From the Archives- Greek adventures- Walking in the Vikos Gorge

Since we are all at home, in our own homes with no opportunity to travel to far flung places, I thought I'd share a journey from my archives. We travelled to mainland Greece 2 years ago and this was our trip to the Vikos Gorge. I have to tell you that CBC first learnt about the Vikos Gorge from his love of exploring places on Google Earth. That's how this holiday came about. I'd like to go back there in the Spring time when it is cooler- apparently it is utterly beautiful in the Spring! Anyway, here's my trek into the Vikos Gorge.

 Enjoy!

Greek Adventures- Walking in the Vikos Gorge

I shared our experiences of Corfu a week ago or so. I would like to move us onto the next leg of our journey- Mainland Greece!  This part of the journey was the main reason we had come to Greece.  CBC has been harping on about visiting and walking in the Vikos Gorge (Europe's Deepest Gorge) for years now so I mainly agreed to go to shut him up! (only kidding)

On the third morning, our host drove us to the port where we picked up the boat to Agoumenitsa, the port on the mainland.  It was very cheap and a very pleasant journey.  Unfortunately, reaching the port some two hours after our hire car was booked for, it seemed everyone was late for their cars at the Green Line Car hire place and we waited 2 hours as everyone had an argument with them about their car being given to someone else 'because they were late'.  If you ever hire a car from them, DO NOT TURN UP LATE or PHONE them if you are going to. Their customer service was terrible.  We finally got the front and ended up, luckily, not having to pay any extra and ending up with an Automatic car.  We drove and stopped in Ioannina for some lunch and then drove on to the mountainous region called Zagori.  We were due to stay in a wonderful village called Megalo Papigo which was utterly beautiful!  You did, however, have to drive up some pretty scary switchbacks to get there!  CBC did incredibly well driving an Automatic for the first time up them!

We checked into our home for the next three days, the Saxonis Rooms/Hotel which I heartily recommend if you ever wish to explore this beautiful part of Greece. It was a beautiful, quiet traditional hotel with wonderful hosts who provide information on walks tailored to abilities, great conversation and amazing walks.

On our second morning, our host, Vassilis gave us information on a route to take. CBC had already purchased what Vassilis described as 'The best map' so he was able to point it out for us.  We planned to walk from Papigo into the Vikos gorge and ending in the village of Vikos (will appear as Bikos on the maps in Greece as, contrary to popular belief, the second letter of the Greek alphabet is pronounced Veta not Beta!) 

Alas for us, it was rather late when we set off and extremely hot- 39 degrees celsius, to be precise!
The walls of the mountains and gorge were such an interesting set of colours.

The first part of the journey was relatively easy going downhill, although extremely hot.  The views were incredible.

I was immensely grateful for any shade that we could find to escape that interminable sun!

If you compare the size of CBC compared to the rocks which flanked us, you can see we felt very insignificant!

Seeing those very sloped stony looking paths in the distance filled me with dread. I do not like stony downhills.

Yes, that line in the middle was the path we were headed for.

Actually though, when you actually reach it, the path seems more safe and wider than at first appears.

We spotted the odd cairn about.  The vegetation was quite scrubby but was still welcome shade at times even if the difference in temperature was negligible.

The view across was where we were headed once we had descended down into the gorge.  We'd have to go back up at some point. I can't say my heart was filled with the most joy.  I think the phrase, "I'm so hot!" was uttered a myriad times.

At long last, we reached the bottom of the Gorge.  We had been told there should be a beautiful spring or river at the bottom but it was completely dried up- we were standing on a river bed.  I confess to feeling disappointed as I had brought swimming clothes.

Here I am- sweaty, hot, exhausted and hair all over the place. I covered up with this shirt as I didn't want to get too burnt.

CBC thought that we might have to walk a bit further on to find a Spring and decided to be intrepid and seek it.  He started to set off and I saw this little fellow.  We met some other people then. Some Israeli teenagers who also sought the Spring and were equally disappointed.  (This was the first of MANY Israeli tourists we met- it seems that Zagori is very popular with Israeli folks).  At this point,a French family came along also seeking the Spring.  I set off after CBC, going very slowly.  The French dad went ahead like CBC and myself and the rest of the French family trailed along, slightly in despair. I confess that I felt it was a futile endeavour...

Luckily, CBC and the French guy weren't so defeatist and came back to tell us that the Oasis was ahead!

There were plenty of explorers there.  We wondered why they weren't all in the water.  Then someone brave went in... and came straight out...

The water was wonderfully blue.

I took my shoes off and walked in....It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo cold it actually hurt. This water was direct from the mountains.  The odd person dived in.  It must have been a wonderful relief but no one stayed in for too long.  Our hosts had told us that the water is so clear and pure that you can drink it.  We collected some in our now mostly empty water bottles to supplement our meagre supplies for the ascent up to Bikos.

I chatted to an Israeli guy and his family before reluctantly donning my very sweaty walking socks and boots again.

The canopy of trees had been such a welcome respite.

Now we had to climb up again and the heat, if anything, seemed more pronounced.

Looking back over the Gorge was sensational. I wish I could capture the sheer scale of it. I felt very small.

We looked across  to where we had come from.  That's where we were towards the beginning of the walk.

The final leg of the journey was extremely tiring. I was dripping with sweat and we had drunk all our water and had to keep stopping very few minutes as the steep ascent was most arduous.  We seemed to be playing relays with other walkers. You would overtake someone and then they would find you sitting panting on a rock and then they would go ahead and then vica-versa.    

When we finally reached Bikos (my camera had died, alas!) we were so utterly grateful to have finished the 7mile trek in scorching heat.  There was a little wooden shelter at the end of the trail onto the main street and we sat there panting talking to a guy and filling our water bottles from the very welcome tap there.  I drank normal tap water all the time in Greece- I know they say you should drink bottled water but I was none-the-worse for drinking river water, tap water and spring water.

We ate a delicious Greek Salad and a portion of chips and bread in a Taverna and, thanks to Vassilis' tip, arranged for driver from the Taverna to take us back to Pagigo.  It was a long drive as there is no quick way between the two sides of the gorge. It was, definitely, the best 20 Euros I spent all week, not having to walk back!

It was an amazing walk, despite its difficulty, and I was glad we had done it,despite wanting to give up on many occasions!

Have you heard of the Vikos/Bikos Gorge and would you like to visit?

More anon...

xx

CBC's Birthday Pirates and Seafarers quiz evening - Questions

I thought I'd share my quiz from CBC's Pirate Party Zoom quiz just

 in case you wanted to use them for a party or just have a go at 

seeing what you know!

I'll publish the answers another time!

Pirates and nautical based characters and stories.

1. One eyed Willy is a pirate in which film?

2. “Many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese -toasted, mostly”  is a quote that comes from which  nautical-based story? Bonus  - which character says it?

3. Which real-life pirate was also known as “Granuaille,” or “bald,” for her habit of cutting her hair short ?

4. Who wrote the book which the sailor and pirate Captain Nemo appeared in?

5. Piratical arithmetic: Multiply the number  men on a Dead Man's Chest  x the distance that the Nautilus submarine travelled, divided by the number of Pirates of the Caribbean films and + the number of the King who commissioned the Spanish Armada (Remember BODMAS)

6. Complete the J.M Barrie quote:”________ star to the ______ and straight on till ____________.” said ___________

7. Name the famous Narnian ship.

8. Name C.S. Forester’s famous Captain.

9. Patrick O’Brian’s nautical books are set during which war?

10.  Which composer wrote the music for  film, The Sea Hawk? (bonus point if you can name who played the hero in this?

Klimt inspiration

Hi there,

My school are making good use of our time at home, keeping us busy (some of us make blog posts lessons for our kids daily which take hours! Teaching my musician curriculum is not as easy as shoving a worksheet up on the net Humph! I'm not wasting my time!A year 1 post has taken me about 3hours to recreate at least.) by setting us CPD tasks- (Continuing Professional Development).  We've got to choose from 3 online courses (some Open University ones that are reaaaaaaaaaaaally long), do a virtual tour of a place to visit, research an artist and I've been told to set a music task for everyone. It's fine but I really don't want to be spending any more time online than I am already. I get headaches from too much screen time.

Anyway, yesterday, after one course, I was trying to register with the OU to no avail so I decided to start with my Art CPD.

You had to select an artist from a list of those that you might study with kids at school and do some research, showing what you know, what you wanted to know and what you found out, perhaps creating an example of your artwork based on them.

I selected Gustav Klimt from the list as I'd seen his The Kiss painting at the Belvere museum in Vienna last year and wanted to know more.

I duly did and wrote up my research and then did my own version of one of his paintings using my watercolour pencils.

This one, Farm Garden was one I really liked and decided I would do my own musical spin on it as I discovered a Lithograph he did called Music. Plus, his mother was a failed musician!

IMage borrowed from
https://www.accents-n-art.com/canvas-prints/4x5-CPM00537.html

I created a violin shape and then used his piece as inspiration (sort of copying!) the groups of flowers and colours he did.

I think I'd like to give this another go but perhaps using a more conventional rectangle shape!

What do you think?

TARDIS Tuesday outfit- Petronella Osgood in Death In Heaven

In my recent 'Future TARDIS Tuesday' post, I alluded to this outfit worn by Petronella Osgood, in an episode called Death in Heaven.  Osgood works for UNIT as a scientific adviser and her clothes are very much nods to the Doctor's outfits as she is his super fan!

Let's look at the outfit she wears...

I've put together this collage of stills I made from the episode showing her outfit as best as possible.

As you can see, it consists of:

• Claret bow tie.
• Navy, long practical-looking coat.
• Navy trousers
• Beige and peachy floral shirt
• Converse trainers
• Hair in plait
• Black-framed glasses.
• Brown buckled belt

I thought it would be fun to do some side-by-side photos of this outfit!

Let's talk through my outfit:

I started with the floral blouse. Actually, this item is a Clara Oswald shirt which she wore in clips from the BBC Doctor Who prom- it was one of my first Clara purchases and came from a charity shop in town. It seemed very similar in print to Osgood's!

My vintage bowtie came from the Vintage Emporium in Hexham a few years ago.

My navy Barbour jacket is in fact a Clara jacket, again! Also second-hand (I COULD NOT find the hood! Where is it?!!)

My glasses are from Primark.

My Converse trainers were £2.50 from my local charity shop and yes, you guessed it, they are a Clara item also!

Finally, my trousers are from Just Female (but bought second-hand) and are.... a Clara item!

So this was all put together from items I already had, which is the best kind of cosplay I think! As usual, everything is second-hand (except the glasses!) 

Later in the episode, Osgood is in her laboratory and changes into her white lab coat so I threw on one of CBC's workshirts to emulate that!

Obviously, since I was working at home, I didn't wear jacket or labcoat all day, so this is what I wore (and am still wearing) for the rest of the day with rainbow slippers instead of shoes which were only worn to go and fill up watering cans from the Waterbutt outside in the rain to maximise the amount of rain water I could collect! Wish I had a second butt!

 What do you think?

xx

Kezzie and the amazing technicolor dream skirt

"I wore my skirt (yes, on Saturday)
With golden lining (not really)
Bright colours shining (they're matt- cotton doesn't shine)
Wonderful and new (wonderful, yes,.  New....well, second hand from the charity shop 2 years ago)
May I return? (this is ok so far, please specify to what or where or whom?)
To the beginning (of what? Life?  The day?  This blog post?  Knock yourself out!)
The light is dimming (not at 11am)
And the dream is true (well, I like having a rainbow skirt but it wasn't always my dream!)"

Enough of the silliness!  I hadn't shared an outfit post on here.  I know a lot of people have been existing in their pajamas during the Lockdown/stay at home (you've made me paranoid about what is the right term to use Bev!)  but for me, I always like getting dressed properly in what I'd wear anyway!

On Saturday, I thought it was time to pull out the rainbow skirt!  Rainbows are everywhere at the moment- a symbol of hope. Like my good friend, Ang,  I have always liked rainbows and talked about the importance of them in my childhood memories so I have had lots of rainbow items of clothing in my wardrobe- it's always something that has cheered me!

Except for the leggings and jewellery, the whole outfit is charity-shopped from the rainbow skirt (£2.50 Scope, Hexham), black top (Barnardos £2.50), Birkenstock sandals (£12 British Heart Foundation)

My necklace is from the Crafty Anteater and my earrings (Parrots!) were from Primark a looong time ago!

Sending you all positive rainbow wishes.

xxx

The Surname initial Challenge

I saw this on someone's Instagram Stories. It seemed quite a fun challenge in the Giles Brandreth vein so I thought I'd give it a go.You must complete this challenge without googling, asking anyone else or looking in a book. It relies solely on your brain power! Something/someone called @thevestigeofficial created this.  Don't know what they do but their spelling is shocking, even in their profile. I corrected the mistakes in their original! They also say that this is harder than you think.  Hmmm, wonder if that's true...

You must give an item for each of the categories that begins with the first letter of your surname (and if you share my initial, get your own ideas!) 

Wear:  Plimsoles

Food:  Passata

Drink: Pineapple Juice

Place: Poland

Animal: Panda

Colour: Puce

TV show: Pinky and Perky

Girl's name: Poonam

Boy's name: Peter

Profession: Porter

Body part: Pancreas

Word to describe someone: Pernickety 

Something in your home: Pots

Your last name: Ha ha, not telling you but it begins with P!

I challenge you: Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.

Here's a list for you to copy and paste if you felt like joining in!

• Wear
• Food
• Drink
• Place
• Animal
• Colour
• TV show
• Girl's name
• Boy's name
• Profession
• Body part
• Word to describe someone
• Something in your home
• Your last name
• I challenge you

A COVID isolation Birthday day

Please, before I write anything else, please keep my sister's Father-in-Law in prayer. He's now developed a lung infection and it's looking to be pretty serious- please keep him in prayer.


It was CBC's birthday and so yesterday, I wanted to try and make his birthday as lovely as I could within the constraints of isolation, not being able to go and look for presents and the suchlike.

The previous night, I had put all his presents and cards on the coffee table and used my pinboard to write a birthday greeting and put my Scrabble Christmas Lights which say "Christmas" (very appropriate for Chris's birthday! I'd also dressed up his cuddly pineapple, Mr Pineapple, who he loves very much in a pirate costume complete with eye-patch, parrot and spotted bandana.
On Friday morning, when we woke up, once I was dressed (and we'd eaten a slice of pineapple each), I headed up the road to the CO-OP to see if I could get some lovely treats for his birthday day and weekend.
I was lucky as I arrived because there were only two people in the queue and they went in in less than a minute after I'd arrived. 
It was my first time at our local Co-op, a small store.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a good array of stock.  I wanted to get things that were luxurious that I know CBC likes so around the store, the things I bought included Smoked Salmon, Salmon fillets, Sesame Bagels, Kalamanta Olive Bloomer bread, Thai Prawn crackers, Cucumber, wholewheat noodles, Fresh cream Chocolate eclairs, Almond Milk (very, very necessary as we'd run out of Milkman milk), Crackers for cheese, Lentil Dhal soup, eggs.

When I got back, CBC was delighted to see everything I'd bought.
He had to get some emails sent for work.  I'd stayed up till 2am the previous night getting Friday's school work done so I wouldn't have to do any on Friday.
CBC was excited that a parcel arrived from his Mum from Sharpham which was a Cheese and Wine box and included the most epic-sized chunks of cheese, 2 bottles of wine and 2 boxes of crackers.
He also received lots of messages from family and friends.

At lunchtime, we prepared several plates of Smoked Salmon with lemon juice, dill and pepper, cut slices of Olive bread, cut cumber and a bowl of Thai prawn crackers and then sat on our swing seat eating it. It tasted utterly sublime and luxurious!!

After this, we proceeded to the sofa where CBC opened his presents and cards.  Two parcels had arrived from my Mum and his sister so the previous night, I wrapped both of them up in wrapping paper so he had something to open (I hasten to add, this was used wrapping paper from previous presents!). He received 5 packs of Fairtrade coffee from my Mum and a lovely rainbow cycling top from his sister.  I'd also ordered a cycling top (a vintage-look Paris-Roubaix top) but it hadn't arrived.  The presents I'd got for him (very small) were 2 bars of Divine Fairtrade chocolate, a new Lemon and Tea tree cardboard deodorant, a new Montelbano shampoo bar from Lush and some spare cycling lights.  The latter 3 presents were all things I'd bought but wanted him to have things to open.

We had had some cake and tea.

After this, I headed to go and print out and cut up the clues for my very own Escape Room I'd created for him (more of that later) and whilst he was absorbed in school work, I went and hid all the clues in their various locations.

After this, about 3.15, I suggested to CBC that we go out for a walk and I would show him the local walk I've been doing which he hasn't seen.

On through the fields and I picked a new posy of Stitchwort to replace the one in the kitchen which was getting a little old.

CBC agreed that it was really good to get a walk out and he really liked this new walk.

Back home and CBC needed to get ready our next social engagement, a Zoom quiz party with his family.

I went and got into my outfit.  Oh, did I neglect to mention that CBC had set a Pirate and/sailor theme (someone else was inspired by Treasure Island on Sunday!) for his birthday. Did you notice his pirate attire earlier? He was wearing my waistcoat and coin necklace!

It was my turn to get into my outfit.  I had already decided that I would go down the 'sailor' route as opposed to pirate route- did I mention I have several nautical dresses?

I added some ribbon and a rosette to a pillar-box hat I had and donned my Jaeger sailor dress, added anchor shoes, Lobster brooch and telescope necklace.

As we got ready for the Zoom quiz, I played some sea shanties on my viola and he got out his Accordion.

The Zoom party began. The family were joined by his best childhood friend and family and everyone was dressed in pirate attire.  The most creative was his brother who had tied a black and white stripy scarf around his head so he looked like he had dread-locks alla Captain Jack Sparrow and had a washing up sponge parrot!

I forgot to mention that we decorated our sofa area with nautical looking objects- handy my mum gave me a plastic lobster for my birthday last year, I had a net potato sack, 2 shell curtain ties and we have a palm-tree-looking plant!

The quiz was great fun- the rounds were:  Pirates and nautical-based characters and fiction (mine), Finish the sea-shanty (CBC), Treasure (his mum), Seafaring Vessels (younger sister), Islands and their locations (brother).  It was such fun and very funny!

It ended around 7.15pm.  CBC and I had a quick cup of tea and then we began the 2nd Zoom party with my Dad, Stepmum, sister and her boyfriend (he was via Zoom)

We have all done 2 panic rooms together (locked room challenges where you have 1hour to solve the clues in order to escape) and we did an online one on Easter Monday.  We all missed the actual searching so I'd decided for CBC's birthday- to make a physical one- it was more like a treasure hunt in the sense that you had a clue and had to search for the next location but it was great fun.  I'd phoned my dad the previous week and asked if he was willing to be the Escape room setter-upper in his house.  The clues I  created all had a physical location that could be found in both house-holds so CBC and my sister//stepmum could search in tandem and find the clues in their own houses!  Her boyfriend gave ideas and technical support over Zoom (and he said it was really fun!).
Happily, they managed to find the final clue within the hour (their time was 51minutes).
We had a final 10minute chat and then the Zoom call ended.

The final event of the evening was dinner.  I'd preordered a takeaway from the Madeiran restaurant in our town and they arrived just as the Zoom call ended!

It was delicious!  We ended the evening watching Neighbours on the TV (we had 2 episodes to catch up on!) and ate Chocolate eclairs for dessert!

Finally, a team-photo before bed (you can see Mr Crabby below and Mr Pineapple above!)

It was a great fun set of activities and hopefully made what might have been a boring birthday that bit more fun and interesting!

Hope you are well.

xx

P.S.  Please can you remember my Father-in-Law in prayer.x