The day we took over the mountains!
Δημοσιεύθηκε: 18 Ιουνίου, 2014 Filed under: choses vécues, hiking, ikaria, stories | Tags: aegean, atheras, environment, free-clean, hikers, hiking, hiking trails, ikarians, island in the aegean sea, Αιγαίο, Ελλάδα, εθελοντές, ικαρία, μονοπάτια, management, my-friends, nature, OPS Ikarias, politics, preservation, transitions, volunteers, work in Ikaria 13 Σχόλια
- νῦν ἀπολύεις τὸν δοῦλήν σου, ἐν εἰρήνῃ·
- ὅτι εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου. …
Why am I chanting the Canticle of Symeon? Why am I feeling so relieved? 😀
Because I who dropped from the sky in the beginning of winter of 2006 and discovered, among many other things, the amazing wealth of the mountainous hinterland of Ikaria and since then never stopped talking about it, insisting against the walls of indifference and ignorance, fighting against the dogma that the mountains are good only for rubbish dumps, free-grazing goats and perhaps several dozens of gigantic turbines on top of them all, I finally lived to witness the revolution. Two years ago when Angelos announced the closing of the trail network because of lack of support, I wished so hard that something happened and things took a different course. And there it was! The people of Ikaria are taking things in their hands! The news appeared in the Ikarian e-magazine ikariamag last week in an article under the title «How Ikaria… takes the mountains!». I found that was worth translating and blogging about it. Though I know it may seem to you a rather dry account of events strewn with place names that make no sense, yet to my ears it was music.
Most of the photos in this entry came to me through my spies in facebook from the groups: a) Ορειβάτες Πεζοπόροι Ικαρίας, b) Καθαρίζω την Ικαρία, and c) Αυτόνομη Συσπείρωση Πολιτών Ικαρίας. The links open to pictures in Flickr.
How Ikaria… takes the mountains!
Eventually, as time goes by, the mountains of Ikaria cease to be considered inaccessible and they reveal their greatness more often. Thanks to the initial longtime effort of a few stubborn dreamers, more and more local people are discovering their beauty, while more experienced hikers do bolder things or create new routes. Finally, last weekend the action came to a peak. The map below shows the trails followed, cleaned or traced by four different groups of people who were active in our mountains during these two days.
In red color we have marked the progress of the first group of local hikers who started from Agios Dimitrios in Pounta on Saturday afternoon. After they crossed Zizokampos and Erifi, they came to Agios Isidoros from where they took the trail to Karkinagri. Once at the shore, they spent the night in the cove of Kalou near Trapalou. On Sunday morning they took the old broken-down dirt road along the coast and finally reached Manganitis.
In pink color you can see the long route from Cape Papas to Cape Drakanon taken by a group of people from Rahes who since long are dedicating their Saturdays to hiking. Most of them aren’t young anymore, yet their physical condition is so good that they decided to perform the crossing of the entire Ikarian ridge within two days. They spent the night in Ai-Stathis and on Sunday afternoon they reached Drakanon where they put out their weariness in the shallow and warm waters of the cove of Ai Giorgis. Another pleasant surprise there.
In the same area, earlier that morning, residents of Faros village and several volunteers had taken up to clean and repair the trail that had been abandoned for years, leading to the church of Ai Giorgis and the beach further below. The operation included picking up and carrying the garbage from the coast. Meanwhile signboards are being prepared for the wider area of Faros which stays without signage for years. These signs will be painted by the students of the elementary school.
In blue color is shown the most difficult part of an ambitious project taken up by the Mountain Climbing and Hiking Club of Ikaria. On Sunday they visited the area of Ryakas searching inside this impressive tubular canyon for a way out on a trail to Selini and Agios Theologos in Geli close to the mountain tops. They had already made their preparation, they achieved what they wanted and in a short while they will be ready to announce the crossing of Ikaria widthwise from south to north. When this is completed, hikers will be able to admire one after the other the two most beautuful canyons of the island, Chalares and Ryakas, on a single hike from Nas to Manganitis.
In green is shown the old traditional lane from Xylosirtis to Kampa which was closed and covered with vegetation for ages. At the initiative of the municipal party «Aftonomi Syspeirossi Politon Ikarias» and the participation of several villagers the difficult job to clean this lane started on Sunday. With other similar projects running at the same time in different parts of the island, baring unforseen, the beautiful lane from Xylosirtis to Kampa will be ready within a month.
The article ends there, but the action keeps on. It seems that there is always a new thing of this kind going on in Ikaria every weekend. If you are interested, get in touch with the right people and get involved. The best is that these actions are not sponsored by coorporates or funded by either the local or the central government. These actions happen and they will go on happening because the people want to take over their mountains! They want to work together to do something, no matter how small this may be, for the good of the island and for their own good as well. As the slogan in one of the pictures says,
«None of us can do everything, yet each of us can do a small thing. All of us put together can do many things.»
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
p.s. for the record, these are some of my first hiking adventures and discoveries in Ikaria back in 2006
How I love my blog!
In the Olives lies the Income
Δημοσιεύθηκε: 3 Ιουλίου, 2009 Filed under: choses vécues, exploring, ikaria, photography, stories | Tags: aegean, agriculture, agriculture-poll, eleni-in-ikaria, enviro-lore, fool-of-the-village, Greece, green-investments, ikaria, island in the aegean sea, γεωργία, ελιές, ικαρία, λάδι, merominia, olives, poll, pollution, rain, trees, truths, up-with-lonely-winter, what-to-grow, work in Ikaria 1 σχόλιο.
(Photo of the village and the olive tress by © cgchryssa , 1st photo of the fool by © Elena Lygou), 3rd photo of the fool by © Panos Louk
«no» votes: 1
«don’know»: votes: 6
«a fool is a fool»: votes: 2
Comments
(11 total)
Great entry, stupid poll. But then again who knows? Maybe the answer is not so obvious for everybody. If you had put up an entry and a poll as commonplace as «In ecotourism lies the income», you would have many comments and votes.
But people who are on the net know very little about olive trees, the rain and fools!
Sunday September 28, 2008 – 04:03pm (EEST)
I like to collect olives. My boyfriend and I collected a lot in Ikaria last December. Great days and great nights too by the fireplace!
Sunday September 28, 2008 – 02:24pm (EDT)
I hope you come back this year too collect olives with us again.
Sunday September 28, 2008 – 09:59pm (EEST)
In principle I am very interested the olive, although, apart from consumption, all my knowledge is very distant.
But I am interested…
Are they really collected in December?? That seems very late. They don’t seem like Christmas things, like Satsumas do for instance.
I planted an olive close to the wall (1m) at my shared holiday house in France.
Am I a fool? Will the house fall down?? Can you move an olive tree?
How did Thales know what he knew dendrosophically speaking? He knew that water was important? Is it all-important?
Wednesday October 1, 2008 – 11:18pm (CEST)
ok, we have a full house now!
– The olive crop in the valleys and from terraces on hills is collected December the latest. The olive crop in the plains is collected sooner.
– Water is all important. The correct balance of water, that is.
– Olive trees are easy to transplant. You dig a big hole around the roots and then bring a crane to uproot the tree. It’s a nice tree, tamed and given to the humans by Athena the goddess herself. If the owners are hard working, the tree does whatever they want it to do. Even if you are not a hard worker, it is sufficiant that you talk to the tree every now and then.
(Did you follow the tradition and planted the tree when your son was born?)
– Who voted «no»???? A hawk of the stock market?
Friday October 3, 2008 – 03:56am (PDT)
There is also the sun.
«μέσα στον ήλιο αναγαλλιάζουν οι ελιές» = in the sun the olives rejoice
(The beautiful assonance of 4 «L»s in this verse by Kavadias is lost in the translation.)
Friday October 3, 2008 – 11:06pm (EEST)
I see in wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive
that there are some very long lived olives; they must be good at withstanding the hot and dry, as well as the frosty years. Also that they do best on poor rocky soils.
We planted ours as soon as we got the house. It’s not the mediterranean, but the soil is chalky. I may need to get a crane. And a beatiful tall straw hat.
Monday October 6, 2008 – 04:37pm (CEST)
After a few centuries people might call it: Simon’s Olive tree. The tree which the teller of tales planted and looked after. The tree under which he sat and told his tales. The tree that provided the oil for his salad and for the wheel of his eloquent tongue.
Monday October 6, 2008 – 12:37pm (PDT)
I voted ‘no’ not because I am a «hawk of the stock market» (:lol:), just a small business ordinary accountant. I voted no but because olive trees need A LOT OF WORK!
Tuesday October 7, 2008 – 09:19pm (EEST)
«…it is sufficiant that you talk to the tree every now and then. …»
I like that!
Wednesday May 13, 2009 – 01:26am (EEST)
That’s easy. The hard thing is to talk to the olive press factory man and stop him from polluting the rivers!!!!
Wednesday May 13, 2009 – 12:19pm (PDT)
what it takes to stay in Ikaria «off season» (intro)
Δημοσιεύθηκε: 30 Ιουνίου, 2009 Filed under: choses vécues, exploring, flying, hiking, ikaria, photography, stories | Tags: aegean, eleni-in-ikaria, flickr, idiosyncratic, ikaria, ikaria-in-winter, ikarians, χειμώνας, ιδιόρυθμος, ιδιοσυγκρατικός, ικαρία, my-friends, my-idea, up-with-lonely-winter, what-it-takes, winter, work in Ikaria 3 Σχόλια
My friend 😊 Roberta , alias ‘gataki’ or ‘kalimera05’, founder of http://www.flickr.com/groups/ikaria asked me to tell her how it is possible and what it takes to spend a long «off seasons» time in Ikaria.
………………
I’ll do what I can in my own personal way….
My own personal way… Well, well, well… που λένε και οι Αγγλοι…
Take for instance, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikaria
Another good friend from the group
wanted to update, improve and add material and pics, so I visited it very recently. I can’t say the old entry is all wrong… Most of it is accurate and at the same time much of it (towards the end of the entry) is like a page from a travel log :
I’ll do the same.
I’ll initiate from that sweet wiki/ikaria and write my own personal opinion based on my own personal experience on what it takes to stay in Ikaria longer than usual.
……………….
In tourist pamphlets, discussion forums on the net and in the Rough Guide, we read
«the inhabitants of Ikaria are idiosyncratic«
I can understand this word perfectly because it’s Greek («ιδιομορφος», «ιδιαζων», «ιδιοτυπος») . I also know a funny Latin equivalent : *sui generis* . A professor 😒 at university used to call 😉 me like that ! Like the «You Are One of a Kind» by INXS? I think/hope so.
So… I’m conjugating :
I am idiosyncratic (ok this is obvious…)
You are idiosyncratic (sure you are if you found and read my blog)
He/she is idiosyncratic (no matter of, *people ARE NOT sheep*)
A sheep is idiosyncratic (just take it away from the flock…)
……………
Try and stay in Ikaria a length of time outside the 45 days of the «high season» (15 July – 30 August). If you enjoy it, you are *idiosyncratic*. If you didn’t know and Ikaria gave you the chance to discover it, you may get a tin of honey as a present from me,
😊 Eleni.
.
Comments
(3 total)
1) yes the (perhaps too sweet) wiki/ikaria entry is a good start
2) I was sent your *idiosyncratic* camera and it looks repaired but not completely. Your *idiosyncratic* filters and settings are in and well locked. So I took and I’m going to post 3-4 *idiosyncratic* pictures of *idiosyncratic* subjects the same as you did. One of them very special, will be lovingly dedicated to you.
Wednesday July 19, 2006 – 11:39pm (EEST)
1) you shouldn’t have used my green+yellow filters in a warm & strong Aegean sunset. The photos look like with tomatoe & peperoni sauce on them.
2) tHAnK yOu for …. You are such a sweet ASS !!!
Thursday July 20, 2006 – 01:24pm (PDT)
«Most people who have been to Ikaria for any length of time do not want to leave, and, when they must, they dream of returning.»
<> That’s cold, hard, unbiased fact. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent staring at my computer as it randomly goes through pictures from Ikaria, longing to return.
Saturday July 29, 2006 – 08:45pm (EDT)
Come on Elina! Let’s do it together! In the summer at least there are plenty of good jobs in Ikaria!
Saturday October 17, 2012 – 08:45pm (EDT)
Eleni's Blog in Ikaria 
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