Sunday 18th May 2008

We didn't have far to go today, so we had a relaxed start. Jane had correctly guessed that the signs in the car park may have indicated that there was going to be a market. We walked round to it and bought lovely fresh vegetables and, one of my favourite fruits, cherries - €5 (£4) for 2 kg (4.4lbs). Although I was tempted by the deal, it would have taken us too long to eat that many, so we bought 1 kg for €3.
The drive to Ioannina was very easy and very fast compared with the tortuously slow progress that we made on the windy roads yesterday. We made a slight diversion to Dodona on the way, an ancient Greek site with a very large theatre. Dodona is famous for its Oracle, the earliest in Greece. The Oracle answered questions by interpreting the sound of the rustling leaves of a huge oak tree. The site dates back to the 3rd millennium BC and started with the nature goddess Gaia, Mother Earth, who is associated with tree-worship and prophecy. The site was initially very simple – just the oak tree and even in the 8th century BC it only had a small wall around it. However, eventually a large cult site was built together with the third largest theatre on the Greek mainland. It was whilst I was walking around the site that I managed to do something nasty to my right leg. I stepped off a rock slightly awkwardly and felt something go 'twang'. From that point onwards I was limping and in considerable pain. Just after this I was walking along a narrow path between long grass and was just about to put my foot down when a three metre long snake went under my foot. Thankfully, I just managed to avoid standing on it. We got back to Henrietta and had a late lunch whilst I tried to exercise my leg and establish whether I would be able to drive. We were lucky that we only had a few miles to go and although it was very painful, we got there.
We arrived at the campsite in the middle of the afternoon and were very pleasantly surprised by it. It was very warm and we quickly found a shady pitch right on the lakeside, coincidently next to the only other British van on the site. We introduced ourselves to Terry and Stuart and found them to be a very pleasant couple. Chatting to them was very easy and relaxed and the afternoon and then the evening just rushed by. We sat looking at the view of the mountains over the other side of the lake, watched a sea plane (or should it ba a 'lake plane'?) land and take off, and watched the many Great Crested Grebes diving and catching fish. We discovered that we were both going to be in Meteora in a couple of days time and agreed to attempt to meet up there.
Photos: The sacred site at Dodona – the site of the original sacred oak is marked by a large oak (centre of picture) planted in the early 20th century; The theatre.