AD, that would make Jesus 4 years old! However, we read later that tradition says that it dates from 40 AD, is the work of the disciple Luke and is the first icon showing the Virgin Mary. It is also said that the Virgin Mary actually blessed the icon. You can imagine that all of this makes the monastery very important in the Greek Orthodox world. It is a fascinating place with beautiful views over the mountains and valley. We didn't have to pay an entrance fee, so I decided that we should buy something from the shop. We chose a tiny copy of the famous icon for €1.50 (for Jane to stick on the wall of the motorhome) and, as it was my birthday and Jane couldn't object, I bought an incredibly naff and very roughly made mug. It was either made in the monastery or the local asylum – the quality of the pottery is terrible and the painting on the mug is just awful. A great Greek souvenir!
The story of a discovered spring and a miraculous icon is a recurrent theme in Greece. Springs were often sacred sites in ancient Greek times, being a source of life-sustaining water that appears mysteriously from the ground. With the spread of Christianity, it was necessary to remove pagan worship whilst maintaining some continuity. Therefore at many such sacred sites, springs were (re-)discovered and icons miraculously appeared allowing them to become sites for Christian worship. This is also the reason why many Greek mountain and hill tops have a white Christian chapel perched on the top, normally named Profitis Ilias, an adaptation of Helios, the sun god.
There appeared to be some interesting marked walks in the area but we decided to move on to our next stop, the village of Kalavrita. This was the site of a appalling massacre in the Second World War when on December 13th 1943, in revenge for the death of 4 German soldiers, the Nazis gathered the entire male population of the village together and shot them. Over 1,200 men and boys died and it was only the actions of an Austrian soldier that saved the women and children. The Nazis had locked them in the church and set it on fire but when the troops were leaving the village, the soldier broke ranks and went back to unlock the church. Kalavrita, together with many other villages in the area where other massacres of men took place, became a village of widows and children. One can imagine the hardship and poverty that this caused. There is now a museum in the village dedicated to the horrors of war and we visited the memorial to the dead that is sited on the hillside above the village. It is a very moving memorial with the names and ages of the dead listed and a shrine full of brass lamps dedicated to them.
After visiting the Internet café in the town and collecting many 'happy birthday' emails, we drove on past the signs to the ski resort but decided to change our original plan of reaching Lake Stymfalia – this would have meant rushing the journey and we wanted to enjoy it. Jane had read about an interesting village called Planitero, which was only a short distance off our route. Planitero has a generous supply of fast flowing water and trout and this has lead to a number of restaurants being established. There were no campsites in the area and we needed somewhere to stay. There were places to wild camp but I decided to throw ourselves on the mercy of a restaurant owner on the basis of 'we will have a meal here if you allow us to park overnight'. We selected the nicest looking restaurant with space to park Henrietta and I asked the question. It worked a treat, we parked up close to the river on the edge of the village and went off to investigate it. We passed a working watermill where the miller showed us the two millstones and a place for cleaning rugs (as the guidebook said) or perhaps, more likely, fulling where the water shot down a metal pipe into a wood-lined hole. The mill wheels are mounted horizontally under the millstones and the water falling at force from above hits the blades of the wheel that are set at an oblique angle. The direct connection of the wheel to the stones allows for no gearing and must require a considerable force of water. The miller spoke no English but I was able to ask for some flour after checking that it was suitable for bread. All I have to do now is find time to use it!
After watching a dozen herds of goats and sheep returning to the village with their shepherds – young, old, male and female – we decide that it was time to eat. The taverna that we had chosen had its own trout ponds and, as we sat on a balcony overlooking them and the river, we watched locals coming to buy trout. They would be fished out of the pond with a net, put onto the scales and then into a blue carrier bag. The purchaser would then walk off with the wriggling plastic bag slung over his shoulder. Meanwhile we chose our food, sipped at the litre of local white wine and drank glasses of clear mountain water. I chose one of my all-time favourite Greek dishes – Gigantes – giant white beans cooked in a tomato sauce. Jane chose Tzatziki (yoghurt, cucumber and garlic dip) and we both dug into each other's dishes. For the main course it had to be trout – Jane chose it fried with mountains of almonds whilst I had it baked in a hot oven with peppers, horta (mountain greens), onions, carrots, courgettes and lots of olive oil. The Greek salad that came with it had no olives (unusual in Greece) but had lashings of olive oil. We chatted to the waitress after the meal and she told us that it was traditional in the village to serve all dishes with lots of olive oil – a real luxury these days given the high price of the oil. A fantastic meal in a lovely location and overnight parking and all for £24! We walked the 20 metres back to Henrietta and fell asleep to the sound of the bubbling mountain stream and the low rumble of the water cascading into the trout ponds.
This was the first birthday that I can remember having without any birthday cards or formal presents. However, I can't think of a better present than what I had today – on the Odyssey with Jane, in a Greek mountain village, enjoying a lovely meal on a gloriously warm Spring evening. Simply magical.
Photos: Mega Spelio Monastery in its dramatic setting; Goats on the route; Kalavrita – the shrine to those murdered by the Nazis; The miller at Planitaro.