Nature
After the rainfall at the beginning of the month all the grass is now growing back again and the mountains are well and truly green. The crocuses and cyclamen are now in flower. The weather for the last three weeks has been glorious but with a cool northerly wind.
The rain at the end of last month came at a perfect time for the olives. It will not be a record crop this year but it is looking OK. A few people have started to pick already but they will start in earnest at the beginning of the month. There is nothing more satisfying and tranquil than being in the olive groves communing with nature with the sun on your back gently raking the olives off the branches. Apart from the sound of the mechanical picking machines and the olives flying off them and hitting you repeatedly on the head and in your face. Raging backache. The inevitable olive leaf poking you painfully in the eye and the bump on the head when you have tried to walk under a low branch. All volunteers are very welcome, lunch is provided.
Transportation
I purposely put a photograph of a ship on this newsletter to remind our readers on Amorgos what one looks like. After about two months off line the Skopelitis is now back with us and running. This was incredibly well timed just before all the large ships were stopped due to strikes. We had no ship to Piraeus for 8 days. The few tourists we had here were stranded. Going to Naxos or Syros and then flying was not an option as every aircraft was full. All the shops ran out of fresh produce but the beer supply was OK thank goodness otherwise life would not have been able to continue here.
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Ormos Aegialis from the olive groves -
Picking Olives -
This is what a ship looks like -
An idyllic setting on the Thamalakane!
Oxi Day
The 28th of October is Oxi Day and a national holiday. It commemorates the Greek military dictator Ioannis Metaxas rejection of the ultimatum made by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on 28th October 1940. The ultimatum was presented to Metaxas by the Italian ambassador in Greece. It demanded that Greece should allow the Axis forces to enter Greek territory or otherwise face war. It was allegedly answered with the single word ‘NO’ (oxi). However in reality he said, ‘Then it is war’. One and a half hours later the Italians invaded Greece. From 1942 it has been celebrated as Oxi Day. There are parades in major towns and a big military parade in Thessalonika.
Special Interest Holidays in Africa
On the 1st November we move to Botswana for six months to oversee our operation there. To this end there will be no Amorgos newsletters over the winter. We will however publish a Christmas and New Year ‘special’. It will have some news about Amorgos but also news from down there for anyone who is interested. Given that all the crocodiles from the croc farm just down the river from our house there recently escaped it may make interesting reading. They have shot or captured 200 so far but due to the lack of records they still do not know how many escaped. We thought that the setting right on the River Thamalakane was idyllic; we are now having second thoughts!
Kind regards,
Paul & Henri
© Special Interest Holidays 1999 - 2012
