Advertisement
Published: October 10th 2011
Breakfast kittens at play
The cute kittens I feed at breakfast (with odd Turkish not porc related sausages) at play at restaurant roof...Out on the town and the hot spot The Bar-celona last night, the bartenders tried to scare me…”Oh, tomorrow there will be a terrible storm. The roads and the schools will be closed. You will never be able to go out on a boat!” Since I had just booked a boat for a day trip to the Greek island of Kastellorizon (Meis in Turkish) I found the news a bit depressing.
Thus, this morning when I woke up I rushed to the window and saw a compact grey sky but no rain and definitely not a storm. Yihaa! I was going to be able to do the Kastellorizon mountain hike after all…After having played a bit with the restaurant stray kittens and had some breakfast I took off for the harbour. Among the other passengers where the nice elderly Swedish couple I have mentioned before; I had “marketed” my Kastellorizon trip so well that they decided to give it a go. The boat was in fact a ferry much like the boats we take out into the archipelago of Göteborg where I'm from. The sea was a bit choppy but nothing much and the trip to the island only took
30 min and was uneventful. Many of the passengers where retired people from EU countries living in Turkey on a tourist visa and in need of renewal of said tourist visa every 3 months - thus they took a trip out to this little Greek outpost outside Kas...And why not do a bit of duty free shopping while you're at it.
Once we had walked ashore I set off following my "From Kas to Dalyan" hike book map...Almost tripped over some of the sights since I was so focused on following the walking instructions (on the walk yesterday I noted that it was very easy indeed to get off track - and I am truly a master in the arts of getting lost, walk back and do it all again...) The first bit was easy and scenic; a bust of Lady of the Ro; a greek little old lady who refused to abandon her little cliff island and stayed there and kept it Greek...A lot of churches and chapels and a listed school house. Not to mention the lovely Greek coloring; the pink and turquoise and yellow houses with blue shutters and doors. So pretty, even on a grey
day. As a cat lover/animal lover I am also very happy to report that Kastellorizon is a great place for cats; hardly any cars, loads of generous people putting out food and a jolly nice temperature, although wet!
After a walking around the actual town I started my climb up the white washed stairs to the mountain plateau. Apparently there is an airport somewhere up there (not in the parts where I later was lost) and an army base. The climb was steep but not particularly difficult. The first bit on the top was also self-explanatory. BUT all of a sudden the instructions of the book read "follow the path towards the north, aiming at the solitary pine three." OH, how I hate that fucking pine three. I probably looked for it for an hour while the rain was pissing down and thunder and lightning was lighting the sky. "Ah bit of rain never killed anyone," I thought. And then I did find a three and it might have been it, but the path was completely gone by all the mud and rain. Finally I did find a red marker on a rock which marks a foot path in
these parts of the world. Quite cheerful still. And the rain seized. And the sun came out and it was jolly nice.
Then I started my descent down the eastern side of the cliff (the hike was in a loop so I was supposed to descend in another part of the island than where I mounted). "You descent into a walled in area. Follow the water line to the left by the old altar." No bloody water line and no miserable altar. But I walked on; now on my third hour of hiking. Suddenly the non-existing foot path that I was following ended in a sudden drop at a cliff wall and then the sea... Not the right way. I decided -like all sensible people do - to sit down and have something to eat. A great packed lunch consisting of Turkish delight (Pomegranate flavor) and dried apricots. Around me where goats climbing up and down the steep cliff walls. I stared to consider "maybe calling someone to report that I was in fact lost and might not be back in time for my boat back to Turkey", but decided against it. All I needed was a change of
focus; it was better concentrating on getting down the mountain in one piece before dark, than to rush things in order to make the ferry back and maybe drop to my death somewhere. I decided to retrace my steps and find the way back from where I had come. And I did - but now I had company. In my hike book it said "beware of the vipers and carry an anti-venom kit at all times." I had also been warned about the wild boars, but nowhere did it say (and no one had warned me) about the herds of bulls roaming free on the plateau. Suddenly, they were on every side of me in the bushes and seemed very keen to get to know me better. My heart was definitely pounding now; I had been up the mountain for more than 3 hours and had not met one human or seen any signs of them, therefore climbing up a three and waiting for assistance seemed pointless. Instead I decided to take a leaf out of Ceasar Millan's book (The dogwhisperer) and stay "calm assertive". It is said to help with wild dogs, so why not bulls. I found myself
a stick and walked straight for the bulls (the where right smack in the middle of the path leading back to civilization). I waved the stick a bit when one of them started jogging towards me; but more than that I didn't look at them, didn't run and didn't say a word ("No touching, no talking, no eye contact" says Cesar). It seemed to work but I was quite scared and jolly pissed-off, mumbling unspeakable things that I was planning to write to the author of the "Hike book".
Finally, half way up the hill I found the bloody water pipe that I had been looking for earlier and yet again tried to follow the foot patch to the right descent.
Happy and half-ways down the cliff front there was a fence because the rest of the path had caved in and/or been washed away. I no longer had an alternative; I had to go all the way back around the island from the direction that I had first come from; but this time a lot quicker if I wanted to catch the boat back to Turkey. Well, what can I say...I'm back here in Kas, so obviously I
Greek cats
The Greeks really love their cats and I love for that. made it. My legs are aching like crazy 'though and I am very fit to start with. For a couple of hours I was actually scared. Not scared "into a panic" - that never happens-, but scared enough to get very very angry, which I get when I am truly worried about something. Bloody sunflower bloody hike book. "Moderate difficulty hike", my ass! Back in Kas the sky opened, all streets where flooded and there was no power. And the schools are actually closed.
I went for a well deserved beer, Turkish coffee and a tuna Pide (turkish wafer thin pizzas). I didn't think it was possible to get wetter and muddier than I was yesterday, but Today I looked a right train wreck... I hope there are some serious pleasures awaiting me to up weigh all today's hardship?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0358s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
