The little house in the desert
Δημοσιεύθηκε: 10 Ιουνίου, 2017 | Συντάκτης: Eleni | Filed under: choses vécues, hiking, holidays, ikaria, photography, pleasure, stories, travel, Uncategorized | Tags: adventures, Aegean Sea, atheras, balancing rocks, Google maps, Greece, heritage, hiking, ikaria, ikarians, Κίνηση Πολιτών Ραχών Ικαρίας, Ορεινό Καταφύγιο, εθελοντές, ικαρία, μονοπάτια, mountain shelter, my life, OPS Ikarias, tradition, volunteers |14 Σχόλια.
………The place
………⭐ ⭐ ⭐
On the wuthering heights of mount Atheraς in the center of a sandy plateau surrounded by windswept round boulders lies a tiny cube-like building with a chimney on its flat roof. This is «To Spitaki tis Mamis» (the little house of the midwife), or «Saint Panteleimon Mountain Refuge», as the marble plate in the wall next to the door says. Built by a kind woman in 1960 for the benefit of all mountain walkers, Spitaki tis Mamis, despite its miniature size, is a mountain shelter properly speaking, not associated to a church or mountain chapel, as it is usual in Greece, but built hiking-wise at important crossroads in a location where a hiker cannot possibly miss. This makes Spitaki tis Mamis, if not the oldest, undoubtedly one of the oldest mountain shelters in the Aegean islands. With my own ears I have heard about the lives it has saved through the years. On the chimney there was a fog bell to guide lost souls in the mountain and inside, as if by a magic hand, it was always provided with firewood, cooking pots, lamps and lamp oil, coffee, sugar, rice etc.
It was a place that wrote history.
However and in spite of all that, in the course of events and new road building in the 1990s Spitaki tis Mamis was forgotten and fell in oblivion. As a result, today -57 years after it was built- it’s in very bad shape: cracked walls, no door and window and a roof almost ready to fall in.
………The project
………⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Last month, answering to a request made by several local associations, Spitaki tis Mamis was declared by the Town Council as a cultural monument – standing reminder of the times when there were no roads and cars in Ikaria and the only way to travel from one part of the island to another was by walking long hours across uninhabited, mountainous landscapes in rain, snow or fog. Following this desicion, the Town Council granted permission to the interested parts to repair the old shelter and adapt it to modern needs. As they said, that would be done on the own expences and voluntary work without help from either central or local government…
Volunteers going to work in the wilderness on dream project…?
Oops! I know that! I must help!
………My involvement
………⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Dear readers, the purpose of this article is to advertise the aforementioned project and call for funding and support. To do so I can’t find a better way than to show you a set of 16 photos taken many years ago on a hike along half the length of the mountain ridge. That great, mind and soul filling, two-day trip would not have been possible if Spitaki tis Mamis didn’t exist.
In the middle of that desert of rocks, sands, ferns and srubs, although abandonned and broken, it was still there marking the way, connecting the present with the past. It still said «Hello, I am here for you». I want it to be repaired. If not for any other reason, because of an experience I will never forget. Many years ago when I was single and young, while lying in my sleeping bag on its old cracked concrete roof, still warm from the sun, I gazed at the biggest and brightest summer night sky I’ve seen in my life!
……… The pictures
………⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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That was all from me for now. You can read the official account of the project at this link. For donations, as well as for extra hands, you may write to opsikarias2008@gmail.com and/or kinisi.politon.ikaria@gmail.com. I will keep you up to date for further developments.
Follow me up!
Eleni Ik ❤
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Saturday, June 6, 2017
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14 Σχόλια on “The little house in the desert”
Σχολιάστε Ακύρωση απάντησης
Ο ιστότοπος χρησιμοποιεί το Akismet για την εξάλειψη των ανεπιθύμητων σχολίων. Μάθετε πως επεξεργάζονται τα δεδομένα των σχολίων σας.
By the way, if by any chance the island’s authorities and the local business people focused more on hiking and other ourdoor activities, the 80 long kilometers of the Ikarian ridge could hold not just one but several more shelters and camping sites.
Everybody knows there is one more
traditionalhistorical shelter also in poor shape but in a more scemic location in the eastThough as long as I can I will prefer to camp, Spitaki tis Mamis is a great project and it will help towards a better, more sustainable use of our mountain than stray goat herding and wild aeolian farms…
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Το σπιτάκι της μαμής
I would love to gaze at the stars from its roof with good company if possible…
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Thank you for being excited about our project and for taking up to advertise our small but so symbolic effort to create a welcoming point on the wild mountains of Ikaria!
Yes, there will be a bank account for donations and when time comes, a call for volunteers as well.
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[…] έβγαλα τη γλώσσα, γύρισα την πλάτη. Δεν ήταν τόσο που θέλησα να τιμήσω τη θερμή υποδοχή του πρότζεκτ από την Ελένη στο μπλογκ […]
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[…] The little house in the desert → […]
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[…] 2) «Σπιτάκι της Μαμής» Check the OPS Ikarias review of the location and my article: «The little house in the desert» […]
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Thank you very much, fellow blogger!
Yes, the shelter is on the way to be almost completed!
Thanks for the visit!
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