Photo: The Rocks Are In Place.
They looked terrific! Just right; the right look, the right size, and in the right place. The site I chose for the rocks is quite deliberate as it is at the base of the Olive tree selected for ‘Watching’ so, yet again I can multi-task by ‘Watching The Olives Grow’ and ‘Watching’ my beautiful rocks!
I waved goodbye to Giannis, and I went in search of an Ouzo. Next, I planned to sit and do some ‘Watching’ of a different kind. I went and sat on the terrace, and whilst I sipped my Ouzo, I started ‘Watching’ the rocks. I marvelled at their shapes. They are so smooth to touch, but, from this distance, they look so rugged and weather beaten. I was really pleased. A little while later, Valerie came to join me and I poured her an Ouzo (and topped up my own!), and as we sipped our drinks we enjoyed the view; the rocks and the Sunset; a perfect end to a perfect day.
Photo: The Sunset – A Perfect End To A Perfect Day.
The following morning, I was up early as usual, and as I went about my ‘routine’ I realised that I had to add another ‘step’ and that was to open the door and look at the rocks! They were still there (well, who was going to steal them?), and they still looked just as good.
When my early morning routine was completed, I consulted my list of jobs to be done; today or tomorrow, or at some time in the future.
Today, I chose to do some pruning and cutting back the succulents that had grown right onto and over the paths. As I worked, I was amazed at how quickly they had grown since installing the watering system. It seemed a shame to have to cut them back so much, but we needed to be able to walk around the paths around the garden.
The next job on the list was the cleaning. Valerie cleaned the house from top to bottom, and I set about cleaning the studio apartment. Our peace and quiet, and the overall tranquillity of Meerkat Manor, was going to change for four days with the arrival of our friends Martin and Trish. When they visited last year in late March, the weather was fine, but not hot at 22C, and the sea was cold at around 18C. This time they are in for a surprise because the temperature is still around 35C and the water temperature around 28C!
For a variety of reasons, they could only spend four days at Meerkat Manor, so, as soon as they arrived they set about enjoying themselves: eating, drinking, walking, swimming, relaxing and more drinking! We’ve known them for 10 years, and we are all quite relaxed and comfortable with each other, so we had a great time.
The highlight of their visit was when we went out with Christos on his boat. As we had ventured out with him earlier in the year (when Sally and Pete were staying), this time he took us to different beaches.
As before, we went to beaches that are not accessible by road, and also to see a cold water spring that gushes up from the sea bed. The cold water spring is quite a remarkable sight. It is about half a kilometre from the shore, and as we approached it, it was like sailing into a sheet of glass floating on top of the sea!
The image is vivid; normal waves of the sea, and then this smooth, flat circle of swirling water! It was crystal clear, and up close, we could see the water gushing up from the sea bed and as it reached the top, swirling around in a perfect circle. Christos told us that, if you got caught up in the circle whilst swimming, as the pressure of the rising water is so strong, it is very difficult to try and swim back out and into the sea again. As we sat in the boat, floating alongside, we could put our fingers into the spring water and experience the difference in temperature. It was quite eerie and surreal in a way. I could imagine that this is what the Bermuda Triangle could be like. Maybe those boats and people that have gone missing in the Atlantic sailed into a spring water circle like this and got sucked in and down? Gone forever without a trace!
The same weekend that Martin and Trish were with us, our Norwegian friends and neighbours came to stay in their holiday homes built behind Meerkat Manor.
Arne and Marit and Per and Anne Grethe usually visit twice per year; the end of May and beginning of June, and end of September and the beginning of October. Arne is sometimes able to fit in an extra week in late February. They built their homes next to each other four years ago, and both couples chose to build their holiday homes here for almost the same reasons Valerie and I did; the overall peace and quiet; the beauty of the Olive groves; the proximity of the sea and the beach, as well as the village, and the magnificent backdrop of the Taygetos Mountains.
They are ideal neighbours and keep themselves to themselves, although they will occasionally visit for drinks on the terrace at Meerkat Manor, and we will go over to them at least once during their stay.
Per doesn’t like flying and usually travels here by train from Oslo, changing twice during the journey to Ancona. From there he takes the ferry for the 21 hour journey across to Patras, on the Northern tip of the Peloponnese Peninsula, and then completes his trip by hire car.
This visit had coincided with him having travelled first to Spain, and then Italy, to fulfil some business commitments, and he arrived on the Friday evening. His wife, Anne Grethe, arrived on Sunday morning and he drove to Kalamata airport to collect her. For this visit, Per was going to be staying for four weeks, however, Anne Grethe was planning to stay for seven weeks as she had some business to attend to with regard to the house.
Arne and his wife Marit arrived together on the Saturday morning, and I drove to Kalamata airport to collect them. They were planning a four week stay and, as always, they are determined to make the most of it. Within minutes of arriving at their house, they were into their relax mode; drinks on their terrace and ‘drinking in’ the peace and quiet of the surroundings.
At that precise moment, they didn’t know that their peace and quiet was going to be shattered within the next few days!
Last year, Per and Anne Grethe decided to change the access route to their house and purchased some extra land, and Olive trees, adjacent to our boundary wall. Hitherto, Arne and Marit had allowed them to use their entry gates for pedestrian and vehicular access, and their water and electricity supplies to cross their land. Now, Per and Anne Grethe had decided that they wanted to make a change.
As well as their own access, they would move their utilities’ connections which would be better for everybody. They planned to re-direct water, electricity and sewage connections, and build a whole new entrance to their house.
Works included a drive alongside our boundary wall, a gate and a parking area in front of their house. The works comprised installing a new sewage septic tank, new electrical wiring, new water supply route and a new stone wall at the entrance to their land that would incorporate a ‘cupboard’ for the electric and water meters.
It was a bold plan, and it involved the use of heavy machinery which was to awake us all from our peaceful reverie!
Day one: at exactly 8am two diggers, two lorries and four workmen arrived and immediately got down to work.
Their first task was to remove the Olive trees that stood in their way. It was quite unique to see a bulldozer, come digger and crane, go into action.
The (very skilled) driver lifted two Olives trees clear out of the ground in one piece and moved them safely to one side. They would be re-planted once the works were completed.
A third tree was destined to be removed for good and donated to the Stavros Allanopolis winter fuel bunker! This tree was simply pushed over by the huge machine’s crane jib and then pushed out of the way of the planned works.
After pushing the last pieces of the Olive trees to one side, the diggers started working in tandem. The smaller of the two started to dig a trench for the insertion of the new water pipes and the larger started to excavate the enormous hole to contain the concrete septic tanks.
It was an incredibly noisy and dusty process, and one thing was for sure, there was to be no more ‘sound of silence’ for the foreseeable future!
The men worked very quickly indeed and finished the hole by hand to ensure it was level to receive the concrete tanks.
Photo: Uprooting The Oli
ve Tree.
Photo: Digging Trenches.
The bigger digger proved to be a multi-purpose tool. It was used for digging, pushing, levelling and acted as a crane to lift the giant concrete septic tanks not only off the back of the delivery lorry but also to lower them into place in the hole and put their lids securely in place.
The final part of ‘phase one’ of the project was to fill in the space around the tanks, and when it was all but complete, Per insisted on posing on top of the tanks, for he hoped never to see them again!
Photo: Per On The Twin Septic Tanks.
The hole was very precise and the ‘fit’ was tight, so not much soil was required to complete the job; Impressive workmanship.
The next job was to connect them to the water supply and finally cover the holes, level the ground and re-plant the lifted Olive trees. Phase one was completed in just one day! Phase two was a different matter altogether and planned to start the next day!
The following day was more ‘hands on’, and concrete foundations were laid. They were for the water pipe, placed in the full trench for the diverted water supply, and a wall that would have a ‘cupboard’ incorporated into it for the water and electric meters, and the three metre high pole to attach the supply cable to the man telegraph and then on to the main supply grid. It was looking good, but it meant more ‘noise’ in the days to come!
And now follows an important announcement!
“At 04.15am on 25th September it rained! Torrential stuff! It lasted for over an hour! It is the first rain of any consequence since 11th April! In the interim period, it had only rained three times and the longest time was for 8 minutes! The garden and the plants absolutely loved it!”
Although there was a lot of rain, my first thoughts were, would it be enough for the Olives?
We were pleased with the rain, as it cleared the air, but we were even more pleased that it came in the early hours of the morning because we went on an organised walk with a group of Scandinavian Residents who frequently meet to go on organised walks, and also meet once per month for lunch in a local tavern, and have a guest speaker to entertain them before lunch with tales of their life living in The Mani.
They keep in touch via a website www.parea-sti-mani.com.
A forthcoming lunch will feature non-other than Stavros Allanopolis!
Stavros will talk about his International best-selling book and his life living in the Mani region!
Photo: Cover Of Stavros’ Book.
‘It Started With An Ouzo’ available at Amazon Kindle Book Store.
This morning, we met up with our Swedish friends Karin and Staffan and joined the group of walkers to do ‘Zorba’s Walk’ from Stoupa, up to the nearby Lignite mine and back again.
We met at the statue erected in memory of Nikos Kazantzakis overlooking Kalogria Beach in Stoupa. Nikos lived in Stoupa, and the statue denotes 1917 – 1918 which was when he mined for Lignite.
Photo: Meeting At The Statue.
The period was towards the end of World War One and fuel was in great demand. Kazantzakis and a friend dug the mine and extracted the Lignite from the rich seams discovered there and shipped it to Kalamata by boat.
The venture proved to be short-lived, but Nikos subsequently gained International fame with his book (for the most part fictional events). Written in 1946, ‘Zorba the Greek’ put The Mani region and Greece on a world-wide stage. The book tells his story about his friend who worked the mine with him by day, and danced, drank and womanised by night.
The mining office of Giorgos Zorbas was the source of his inspiration to call his friend ‘Zorba the Greek’ and in 1996 it was made into an award-winning film starring Anthony Quinn as Zorba.
I recommend that you buy the film (for details, Google ‘Zorba the Greek’), for, although the film version was set in Crete, the original action took place right here in Stoupa and the surrounding areas, thus immortalising the area. Even some 60 years’ on the performances given by both Actors are excellent, and of course it contains the legendary music and dance of ‘Zorba the Greek’ and as you watch, you can imagine them dancing it on Kalogria Beach!
Hence the walk is called Zorba’s Walk, and 90 plus years on, some parts of the mine, the equipment and the mining office are still to be seen, and we were going to walk up to the site to see them.
We set off, and in only a few minutes we once more experienced the ‘sound of silence.’ Although we were a group of some 16 people, we all walked in amiable silence through the trees of the forest as it rose up above us in the mountain. The sun was filtering through the leafy branches above, and the shafts of sunlight were truly beautiful, and because it had rained, the air was cool and very fresh. The smell of the woods was very ‘earthy’ and quite delightful as we followed the rising path ahead of us. As we walked, the birds flew through the trees around our heads, heralding our approach with deafening squawks to anybody that needed to know. During the climb to the top of the path, we came across so many wild flowers. In fact, it was quite jungle-like!
Eventually, we came into a clearing and there ahead of us were the remains of a water pump that had been used to pump out the flooded mine shafts and chambers. Close by was the building that was the former mining office of Giorgos Zorbas.
Photos: Water Pump.
Photos: Giorgos Zorba’s Office.
We were to learn that it had been derelict for quite some time but then became home to a German artist; Rudi Bährend. During the commentary from our guide on the walk, we learned that Rudi’s daughter has a collection of his works for sale and, as they sell, she is using the money to fund the restoration of the building. Substantial work on the building is already evident, and together with her husband, she plans to turn it into a cultural centre for the Arts; visual, readings, music and entertainment.
Next, we continued along the path on top of the mountain through the forest and on to the entrance to the original mineshaft, almost hidden within the clusters tall Cypress trees that have grown all around it. The years have taken their toll but, it is possible to imagine how it once might have been. There are still some artefacts and other rusting and decaying equipment to be seen, although now some 90 years old.
Photo: Entrance To The Mine.
The Lignite they mined was transported in sacks, loaded into carts and lowered down the cliff, via a cable car system, to the sea below. They had built a small harbour for a boat to dock, and to transport the Lignite to Kalamata. This must have been quite an engineering feat.
Photo: Remains Of The Balustrade Supports.
Sadly, all that is left are some of the stone parts of the balustrades. They would have supported a wooden framework, complete with winding tackle to carry the cables of the cable car to transport the carts destined for the harbour built on the beach below.
Photo: View From Balustrade.
Photos: Views Down To the Sea.
By way of an aside, there is an excellent English language magazine published here in Stoupa, titled MANIfest. It is specifically published for visitors to and Residents of The Mani. Issue 5 has a very interesting article on Rudi Bährend and his daughter Katharina. Issues 1 - 4 contain photos and stories related to the places and people of The Mani.
Photo: Manifest Magazine.
For details on how to obtain this and other issues, email the publishers at [email protected]
Author’s Note: This magazine is no longer published, but back copies are available.
It had been a very peaceful and enjoyable walk, however when we returned to Meerkat Manor the ‘noise’ of the ‘works’ was still continuing.
Still, we told ourselves that it would only last for a few more days, and to be fair to Anne Grethe, the proposed stone wall for the boundary would be much more attractive than the current lines of barbed wire. So, maybe worth the disruption and worth waiting for.
Eventually the ‘noise’ abated and diggers and the men left, and the peace and quiet returned once more to Meerkat Manor.
Their lunches and evening pre-dinner drinks on the terrace were quite quiet, and in fact all we could hear was a gentle ‘murmur’ of collective sound as they sat enjoying the sun, the clean air, and the sunsets.
Here is the second important announcement in a week!
“Disaster struck in the middle of the night of 27th September!”
The following morning, I was at that particular stage of my early morning ‘routine’ when I water the pots. As I walked the path I came across cow dung! The cows had returned and, as I was to discover, they had wreaked havoc in both gardens! It was heart-breaking! They had trampled all over the green succulent plants that cover the grounds. That wasn’t too bad as they will grow back quite quickly. What was really bad was that they had systematically selected and chewed their way through some of our most precious ‘greenery’ and some of our favourite plants: Hibiscus, Lilies, Morning Glory, Bamboo, Lemon Grass, Mulberry tree, Purple Flowering Leaf Cacti, Roses and, the ‘final straw’, they had eaten our very prized Brussels Sprouts! At her third attempt, Valerie had succeeded in getting them to grow, and they were planned for Christmas lunch; not now they weren’t!
Watching the Olives Grow Page 16