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Published: June 25th 2011
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Goatherd
Goats with bells on a street in Lapas. The mid-afternoon ferry brought us back to the Peloponnese and we had many hours before we took our midnight ferry overnight to Corfu.
Since we spent days in extreme SW Peloponnese we decided it only fair to check out the extreme NW corner – a spit of land poking into the Patraikos Gulf had both a wildlife preserve and apparently the best beaches near Patra.
Kim had been saying that she hoped we saw some scenes of traditional Greek rural life that she has seen during previous visits. Will tells me the Greek God of the crops is Demeter. Clearly Demeter heard Kim’s pleas because the next fifteen minutes was remarkable.
We had been passing many roadside stands sporting all sorts of melons – mainly watermelons and what looked like pumpkins. At the edge of farms transport trucks idled as farm workers ‘uploaded’ watermelons by throwing them from their carts up to others in the trucks – every now and then one would not make the cut and it was simply tossed down the hillside in a pink frothy explosion.
As we bisected the tiny peninsula, an old truck went buy laden with melons – with an
Melons to market
A Greek woman rides shotgun in the back of a pickup elderly Greek woman in long dark robes sitting in the back of the truck, hand protectively on the bounty. We then rounded a corner to see a farmer leading his goats up the road and vehicles otherwise racing beachward at 100km+ slowing down to pass. Not minutes later was a farmer herding his sheep along the same road on his motorcycle. Finally the road was blocked for a while as another rancher shooed his cows and one very very large and surly looking bull off the road with half-hearted help from some Australian sheepdogs which looked in serious need of a siesta.
We hiked and Marika found a pumped up hefty blue beetle and Kim spotted a mini-white praying mantis. Countless cicadas (we assume) made our hike sound like it was at track-level during the Daytona 500. We also found some cool birds – Will found one of the ones I really had hoped to see – called a Colllared Pratnicole.
The Kalogria beaches were clearly the go-to area for the large Patras population. One end of the long beach was a gay beach, with a mixed nudist beach in the middle and another expanse of sand and
Yamabaa
Man on scooter herds sheep. surf for the remainder. We munched sweet salty corncobs for one euro each from a guy who was grilling them. Had a refreshing swim and headed to the ferry.
As Kim, Marika and Will walked on the ferry, I inched (or is that centimetered?) the car down and down level after level. About 45 minutes later when I reached the lowest level a retake of the Peloponnesian wars broke out – or that is what it sounded like. Someone saw that the car in front of me and my car had been directed all the way to the lowest parking level - all apparently headed for Venice Italy!!! Ferry workers screamed loud and long and angrily at each other (so much so that the woman in front of me was in tears) as they miraculously parted the knots of cars bit by bit so we could drive all the way back up, off the ferry and then back on board up to the highest level so we could disembark in Corfu.
I joined the family in our cool stateroom – two bunk beds with a large window looking out onto the Ionian Sea and a washroom with a
much-appreciated shower then off to bed after midnight as we had to be up at 6 AM.
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David
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Heaven on earth?
OK....so, endless beautiful weather, ice cream at every corner, swimming in the cool sea.....what part of this is not real? You guys are eating up all the best that this thing we called life offers -- and it is so rare to see it these days. I am energized by your incredible experiences and trips. You are packing into 5 weeks more than many do in a lifetime. OPA!!! xoxo