Our last breakfast in Loutro where we are too late to find a seat in the shade. We need to eat our yogurt in the sun.
We notice a couple of clouds floating over the sea but otherwise another scorcher on the coast. However today’s walk takes us away from the majority of tourists and up 650 metres across the brown rocks that border the sea to an inland area and the small village of Anapoli.
On the hike upwards Jonathan read us a letter written in 1852 by the Red Indian chief Seattle to the then president of the US, Millard Fillmore, regarding the purchase of their land. Seattle claimed that land was not just a piece of terrain, but the air you breathe, the earth, the water, the scent and all the intangibles that are not saleable. He said it much better than me.
It is is a struggle to climb across this barren landscape with very little shade but we are lucky. Every now and then a cloud passes in front of the sun and offers some respite to the 32°-34° heat.
Once at the top we look down on a different landscape. Not a lush forest but certainly more green than the rocks we have just clambered up.
We descended to the village and have a very nice lunch in the local cafe. We all eat boureki and moussaka for the first time. Both were delicious and we all left the taverna in a good mood.
We walked a couple of hundred metres to our accommodation which wasn’t quite ready for us. Jonathan suggested that we walk up the road to the top end of the Ardenana Gorge. We set off up the road and then came to a point which looked down on the gorge. Here he told us that the village ahead had been ravaged by the murder of many of the inhabitants in the 1950’s when a dispute between two children over a bell had led to a blood feud that had either killed most of the village or made most of them flee.
While most of the party descended into the gorge on an old mule track Ono order to climb up the other side, Matt, Jamie and I took the easy route and crossed the bridge. We had a drink and waited for the others to rejoin us.
We found ourselves staying in some outbuildings 400 metres from the hotel. They fulfill our basic needs but that is all.
A nice meal at the hotel and a walk back for bed time.