Kefalonia : Back to the Future

Hi all, back and out of the doldrums. Hopefully you've all been overly productive both in your offline & online gardens. I'm about to recompensate my absenteeism but first I've got to share this effusion of sentiments and pixels from my latest Homeric crusade... (raised eyebrows and grumbling welcome as usual !)




Even though I have only just returned, the sentimental lust is forever blooming. I will let you enjoy some idyllic Mediterranean landscapes and many of the easily missed and often unappreciated plants which have illuminated my wanderings and followed me as I left some more footprints on this marvelous island. 'Cos there truly is more to this delusively barren land than just my 'engaging' balderdash...

Old, charming villages dotted with bougainvilleas, rose laurels and century old olive trees ...



Under the Mediterranean Sun

"The half-forgotten island of Kefalonia rises improvidently and inadvisedly from the Ionian Sea; it is an island so immense in antiquity that the very rocks exhale nostalgia and the red earth lies stupified not only by the sun, but by the impossible weight of memory… The dark green of the pines is unfathomably and retreatingly deep, the ocean viewed from the top of a cliff presents azure and turquoise, emerald, viridian and lapis lazuli. Even the seawater is easier to see through than the air of any other place; a man may float in the water watching the distant sea bed, and clearly see the lugubrious rays accompanied by diminutive flatfish."

From 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' by Louis de Bernières

Regrettably (or not), no longer forgotten, but remains as overwhelming and intoxicating as ever.
As far as tourism goes, Kefalonians should consider naming Mr De Bernieres their other patron saint. For it was his book ' Captain Corelli's mandolin ' and  then there's the year 2002 with the homonymous film which definitely introduced the magic and beauty of the place to a huge audience and widened the horizons of many more nature lovers and adventurers.

The far north colorful village of Fiskardo - always in bloom

An island 35 kilometres by 45 kilometres...
Insane but ingenious islanders...
Vibrant colours even during the scorching summer days...
Breathtaking and dramatic scenery...
Venetian ruins, Mycenian tombs, Nymph Caves, Odysseus and Lord Byron's footsteps...
Dreamy, turquoise Ionian sea...
Cypress trees, Umbrella (Italian stone) pines, Greek Firs, Robola grapevine, olive groves, Ainos mountain with many more endemic species...

Sea Squill ( Urginea maritima )

Many tragedies have befallen this beautiful island, but the following two were disastrous. One natural and one man-made. First, what happens to the little people when megalomaniacs get busy a.k.a. the Second World War. The island was occupied by Italian troops. When Italy capitulated to the Allies in 1943, the Italians handed the island over to the Germans, who massacred over 5000 Italian troops on the island. Then another tragedy struck Kefalonia in August 1953. A cataclysmic earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale reduced the island to ruins to the point that virtually every building/house was destroyed. Several hundreds died. Thousands migrated. Many abandoned, dreary old villages remain today as a monument to the 1953 disaster. Mostly for these two reasons, Kefalonia is deprived of the rich architectural legacy that many other tourist destinations display so lavishly. Nevertheless, God has been very generous when it comes to natural beauty and overwhelming landscape.

Spikey Reichardia...

Once more the unsettled giant in the bowels of the earth slammed a mighty fist vertically upwards, so that houses leapt from their foundations and solid stone walls rippled like paper in the wind, and suddenly there was a stillness like that of death . The earthquake changed lives so profoundly that to this day it is still the single greatest topic of conversation. Captain Corelli's Mandolin


Beautiful Mediterranean vistas

Kefalonia definitely being a typical example , with vast areas of forest cloaking the rugged limestone landscape and ten peaks exceeding 5,000 feet. Voted 10th in a World Scenic Beauty League, Kefalonia's coast is dotted with hundreds of secluded white limestone coves, caves and steep cliffs. Against the white glow of the coast, many inland areas of the island are blanketed by green plains, Kefalonian fir, olive groves and vineyards.



Mount Ainos, the island's highest mountain(1,628 m), a giant that suddenly emerges from a thick forest of black Greek fir with uniquely upreaching branches that exist only here - Abies cephalonica..

Kefalonians & other living beings

To spoil the fairytale, through the years of my continuous enchantment with this place, I have also been forced to notice some things that people just turn their heads on. Having in mind that some of the Kefalonians truly belong to a breed of demented people, and that coming from a person who has met and won so many beautiful friendships there. You probably guessed, I'm talking animal cruelty.


I can't seem to turn a blind eye on this and usually come to think of myself and friends as magnets for stray animals. There's good and bad just about in every place around the globe, but through the years I have unwillingly created the image about animal abuse on Kefalonia and mind you, I don't even live there, I have never seen hundreds of cats and dogs that get poisoned at the end of the tourist season each year. What I have seen in periods of about  three weeks was enough for my stomach. Dogs abandoned in the middle of nowhere, chained to a massive piece of rock, with no food or WATER at all, with summer temperatures scorching the place at around or above 40C each day, with no rain for months. And nothing or no one nearby, just a few stranded tourists per week. Dehydrated puppies dying scattered along deserted dirt tracks...My dear friend who lived there for 9 years also rescued her dog, that she had found hanged on a piece of linen cord. I will stop there. The general conclusion is that some of the locals are too stiff and hardheaded to neuter their pets but they openhandedly tag their furry friends as vermin. Thanks to many local friends and tourists who have fallen in love with the place and have chosen it as their future home, many of the doomed ones have been saved through their animal welfare program.

Unfortunately, the island of Kefalonia is not alone in this. Neither is Greece. Neither is Europe.
The things is, though, that some countries governments are just as cruel as the people in question when it comes to anyone outside their (pardon my French) fat-ass circle of trust.
You sometimes can't help but wonder, does God hear the cries of those who do not communicate in human language? !

ALL GREEK ANIMAL WELFARE SOCIETIES ARE UNDER ATTACK

The Greek Government is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid both its responsibilities to the animals of Greece, and the international embarrassment that this causes. The government prefers to increase the suffering of innocent animals by attacking national and international animal welfare societies and innocent Greek and foreign animal lovers in a pathetic attempt to cover itself for its appalling record on the treatment of animals in Greece. (Story of Leo...)

Before I spoil my little travelogue, here's a few more to get that frown of your faces...
and nothing does it better than Greek road signs !

I wonder which tools they're using?...

I will forever remain a captive of this wonderful isle, even with having to learn that no place is perfect, doing something about it is soul-rewarding and heart-mending to some extent, but doesn't change the world. And just when you thought that people have really lost their marbles, there's papas Efsevios, as modest and benign as ever, Kefalonia's true saint and one of a few good souls to frame down in your memories.


Having to share your chicken souvlaki with a massive hornet is not the worst thing you may experience. A mild earthquake every now and then (Kefalonia and the neighbouring islands being one of the most seismically active in Europe). Being dragged out to the open water by strong currents and 2m waves, what a thrill. Being cheated and fooled by your rent-a-car rep and getting a lovely car with flat tyres & necrotic gearbox fits in the image as well . Locking-in your keys in that silly car, in the middle of nowhere, makes your day for sure ! LOL Here's a special thanks to a hilarious Italian dude from Rome who helped us wind down Fiat Punto's rear window from the outside and thus saved the day.

Wilson was there too... ;-)
He had lost Tom Hanks somewhere along the way...

I will get back soon with more photos of the island's lovely flora and a few plant conundrums of my illicitly imported newbies, for my dear gardening friends to help solve.

KEFALONIA (Greece) - part 2

At 1st sight from the air, Kefalonia strikes with vast geographical diversity; dark peaks of MtAenos (1628m) towering high above the clouds; stunning beaches and scenery; steep cliffs crashing into the turquoise sea; sweet scent of beautiful fir forests. After landing, the 1st impressions you get are not those of beauty, luxury, leisure, ecstatic nightlife and high end tourism. Just another hot, dry and barren Greek island. There is hardly a sign of civilization. And this is not a misleading impression, for Kefalonia essentially IS a wild island.

Platis Ammos beach

But that's just Kefalonia's cunning disguise that has so far mostly kept the island out of reach of man's destructive touch. Whoever decides to spend 2 weeks lingering at the side of hotel's pool and bar will most definitely not get to know the real Kefalonia. Because Kef is quite a large island, without a wandering soul, explorer's zeal and renting some kind of a vehicle , you will not be able to experience some of the most spectacular beaches in the Mediterranean, mystical old mountain villages, or idyllic seaside towns, never mind the remotest parts of the island.



One place though takes a special stand in my memories. Long before I have first traveled to Kefalonia, I read about this old monastery, Monastery of Kipouria (Moni Kipoureon). It wasn't in the brochure for any religious miracles or saints, merely for being a perfect place to see some wonderful sunsets. A veranda of the Ionian they called it. It wasn't even put down in the must-see list of tourist sightseeing. Wasn't popular enough. Not worth a visit, some might think. Anyway, I still had this unexplainable wish to visit Monastery of Kipouria. I don't know why, I just did. I felt I already knew what an amazing place it is. Naturally, we didn't find it that easy, but there's several ways you can reach it from, and I guess we took the one less traveled by again.


And then as we were driving downhill, a whole new world opened before our very eyes. You could see a great deal of the entire west coast (that's the wild, mostly unpopulated part of the island), and the deep, blue Ionian sea in all its might. And there was our monastery, overhanging a cliff that crashes into the Ionian, and makes you feel as if the end of the world was beneath your feet. To sit within its historic walls and look out over the vast expanse of the Ionian Sea is a serene experience. The peace and tranquility of this extraordinary place transcends you into a dreamlike state where all the worries of the world simply drift away over the clear blue waters. You leave feeling cleansed and revived. With a strong wish to return.

The name Kipouria comes from the many gardens looked after by the holy fathers to be self-sufficient.. In 1915 it was bombarded by the French when, during a misty day, the cruiser mistook the chimney for the enemy's ship. The Monastery was further destroyed by the 1953 earthquake. Over the last 15 years the remaining buildings have been rebuilt by the only monk who lives at the Monastery. In the church you can see the miraculous icon of Annunciation and the sculls of the Monastery founders. The true treasure however, is found in the view from the natural window to the Ionian Sea, in the beauty of the landscape, immersed in the colors of the sunset and most of all,in one person that makes this monastery so different from many others in the world, the solitary monk of Kipouria, father Efsevios. As soon as I entered the monastery yard, I spotted a tiny, dark figure watering the plants. It was father Efsevios himself (who else, apart from rebuilding most of the monastery, he also has the endless task of building and farming the slopes, as well as holding services especially on the festival days). Nevertheless, he kindly and timidly offered to guide us through the monastery as he untiredly does for hundreds of visitors during the day. If there's a person or anything else that will stay carved into my kefalonian memories forever, it will for sure be the memory of the solitary monk of Kipouria, a man locked up in his non-material world whose very appearance and simplicity will mesmerize you, a man so modest in demeanor yet so rich in spirit and mind that it will make you wonder if it's really possible that saints like him actually exist in this material world of ours.

His tiny figure, and his old, dusty mantle

do not in any way diminish his greatness

There's nothing else in the vicinity except the Stathis taverna and the secret, stunning, jaw-dropping Platis Ammos beach. What is this 'Stathis' taverna anyway? A great place where an incredibly warm and welcoming owner named Maria serves incredibly good Greek food and salads, in an incredibly natural yet beautiful surrounding (her taverna is set in the shade of massive, antique olive trees, overlooking the mighty Ionian sea) and all that half way between my two favourite places on the island - monastery and Platis Ammos beach.

Through the years Maria and her family have become very good friends of ours. Actually that was from day one. Greek hospitality and friendliness is a special story, but definitely one of the 1st things you notice anywhere in Greece. We popped up at her Stathis farm early in the morning, looking for the secret beach that the locals so proudly try to keep 'secret'. She told us of the beach that until a few years ago was only accessible by boat, but now about 300 steps take you down to , as far as I'm concerned, the most stunning beach on the island . Thanks to the lengthy trip back up the steps, the beach is also known as '' 300 steps to Heaven or Hell ''.

father Efsevios fixing last year's earthquake damage

Maria comes from the same village as father Efsevios and she's his first and only neighbour, I could just add all the praiseworthy compliments she has on behalf of their local saint. But there's no need for that. No need for me even writing this post. I could of just pinned up that photo of his, and I guess, for many of you, that would be quite enough to recognize a saint in his soft, benign, pale blue eyes and a story of his hard-working life in his weary hands. Just talking to him makes my heart jump in awe. I have never met anyone so timid, modest, unspoiled and so hard-working (with his 78 years of age, he's still very busy throughout the day) yet so calm and a voice so soothing. He only lives off the fruit and vegetables he grows in the monastery gardens. Whatever people bring to him, he offers to his visitors. And his little room, where he sleeps and rests after a tiring day is what we, the spoiled children of God, would call a total poverty. Yet I believe he is happier and richer than all of us. Btw, if you haven't figured it out by now, that is the saint I mentioned in my tagging confession.

In Kefalonia, every day is a winding road. Also every day is a faded (road) sign. If any. I can't even remember how many times we got lost looking for a certain place, due to non-existing roadsigns or just to the fact that they are facing the wrong way, and you can only read them if you stop the car and turn your head back to take a peek. So many little mountain villages, so many little crossroads, so many different directions that ain't in the map; so many times I have taken the road less traveled by, and it sure did make all the difference. We ended up in places not even some of the locals knew about, but it was worth it, every little bit.




Since I mentioned the earthquakes, on the night of 12 August 1953, a cataclysmic earthquake (7.3 R) flattened most of the island. Kefalonia and the neighbouring islands fall in the group of the Greece's most active seismic areas. An earthquake of over 5.0 on the Richter's scale is just something the locals would call a mild tremble. Not worth a mention. Right! The '53 earthquake explains the almost total lack of historical architecture in Kefalonia. The small fishing harbour of Fiskardo on the northern tip of the island is the only settlement that escaped virtually unscathed. Together with parts of the little village of Assos on the western coast, whose pretty harbour lies in the shadow of a Venetian fort, one gets a glimpse of the finely proportioned Venetian architecture and cultural heritage that was once predominant on the island.



Mad islanders

''...The reputation of the Kefalonians precede them: lunacy is the one Greeks love to tell you about - indeed the Kefalonians themselves tell their visitors, albeit with a humorous twinkle in their eye, that they are known as the madmen of Greece. One shopkeeper told me that American psychiatric researchers frequently visit the island where they are forever discovering new phobias never known before to humankind. It's often said that the line between genius and lunacy is thin, and Kefalonians are equally known for their intelligence - many an islander will tell you that more doctors in Greece originate from Kefalonia than any other island. And Kefalonians have always had a reputation for their enterprising nature - many have sought their fortunes abroad, especially during periods of economic distress in their homeland. One thing I can certainly vouch for from my experience of living there for three years is their sense of humour: they have an endless ability to self-satirise...Like many islanders, they are independent too, and proud. Tour operators tried to move in to do business in the 1970s but they found obstacles not only in the mountainous terrain of the island - difficult to manoeuvre their tour buses around - but they also discovered that the people themselves did not welcome them with open arms. They were resistant to the idea of mass tourism, unlike neighbouring Corfu and Zakynthos, preferring to do it their way.'' (from the article by Jennifer Gay)

I remember an older English gentleman asking me if I knew what side of the road they drove on Kefalonia, left or right? ''In the middle'' I said. The poor man was appalled when he realised I'm not joking. However, at the end of the day, you get used to it and when you look back at the time you spent there, it seems like another 'charm' of the locals. The roads never get too busy, but a considerable change takes place in August, when Italians storm the island and they are just as crazy and stubborn drivers as the locals. I guess with all that unruly competition the locals are just bound to go crazy and freak out with all the savage tourists.  What a thrill!

every now and then a girl overwhelmed by this island
gets off the plane and runs towards the passport control officer
with a joyful heart and a cheeky grin on her face

And it's the same officer year after year, he plays a tough, stern individual until my ma (who speaks natively fluent Greek) switches to her Greek mumbo jumbo and the guy just melts away.

Kefalonian spirit...

Melissani - the undergound lake

... is something you will carry in your memory even when your photos fade away. It's everywhere you look, you just have to take a moment in time and get out of your busy tourist routine and there it is...Kefalonia's own brand of Greekness.

And remember: it is not down in any map, true places never are.

Travelogue: Kefalonia - a taste of untamed Greece

I have drifted away from the gardening themes. Only for a while though. Apart from the general lethargy the weather has inflicted upon me, I didn't really get the chance to do some gardening without needing an umbrella one minute and a snow shovel the next. And now its raining again. I used to love rain, I loved the exquisite scent in the air just before the storm (not the one from the sewer obviously), and I never thought I'd be so susceptible to weather changes. Nag, nag, nag...

Island of Lopud, Croatia

To make up for all this nagging and to cheer up both myself and anyone else in need I'm going to tell you a 'short' story about a place I still consider a hidden peace of heaven. I do come from a small country that has been generously graced by an astounding amount of natural beauty, a breathtaking coast and the crystal-clear Adriatic sea. 1185 islands, islets and reefs and each has a different story to tell. We don't exaggerate (not that much) when we say that nowhere else will you find a sea as clean as the Croatian Adriatic and that Croatia is ecologically one of the best preserved European countries. You don't need more than that to get all proud & patriotic every now and then. But then there's this place that feels just like home and leaves you in awe of all the untamed beauty and one of nature's very best attempts to make another masterpiece. So welcome to Kefalonia, an extraordinary island that has made me an eternal captive. The sea is as turquoise as on the brochure, the food as tasty as the mouth-watering descriptions, the dramatic scenery takes your breath away, and as for the locals go, they make this Greek island such an unforgettable place.

the world famous Myrtos beach, Kefalonia

Kefalonia is the largest of the Ionian islands and the sixth largest of all the Greek islands. Nevertheless, although earning some prestige as setting for the film based on the wonderful book by L. de Bernieres ''Cpt Corelli's Mandolin'', Kefalonia is still mostly untouched by the evil tentacles of mass tourism I think of it as a paradise lost and found, which has had and still has a true greek spirit in its purest form. No view from the balcony of a 5* hotel could ever make you feel as blessed as a dusty old dirt-track somewhere on the kefalonian west coast, a piece of rock to climb on and a breathtaking view of the deep, blue Ionian sea in all its might, followed by a distant tinkle of a goat bell somewhere among the countless olive groves. Truly a taste of untamed Greece. You can't but be mesmerized by its sparkling creeks, beaches and scenery dotted with century-old olive trees, cypress forests and forgotten villages. In lord Byron's footsteps (who wrote his Don Juan here during the Greek War of Independence), you are tempted to discover Kefalonia's mysterious geological phenomena - its caves, its underground streams and lakes, and its stark rocky landscape.

It was not my intention to sound like a brochure, but reading back I can see I'm on my best way to get there. So I'll just do what was initially my wish - to share some views of Kefalonia through a glimpse of a gardener and most of all, nature lover. If, on the other hand, you wish to find out more tricks and trinkets about this amazing place, feel free to visit my Kef website as I have (appropriately ;-) placed it among my favourite links.

... one of many forest paths...

Sissia - one of Kef's secret beaches, adorned with lush greenery and oleanders

Fiskardo - a village in bloom

Bougainvilleas galore



Sission ruins- a monastery founded by St Francis of Assisi;
up there in the background is MtAinos, home to dark forests
of a unique Greek fir (Abies cephalonica), an endemic specie


Kourkumelata - the prettiest village,
with the prettiest gardens

Visions of Kefalonia

... more to come !