Itisallgreek2me

On Thursday evening, a unanimous decision was made… I would hire a car for Friday and Themis would be our driver and guide. My only stipulation was that I very much wanted to visit the chapel of Panagia Kakaviotissa. The only roofless church in the world, it is located inside a rock cavity at an altitude of 260m on the top of Kakavos Mountain. Founded in 1416AD by monks who managed to escape the Turkish invasion of the small island of Agios Efstratios, it used to be a shelter for monks and hermits.

For us it was about a half hour relatively easy walk up, rewarded with the most striking and breathtaking views and once there, I certainly experienced a feeling of spiritual enlightenment. For a very long time I have held great expectations for that excursion. Those expectations were met but not exceeded.

Lemnos is known as the homeland of the Amazons and home to the God Hephaestus. Due mainly I would guess to the distance from Athens, to date, Lemnos has been spared from mass tourism. Themis knows every little nook and cranny of the island so after visiting Panagia Kakaviotissa, Anna and I were more than happy to let Themis decide where we would go.

Some of you will be aware of my long standing interest in herbaceous plants, particularly from the Mediterranean region. Themis is very knowledgeable about such things too and knows exactly where to go on the island to find what he is looking for. Yesterday, much to my delight, we made three stops to gather from nature. The first stop was for the Curry Plant (Helichrysum italicum) a little of which was gathered, however, Themis and I agreed that it probably needed at least a couple more weeks before harvesting. Later on our travels we stopped to pick Chamomile in a field where it is growing like topsy! Then there was the Kritama, a wild edible plant that grows along the rocky coasts of Greece and other Mediterranean countries. Naturally salty, it is rather a shame that it is hardly ever harvested these days as I believe it makes a wonderful pickle.

Another highlight of the day were the fields of blood red poppies, sometimes mixed with other wild flowers of many colours. One field, in particular, which I only got to photograph from a distance, looked incredibly like an artist’s palette. Seeing these fields of flowers raised my excitement level to its maximum… wonderful!

A day excursion during my first visit to Lemnos in 2010 included what was then the ghost village of Palaio Pedino. After a major earthquake in 1968, it had been mostly abandoned by the then inhabitants. Over the past 9 years much has changed with the wealthy moving in and restoring some of the homes, mainly to rent them out on Airbnb. The purpose of our visit yesterday was to raid the mulberry trees… filled our tummies and bought a bag full home. Our other sweet delight was a lemon liqueur made by Maria, a friend of Themis whom we visited. Elsewhere our thirst quenched with water from one of the many natural springs on the island.

Started our day as the only pilgrims to Panagia Kakaviotissa. Finished our day as the only patrons at a Taverna in a nearby village where I befriended and fed cheese to a beautiful grey cat.

Unforgettable!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 18th, 2019 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.