Legends about Ikaria : The Forest of Radi

~That’s a beautifully wiggly forest!~
Το Δάσος του Ράντη

—— The last of an old magic forest and path
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Comments

	simonsterg says: That’s a beautifully wiggly forest! I wonder what stopped the goats here?
	cheeseontaoist says: Is this the forest up above Gialiskari etc towards Atheras? I went walking there with a few friends, including Giannis who succeeded in getting us a bit lost (as always) but it was a nice walk. The trees are beautiful around there and bent into all sorts of crazy shapes….
	ovando says: I love this shot, El! Wonderful!
	isl_gr says: @ – it used to be too dense like all old forests and goats couldn’t penetrate. Then when the goats were left unattended and fed with imported grain, they attacked it with more strength. They eat the fresh barks of the trees not because they are hungry but because they are thirsty. The imported foody stuff is dehydrated and too dry. I’ve seen this with my own eyes. There are no young arbutus and quercus anymore and the older trees are stripped naked and die. In only a few years Radi forest has deteriorated considerably. See : www.eoskavalas.com/ikaria/pounta-amoudia.htm (second photo, 2002) For the reason, read this article. Soon all of it will be a disaster area like : which was taken at its far outskirts. @ – yes, if you were with the Gianni from ‘archipelagos’, that was the forest. See : dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/archive/00000290/00/dimitrak041300.pdf Worth the trouble waiting for the .pdf to download. Now Radi has an academic pedigree whatever it happens to it. @ – Άννα μου : x : So many Greeks I know are visiting Spain lately. Teach them a few good tips, pls. They seem to be looking for ideas. They wouldn’t admit they are though because they are Greeks and they’d rather think they stole them -lol
	angeloska says: τα είπες όλα you’ve said it all When I discovered this forest 25 y. ago it was awesome and so dense that we got completely lost. So lost and exhausted that we started crying (!) Was an unforgetable experience because it is thought to be practicaly impossible to get lost in a medium sized island. Whatever, it took us hours to get out of there. Let not this beautiful photo be a memorial.
	simonsterg says: long long ago I guess there were wolves…
	isl_gr says: now you surprised me; yes, there must have been wolves; if there were wild boar and deer (dama dama) and that big goat “capra aegagrus” (what’s it called in English?), there must have been a carnivorous hunter. Though probably not wolves, but big cats. Το “καπλάνι”, a mountain leopard of a type there used to be in Samos and on the Turkish coast 100 years ago. It looked like a small puma.
	simonsterg says: I don’t know a lot about goats. Your ones look a lot wilder than the ones I have met in England – are they a different subspecies – a wild goat perhaps? I guess it is much easier to get rid of big predators on an island, and if they were there once, it was perhaps in prehistory (along with the woolly mammoths). The cats sound interesting too – though I don’t know what they would be called…? What I do know is that there was once a goat up on a high cliff. The wolf saw him: “Be careful up there, Goat. Just one slip and you’re off the edge!“ “Don’t worry, I do this a lot,” replied the goat. The wolf, almost for the first time, looked at the grass around him: “It seems to be a lot greener down here; come down for a proper meal.” The goat looked down at the wolf: “Tell me, Wolf… who’s going to be eating the meal exactly?“
	angeloska says: Do you know some people suggest we import wolves? In the early 1980s just before goats became a pest for the island and went down themselves (sick, hungry etc), we used to see majestic animals like : www.our-own-ikaria.net/uploads/index.php?mode=view&al…

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Hello, readers! The above is in my Flickr and dates from over a year ago. Right now…

I don’t know who advises people (the Greeks in particular) who are coming to hike in Ikaria, not to follow the marked paths but instead, go looking for the Forest of Radi. Maybe it’s on some website (where they advertise stuff they have no idea about, just to show off). Maybe they get it from shopkeepers and hotel owners (who may drop “Radi Forest” in a trivial way to oblige a tourist). Maybe it’s on one of those new guide books that are based on hearsay and contain impractical “tips”.

‘Cause the truth is there is no Radi Forest!

Or to put it better –there is a forest and an area called “Radi”. But there is no more or less safe way for a newcomer to go there. Not only the place is far from main roads, villages and towns; not only the trails are vague and unmarked but also –very unfortunately- there are many goat trails that lead nowhere. Especially in August and September the forest is dusty and dry and there may be also some caterpillar “itching powder” left from last June.

So, in spite of how attracted you feel at the sound of a magnificent term, resist it. Visit “Dasos tou Ranti” some other year, when 1) the trails across will be marked, and 2) there will be less goats. For me this forest means a lot. I want you to discover it in the proper way. I don’t want to hear anymore people telling me “We couldn’t find the way and, anyway, it was nothing. Just trees, as good as any.”

… … …

And even if the above 2 conditions are never fulfilled, look for the “Dasos tou Ranti” in any other time of the year except August. For example, you can go look for it in winter. (Forests are “storehouses” of winter, like the sea and the beaches “storehouses” of summer.) You may start from Frantato or Petropouli villages. The accessible trails are marked with cairns –though some may be missing or ruined. Yet, the best and safest way to see a good part of it, is to follow the “orange-dot” marked trail which runs along the mountain range. The legendary forest stretches out to the north, towards the villages and the sea.

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I have to close this now. It’s exactly the time for “merominia” -my practical magic all-year-round weather forecast. ‘Cause this mid-August I am stuck round the house, at least I am able to follow this very regularly. This means that I have to make observations of the atmosphere and take notes of the changes every single hour of day and night! If, when this ends, I told you what the weather will be like over the Aegean in the next 12 months, would you believe me? Ha, ha… We will see…

~El

Tags: srd, ikarian-legends, deforestation, desertification, desperate, environment, forest, goats, greeks-in-crisis, hiking, ikaria, ikaria-in-winter, φεύγει-η-γη, merominia, preservation, preserve, summer-2007, urban-legends, winter, worse-than-fire, weather | Edit Tags Monday August 20, 2007 – 05:38am (PDT) Edit | Delete

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• AKK
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Terrific layout, colour and frame for that famous photo of yours! You really love that “lost” place. Go on, challenge me and inspire me. Maybe there will be a really good trail to there and across till next year.

What does Nana think about this business? Getting lost inside this forest, is it good “zen” work? I am very cusrious to know.

Tuesday August 21, 2007 – 06:11pm (EEST) Remove Comment

• AKK
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Will we enjoy the privilege to know your “merominia” weather foreast for the year to come? Do you already have some results? Or shouldn’t I be asking?

Tuesday August 21, 2007 – 06:15pm (EEST) Remove Comment

• elle
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-Nana loves that forest. Great place for *hiking nude* she says (~tease)
- I am afraid that according to the “merominia”, it’s gonna be another short and mild winter and a long, hot and dry summer. I hope it’s all wrong.

Saturday August 25, 2007 – 03:15am (PDT) Remove Comment

• greg
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Hope the merominia calls for rain (there not here, we’ve had plenty). Fires on your mainland are all over the news, hope Nana and you all are safe and OK!

Monday August 27, 2007 – 07:54am (PDT)