Exploring Amari valley

TUESDAY 25^TH NOVEMBER

Gosh one month to Christmas!  It was not the weather as forecasted and so we headed up to the Amari valley area to explore the new roads around the dam.  

Loved the colourful beehives lined up alongside the fencing stretching as far as the eye could see.

Today the water in the dam was brown and at a much higher level than when we came with Ian and Julia.  The temperature was still around 21C which was good as we were fairly high up in the mountain valley.

We decided to move on to Apostoli but with new wide roads got a bit confused, especially at a junction between Pandanassa and Patsos, and so ended up on the road being constructed at St. Antonio Ravine.  We had wanted to go to the Ravine but the heavy lorries and rain had made the road muddy with deep ruts, too deep for our little Yaris.  

It was going to be quiet overlooking the olive groves, I said.  Wrong again - a saloon car full of people roared past, a large concrete mixer, and then an old man riding his donkey came by as soon as we had opened our picnic. 

We had seen a new sign to Spilli, only a small one and thought we would go this route back home.  We retraced the road but failed to find a sign for Spilli other than the name on a multi signed post and so took this road.  It’s been a long time since we have traveled on this track and it seemed strange driving on wide tarmaced road with crash barriers, but it didn’t last long before the road turned into the familiar rough track where in places we would have been better in the 4X4. Still once we reached the fields of vines we remember where the track ended – on the winding road down into Spilli.

                                                    

 

As we entered the village of Lefkogia I suggested we went and had a look at the fire damage Maria had told me about down by ‘Shinaria Beach’.  The only damage we saw was around an unfinished hotel on the hillside, but it was nice to see that new growth was coming out of the blackened palm trees.   

On a deserted beach Keith created a ‘Tate Picture’ collecting pieces of driftwood and standing them on end in the sand whilst I was happy taking photos of the waves crashing against the side of the smalldragon rock and breaking onto the beach. It doesn’t take much to keep us amused!

In Plakias we almost got our kites airborne in the late afternoon sun with the temperature still 21C.