Sami Hiking Trail (7/6/09)

From Sami

I had an excellent idea to get up early and go on the Ithaca Ferry to find out more about the archeology around Odysseus.

I slept through the boat.

So I rode out through the port of Sami to the edge of town to take the hiking trail. The trail led out through from the town and up into the hills outside. At the top there was a beautiful old monastery that was built in the 15th Century and had survived the Venetians, the Turks, the Italians and the Nazis only to be completely destroyed by the 1953 earthquake.

Further down is the ruins of the old chapel to Saint Nicholas and the old fountain used by the monastery. The chapel is cool.

From Sami

I then rode back to the campground and rested for my long cruise to Croatia.

Tino Pai!

Jesse…

Looping the Island: Argostoli - Sami (7-5-09)

Distance: 35 miles
Difficulty: Medium
Sites: Myrtos Beach, Melissani Cave, Drogarata Cave


Well, it was time to get out of the crappy campground at Argostoli Beach. Obviously, when you are on vacation you should not judge a campground too harshly. However, this one sucks. If you’re on Kefalonia – go to the one in Sami.

I rode up the long small graded road from Argostoli to Myrtos Beach – the prettiest beach in Greece. Looking from the road overhead, it seems perfect. (It isn’t sand however, its limestone pebbles, so on the beach isn’t that cool.

From Argostoli - Sami

Next, I rode down from Myrtos to Agia Irmina and then onto Sami.

In Sami, I stopped at the Caves. The first cave was Melissani. Melissani is an underground lake. It has fresh and seawater mixing in a cool calm concoction. On sunny days the opening above one of the chambers electrifies the water in a perfect blue.

From Argostoli - Sami

You walk down a long chamber to waiting boats. These boats sit 15 people and the boatman rows it standing up. He is also a multi-lingual tour guide. He told me and the English family what was happening and then turned to the Italians.

After cruising around there for 20 minutes or so, I got back on the bike and rode the arduous trip to Drogarata – which is out in the middle of nowhere. This cave is large and filled with stalactites and stalagmites that are over 20,000 years old. The largest chamber is 20 meters or so in diameter and is the top of place you daydreamed about finding as a boy.

From Argostoli - Sami

It was then back to the Sami campground – with its services and sites a far better option than Argostoli Beach.

Tino Pai!

Jesse…

Independence Day Ride (7-4-09)

Krani Walls

Ride: Argostoli Beach – Krani
Distance: 13 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Sights: Cute towns, Cyclopedean Walls of Krani

From Krani and Enos

As I filled my water at the bubbler in the small town, I realized I might not actually be on the Argostoli – Sami road. Fortunately, the guy who was helping his son build a new house spoke great English. It turned out that after the Earthquake of ’53, he moved to Albany, NY and had lived in Albany and Brooklyn until 5 years ago. He gave me great directions back to Razata and the Walls.

I followed his terrific directions down the dirt roads of Kefalonian back-country to find the ancient Mycenaean structures over the ridge line. The walls were made of giant slabs of the local hard rock. The Classical era City-State of Krani had built these walls. They were amazing. They definitely would have kept me out.

Into the Clouds
Mount Ainos (Enos) 1628m (5324 ft)

Trip: cycle- Krani to the Enos Turnoff; hitchhike- to the National Park; hike- up the Mountain; hitch- back to my bike; cycle- back to Argostoli
Distance: Cycling – 15 miles , hiking – 5 miles
Difficulty: Moderate to Hard
Sites: Not much, cloudy

From Krani and Enos

After Ariel Damien and I had failed so miserably at climbing to the top of the Mountain, it became a mission for me.

So, I left the walls at Krani and cycled my way up the Argostoli-Sami Road. A woman at the Mini-Mart told me, “you have a long way to go.” Sure enough there were two excruciatingly long hills of more than two miles to get to the turn off to the Enos national Park.

I locked my bike to the sign for Argostoli and started hitching toward the National Park. I got a ride to the turn off for Poros and then another from a Athenian family who was vacationing on the island. I started on the main park road from the ranger station (1130 meters). After an hour, I found the summit trail. The summit trail was quite quick from the road (20 minutes). But it took you through the black pines that used to cover the island.

Then I cleared the tree line. There was little view and it was hard to make out the summit as the clouds had descended upon the summit. Through the rockiness of the top I scrambled to the top of the mountain.

I let out a huge roar of “JAMMING ON THE ONE!” that echoed through the mists and clouds. Only to hear “Ya sas (hello)” returned from the peak next me. Then, the mists cleared a minute: “oh, you are higher!” the other peak said. And I watched as two young Greek kids descended their peak and climbed mine.

After some fist pumps for making the peak, we each went our separate ways. I walked back down to the Ranger station. I then got a lift almost all the way back to my bike from a Czech family that was on vacation.

Additionally, I did almost no pedaling all the way back to Argostoli as I got to go down those two long hills.

Leaving Katelios and Touring the Lixouri Peninsula (7/3/09)

From Mavrata - Argostoli

Trip 1: Mavrata – Argostoli Beach (18 miles)
Trip 2: The Lixouri Peninsula (17 miles)

And now its time to say goodbye to all our family. The Cottage with an Englishman, an Irishman and an American was turned over to July’s volunteers. I packed my trailer, said goodbye to Florian and Ariel (the two volunteers for June and July).

Down the Argostoli Road, which I now knew so well, there were no problems – outside of the long hill to Lidl (I needed new brakes). I found the Argostoli Beach Campsite on the other side of town and set up camp.

After a quick bite, I set out for the Lixouri Peninsula. I grabbed the Argostoli – Lixouri ferry. I toured the town and made it down to Xi Beach.

I grabbed the ferry back and made it to the bikeshop in Argostoli. Pantelis was the Greek Cycling champion in the early 90s. He took good care of me, replacing my rear wheel and giving the breaks and gears a tune-up.

From Mavrata - Argostoli

After a ride to the lighthouse at the end of the Argostoli Peninsula, I rode back to the campground, talking with a Slovenian who is into kite surfing.

From Mavrata - Argostoli

12:09! (7/2/09)

Trip: Katelios Environmental Center – Mavarata
Distance: 2 miles
Difficulty: HARD



Below you heard of “The Hill.” 12 minutes, 48 seconds was the fastest anyone had done it all month.

About a week before we left, I went after the record, only to do it in 13:07. Then, two days before we left Katelios, Damien came storming into the cottage as a sweaty ball of Irishman: “Fuck you and your 12:48.” He had put in maximum effort to put up his best time – 13:12.

Well, my last night at the Katelios Group I decided to go for it. I stripped my bike to nothing but the front light, speedometer, bell and pannier. I slowly rode up from the Music Bar to the Environmental Center. There, I stopped and reset the computer.

I had problems going into the lowest gear, but that would have just slowed me down anyway. I gunned it with all my effort and blew all my leg muscles.

I got to the top and looked at the bike computer – 12:09! The final record for the month.

The Five Most Ridiculous Minutes of My Life (7/1/09)

There is a rule that there is no smoking during night shift on the beach. But, after this ordeal, I broke that rule. I simply said, “uhhh…I need a cigarette after that.” The others laughed.

Quiet had descended upon us. As I took my second or third drag I broke the silence: “Well that was the five most ridiculous minutes of my life.” The other three concurred.

______

The whole thing had started about 45 minutes before. Lily and I were on Kamina Beach for night shift. We received a text message from the Potamakia team: “Turtle – Come Now.”

Lily and I made our way down the beach, walking at a good clip. We found Ian and Florian looking at a nesting turtle. Both declared this turtle a “dumb turtle.” She had only laid 20-30 eggs before coving up her nest. They had not had time to tag and measure her, which is normally done in the egg laying phase.

If you miss the tagging part, you are to grab her while she walks to the sea. Then, you stop her and tag-and-measure. Ian and I developed a simple plan:

Jesse – move first grab and stop the turtle
Ian – move in second grab her rear left flipper
Florian – move third and tag her rear left flipper
Lily – come in last and measure the carapace of the turtle.

It was quite simple and could have been effective. Any military man will tell you however, plans work well until you make contact with the objective. After that, who knows?

Well, the first part of the plan worked flawlessly. I moved in first and grabbed the turtle. It was the stopping her that was the issue. I held her for a few seconds as Ian moved in. Then however, it all went to hell.

The Mediterranean Sea Turtle can be over 100 kg (larger than me). She was surprisingly strong. As she pulled me a bit forward, Ian let go of the flipper and dove on her. I then slid down to the flipper.

“Tag her, tag her!” I yelled.

Then in a remarkably measured and calm voice I heard Lily say: “he’s lost the tag.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST THE TAG?”

Sure enough, there was Florian looking around about the sand for the tag that had dropped from the “tagging gun” [see “Meeting K206,” below].

“Grab another tag!”

“Shit, I can’t hold her.”

“I got another tag.”

“She’s getting away.”

Now, as Florian was busily trying to get the new tag into the tag gun and head off the turtle, Ian and I were trying to hold her back. “Shit, she’s almost to the sea.”

Ian then stood up and calmly said six words I probably will never forget: “That’s it, we gotta flip her.”

I stood; Ian pushed while I pulled from under the carapace. In surprisingly well timed work, in concert Ian and I grabbed and flipped the turtle over in one easy motion. So easily that, we almost flipped her 360 degrees back onto her feet!

In the commotion the turtle had slapped Ian across the face. Later he was to say, “Well I did flip her over; I guess I deserved it.”

Now, we had this mammoth sea turtle on her back at the edge of the sea. She was flailing all four of her flipper and flinging sand everywhere. (She also gave Ian another slap.)

I grabbed her back left flipper (which was actually her right one as she was upside-down). Florian was able to fight through the mini turtle-created sand storm and clip tag K206 into her.

We then flipped her back onto her feet and hastily measured her carapace and released her from our research. She walked back into the sea to probably tell the other turtles: “Fuck that shit, I’m never going back to that beach.”

A Dawn Visitor (6/30/09)

The Mediterranean Sea Turtle nests at night – which is why Manu is known to say: Humans and Turtles can share the same beach.

So, it was strange that as night shift fizzled into the rosy-fingered dawn that Mia and I got a call from Ian and Ellie on the other beach. They had a turtle still nesting.

Mia and I ran down the beach and located the other two. She was already in “camouflage” mode, hiding her nest. But this was the clearest we had been able to see a turtle on land.

From A Dawn Visitor

After finishing her camouflage, she walked back to the sea – never to see her babies.

From A Dawn Visitor