Sunday 20th April 2008

I was woken at 07:00 by the sound of chiming from a local chapel. Before the churches could afford bells, the faithful were called to prayer by striking a suspended wooden plank with two wooden mallets. This is done in a rhythmic way and by hitting the plank in different areas, it produces different notes. The sound is very pleasant and it carries for a long distance. Later, the wooden plank was replaced with a metal plate and finally, when funds allowed, bells were installed. Monasteries and some rural village churches still use the old devices and it was the metal plate of a local chapel that we heard this morning sending out its rhythmic call. Jane slept through that but heard the second chiming from a different chapel at 07:30. At 08:30 the bells of the church singled the start of the Palm Sunday (or Greek Orthodox equivalent) service. Thoughtfully, for those that are unable to attend, loudspeakers are mounted outside the church and important services are broadcast on these to the whole of the village. I am tempted to say that the sound was of a dirge suitable for Holy Week but Greek Orthodox chanting always sounds like that, although it is actually quite pleasant and relaxing. So in this way we were treated to an hour of chanting over our breakfast.
We wanted to take a minor road over the mountains and past two archaeological sites but our map showed that part of the road was not asphalted and we were concerned that it would not be suitable for Henrietta. I asked about this at the taverna last night and they were very helpful, finding someone else who spoke English and also knew the road. He explained that it was all “good road” and gave us directions as to where to turn.
We drove back to the main road and, on our way to our first turning we passed a war memorial for 1940-48 erected in 1991 by Greek ex-patriots from Sydney, Australia. At the bottom of the memorial was a bomb stuck in the earth with a sign in Greek and English stating “This bomb is worthy of your spitting and if you have any sense at all don't use it”.
We were surrounded by mountains and soon after we turned off the main road, we started climbing. We soon arrived at Likouria where Ancient Likouria was also sited. However, we saw no sign to it or of it, so we decided to continue and then we really started climbing. I hardly got Henrietta out of second gear until we reached the pass. All of the time we had excellent views down over modern Likouria and probably ancient Likouria, although we didn't know where it was. When we went through the pass we were presented with a spectacular view of a huge plain hundreds of metres below us. This was the Pheneos valley and like Stymfalia that we were to visit later, it has interesting geology that means that part of it floods in the Spring when the mountain snows melt, creating a lake but the water then disappears down sink holes. In the case of Pheneos, the lake is fairly short-lived and there was no water visible when we were there. However the valley is very fertile and it was a sea of green crops interlaced with reddy-brown ploughed soil. We wound our way down the zig-zag road to the valley floor and headed round the edge to the village of Ancient Pheneos and a sign directing us to the site (0.5 km) and the museum (1 km). We arrived at the museum without seeing the site and found that the museum closed on Sundays. We then retraced our route on foot to find the site – if it was there, it was very well hidden. We gave up and set off again, only to find a sign to the site some 2 km outside the village in the opposite direction to the original sign! The excavated part of the site was very small but had an interesting history being an important site for the worship of Hermes.
We moved on towards Stymfalia, crossing over another pass that provided views of both valleys. Stymfalia has a permanent lake but it increases significantly in Spring and, like Pheneos, much of the lake disappears down sink holes. If the sink holes become blocked (this has happened in living memory), it can cause serious floods. On the other hand, if there is little Winter rain, the lake can disappear. This happened for two years in 1997 and 1998, but when the lake returned, it had good-sized fish and marine life in it. This has lead scientists to the conclusion that there must be underground reservoirs of water that the fish were in but they have not been able to locate them. We stopped at a large lay-by overlooking the lake and, walking out on to the edge of the hill, we discovered that we were on the acropolis of Ancient Stymfalia. There were remains of a building (temple?) on the acropolis and evidence of the rest of the city lay on the hill and lower ground surrounding it. We had lunch looking over the lake, listening to the cacophony of frogs and birds in the lake. The ancient Greeks believed that the Gods controlled the flooding and that the people were being punished, for example by Artemis for not observing her worship properly. Now flooding is attributed to earthquakes or human error.
We drove on to Nemea only to find that it closed at 15:00 and we arrived at 16:00. Luckily, one of the custodians took pity on us and let us in to look at the site. Please keep this quiet, I don't want to get her into trouble!
After spending 15 minutes going in the wrong direction, we turned around and headed for Mycenae. We found the campsite (Camping Atreus) chose a plot and settled in. By chants (sic) we found ourselves near another church (not difficult in Greece) and the evening service started with the loudspeaker broadcast of the priest. It had been another glorious day and the temperature had reached 27-28°C and, with the evening temperature a very pleasant 22-23°C, we decided to cook and eat outside. Whilst we dined on barbecued pork chops, we listened to the chanting from the the church mixed with the sound of the little owls hunting – amazingly atmospheric.
Photos: Beehives near Stymfalia – honey is very important to the Greeks and mountain honey is particularly prized. This is honey production on a large scale!; Stymfalia lake from the acropolis of ancient Stymfalia.