Itisallgreek2me

Tuesday, 14 June 2022.. Up early to catch the first bus (also the bread run) at 07.30 hours from Livadia to Megalo Chorio. Intent on making the difficult climb up to the Medieval Castle, I knew I would have to pretend to be a “goat” for a day.

Wherever you walk on Tilos there are goats… noble-looking goats. White, black, faun, chestnut, multi-coloured… I mean beautiful looking goats. Roaming free and leaping over walls or the edges of mountains, today they were my only companions on a climb that got me beat just shy of the top. Nevertheless, I feel no sense of defeat but rather proud of what I did achieve before the height and the sheer drop became a little too much and I made the decision to make my way back down to the village.

Megalo Chorio being the capital of Tilos, I went to enquire at the Town Hall as to whether or not the Palaeontological Museum, some 2km away near Charkadio Cave would be open… the answer was yes. Sat down to wait for a bus and spoke to a young woman, Marcela from Brazil who currently lives in London, however, is on Tilos visiting a friend. She was waiting for another friend, Fotis… Greek, living and working on Tilos as Site Manager for a construction company and his sister Dimitra, kindergarten teacher, living and working in Helsinki and here to visit Fotis, to pick her up to go visit the Palaeontological Museum and Charkadio Cave. I was offered a lift, front seat what’s more, while the girls sat in the cab at the rear.

In 1971, Professor of Geology and Palaeontology of the University of Athens N. Symeonidis, visited Tilos in order to study human remains discovered in the St. Antonios gulf, belonging to men buried in the beach sand during historical times. While on Tilos, he visited Charkadio Cave where he located the first elephant teeth. Since that time, over 15,000 bones have been collected, corresponding to about 45 dwarf elephants whose maximum height is estimated at 1.8m. These dwarf elephants lived on the island from 50,000 up to 4,500 years’ ago. Elephas tiliensis… the last elephants of Europe.

After returning to Megalo Chorio, I walked to To Palio Meraki, a traditional kafeneion, for a well deserved ice cold beer. When the other three arrived, I decided the least I could do was shout them all. However, I had one last request to make of Fotis. Since he would be driving Dimitra to Livadia to catch the 13.30 hours ferry to Rhodos, from where she will fly back to Helsinki, could I please have a ride back too.

So, this afternoon I’ve spent time relaxing in my room, whilst in the heat of the day, the chorus of the cicadas gets louder and louder.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2022 at 4:45 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.