Ikaria and Corsica share many things (if not the popularity) and it would be hard to decide which one is better. One thing is undisputed though… Corsica has some pretty terrible tasting honey and that alone knocks off many points on my scale. We went shopping and got 4 different honeys and so far 2 have proven to be almost inedibly bitter. 1 was OK (miel de miellat) and 1 is yet unopened. Since then I found both of the horrible ones online but I won’t single out the producers. I have too much respect and admiration for beekeepers and their products. I presume it’s the maquis flowers in the specific area where bees were collecting since the taste is horrible. I know some honeys have a very strong, distinctive taste, some are quite bitter, but these two are in their own league. All I will share is that one is a spring, the other an autumn honey (miel de maquis de printemps and miel de maquis d’automne) with no specific source plant identified. It definitely wasn’t sage, lavender or rosemary (which can result in some awesome honey).

One common “problem” of Mediterranean spring time, so familiar from Ikaria, that I hoped we’d manage to avoid this time around, was rain. And lots of it. Simply put we were there 2 weeks too early. Our last days were the first days of summer. Which ruled out many ideas of running around in the mountains. We were only allowed a few brief glimpses at the alpine, snow covered playground. It would have been fine if we had a decent alternative for grey days such as surfing or kayaking.

Just as well I guess… after an ankle injury on day 4 or 5 I couldn’t rock climb worth a damn, but I also couldn’t scuba dive any more. At least I squeezed in two dives at Calvi & Porto before the injury. Both sides of Scandola nature reserve proved marine reserves can do wonders for neighboring areas with marine life spreading out and benefiting everyone. It was the first time I saw groupers and they were everywhere. The topography was nice as well, add a decent wreck or two and it would have been perfect.

We did pull off a few climbs though. We spent two days in Foret de Bonifatu close to Calvi, climbing on bolted granite (or some similar rock) routes of secteur Figarella which is conveniently located an easy 10min walk and a jump across the river from the spacious parking lot.

As we were already a bit late we did first two pitches on Passe à l’ombre (4+, 5), then decided we have some more time so we went for the first three pitches of Les Oignons Grognons (5+, 4, 5+). At this point we really did run out of light so we crossed on a ledge back towards Passe à l’ombre believing we were on the exit ledge (see topo). You can buy Falaises de Corse topo guide, but the updates are online for free. Anyway, it turned out we were just below the correct ledge and eventually couldn’t go forward any more. We then abseiled one pitch on a bolt of Passe à l’ombre leaving a carabiner behind.

We liked the rock and the general area so we decided to come back the next day after diving and clean the route. But we were late again so we left the last 6a pitch for some other time and came down on the real exit ledge after 5 pitches (4+, 5, 6a+/A0, 6a, 3). At first we were a bit concerned about the grades but after practically walking up the first two pitches it was clear the grades are a bit inflated compared to what we’re used to. At least if you’re comfortable trusting your shoes have enough grip. There’s hardly anything to hold but you don’t really need it as long as you do the correct footwork. The 6a+/A0 pitch had one crux move where pulling on the quickdraw was the only solution we could come up with but was otherwise very easy. As was the next 6a. So all in all I’d say that particular sector could easily drop one grade.

Corsica is a great destination, if you time it right and have some alternatives, as the weather can change dramatically around different parts of the island. But that’s just what makes it so interesting.

I have recently learned that Frazier died of what seemed to be food poisoning on March 10th 2009. He was barely over a year old and is now buried at the new Archipelagos marine base in Ormos, Samos. He was by far the most lovable dog at the base and—unfortunately—one of the few things that kept many of the volunteer crew going.

The two of us didn’t have that many chances to spend time together but he sure made up for it. Our hike up Zizokampos and Ammoudia will remain a lasting memory, this little inbred mutt will be missed.

More photos and videos can be found in the memorial Facebook group.

See you little man, we’ll continue exploring!

I thought I’d start with the Aegean island of Ikaria where I spent a few months last year and it’s still on my mind a lot. And I should probably point out that most photos featured here were found in the very active Ikaria – Ικαρία group on Flickr.

so here goes in no particular order…

Ed Webb

Christos Malahias

jelgajelga

megaonbeirne

onirorama

Paul Lewis

T@asos

Thanos Anthopoulos

Jo&Joli

angeloska

Metroindian

IRDKETAS

‘Lele(awol)

Geoponos

Ray Cunningham

Stelios Kiousis

fliegender

Tragopodaros

streunerin

Ikariancenter

mamanian

adespotos79

Yann!s

Pez Luna

isl_gr

cheeseontaoist

I cannot finish without at least mentioning some other photographers whose photos I absolutely adored but they chose not to share their photos outside Flickr. I’ve been toying with the idea of hosting them on my server but that would be crossing the line…

very honorable mentions:

• Καλημερα KALIMERA
• Karl Hauser
• chocolatte
• antonis
• annagal
• plakidas
• jeffzoet
• w3510

And should you still wish to see more, my photos from Ikaria are divided into Part 1, the goat interviews, and finally Part 2

It’s strangely ironic that in 3 months of living on a Greek island I never managed to go on a proper dive. Just the thought of it was a constant source of frustration… here I was, on a beautiful island where scuba diving doesn’t extend beyond some locals with their own gear and 160 kilometers of coastline that is likely largely unexplored. The thought of uncovering new sights and wonders, natural or man-made, was burning in the back of my mind. Sadly though my underwater exploration of Ikaria was strictly limited to lung capacity and admittedly relatively shallow coastal waters.

I guess it’s all fine as long as the bottom doesn’t go much beyond 20 meters although I cannot help but think what lay beyond the immediate coastal waters. Surely there must be something, some wall that breaks the monotony of coastal sand flats and drops down into deep trenches that surround Ikaria. Or a wreck or a reef, or something. I guess it will remain a mystery to me until I return with my own gear (and hopefully manage to get on a boat).

AA guns of Cessare Rossarol

To finally get back into diving we went for a bit of weekend wreck diving with Vitez wrecks in Premantura, Croatia. I’ve been diving with twice them before and will surely return. I like their style, their expertise and the fact there are supposedly more than a hundred wrecks that sunk in the sea around Pula.

Wreck diving is very different from the more common coastal diving on walls and reefs as you dive into blue water in the middle of the sea and the profile will inevitably be a square. Which of course means a lot of hanging onto a rope while doing decompression stops. Which is boring…

Luana deco stop boredom

On reefs and walls you can at least spend that time doing more interesting stuff and the entire period of coming back up doesn’t seem so long. But if you spend half an hour exploring a ship that lies between 35 and 55m and return along the rope you will be waiting for what seems like eternity and is usually longer than the time spent at the bottom. Although after half hour spent at 12-13°C it feels nice to return to warmer water.

schools of Luana

We did two wrecks this weekend. One was Luana, a 72m long cargo ship that came to rest at 48m after hitting one of many leftover underwater mines in 1947. The other was Cessare Rossarol. An 85m WW1 Italian navy cruiser that sank to 55m, also after hitting a mine.

Cessare Rossarol, photo via: Vitez Wrecks

While the visibility on Luana was excellent it was unusually poor on Cessare and it’s hard to appreciate such a big ship if you can’t really see it. We’ll have to go back soon. Both dives lasted about an hour and required several deco stops on return. We actually did 4 of them. First one was a few minutes at 15m, the rest were according to the dive computer @ 9, 6 and 3m.

On Saturday we also did a night dive in uvala Polje on Kamenjak peninsula. Amazing dive on its own, even better as a combination with the wreck dives. Loads of scorpion fish and various species of crabs. Some cuttlefish, sea hare, congers… simply amazing.

Galathea strigosa, uvala Polje night dive

Scorpaena scrofa, uvala Polje night dive

more photos in the gallery

First things first:

(click to open larger)

My beloved Columbia Beartooth GTX mid did not survive the 3 months of ordeal that is named Ikaria. Unfortunately they do not make the same model anymore, or the previous incarnation called Tigertooth (luckily I still have those around) as this was one of the best shoes I ever had. Extremely comfortable, amazing grip on rocks, very light, waterproof (although not anymore obviously) but sadly all those amazing properties must come with a downside. They are simply not durable enough to wear them on rough trails and off road everyday. The sole was very worn out and the first hole (big one on the photo) appeared after only 3 weeks on the island, followed closely by another one where the toe cap meets the leather. I tried to repair them as best I could by stitching up the leather but given the uncompromising location I only prolonged the ordeal for two more weeks. After that the holes just kept spreading and multiplying. Eventually I was walking around with what felt like a GoreTex sock with amazing breathability. ;)
Poor protection against spiky shrubs that are inevitable on Ikaria… But all that complaining somehow fades in comparison to Johanna’s footwear saga.
I still love my Beartooths though but unfortunately I can’t find a replacement pair anywhere. I guess I can wait while I still have the Tigertooths…

(click to open much larger map)

This is a sketch showing what I think are almost all the routes I walked, drove or otherwise visited while on Ikaria. Obviously it is not accurate and obviously a lot of those lines were walked and driven at some point (Suzuki Jimny baby, sorry Dimitris) ;) but I wanted to keep the map simple so only one color per road/trail. And obviously we repeated a lot of them multiple times.
The background is a photograph of Road Editions map of Ikaria.

(click to open larger)

Above is a similar sketch showing the roads driven on Samos while we were coming back from Turkey. It was easter weekend and no ferries went back to Ikaria… so what can you do but rent a car… Again, background by Road Editions.

(click to open larger) copyright Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca/Road Editions

This slide from my final presentation for Archipelagos is a collection of all the GPS measurements I managed to either record on my own or dig up from old reports. Most of them are mine but I wish I recorder many more…
Recorded on Garmin e-Trex legend or Qstarz GPS receiver linked via BlueTooth to Garmin Que running under Windows Mobile on Dell Axim X51v.

Which one is better?
Well, the eTrex series are nice little units, much more useful in the field compared to my own setup (which is normally used in a car not while hiking) but the one I used had some serious connection problems at times. It had problems with terrain, with vegetation, with my pockets, clouds…
This could all be excused (since the GPS does need line of sight with the satellite) but not if the Qstarz managed to stay hooked on throughout even if I carried it at the bottom of the backpack.
I can’t comment on accuracy since I don’t have anything to compare it against. Qstarz did report about 50% lower error though (but I don’t really trust those numbers).

On my last weekend I finally managed to slip underwater with a camera to take some photos of underwater photography fieldcourse but since the camera I was using was crap that takes 3 or 4 seconds to take a photo and I didn’t have any lights (a must underwater) the photos aren’t any good. To put it plain and simple – they suck… at least I saw my first Triton’s trumpet (Charonia tritonis).

Scorpaena (porcus?)

Charonia (tritonis?)

Below is the other movie I was working on towards the end… we had visits by two groups of children from schools in Perdiki and Agios Kirikos and I just basically followed them around the base and areas around it. The movie is supposed to be a short overview of what these environmental education visits are about so there’s no major editing involved. Just a nice soundtrack and voices of children in the background for a nice summer feel.

copyright Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

So to end this… thank you all that made my stay on Ikaria so enjoyable and memorable! Hopefuly you know who you are. Thanks to everyone who helped out in whatever way, to everyone who picked us up when we were hitchiking (some should have the title of our regular drivers), to all that made hiking on Ikaria what it is, to everyone who cooked such nice food and everyone else that made sure I’ll come back someday. Hopefuly nobody feels left out but there’s too many of you to name and this is not an academy award speech ;)

I’ve been working on this ongoing project for a while now and although it hasn’t finished exactly the way I expected I feel I have something decent enough to show and describe.

The curious thing about dogs on Ikaria is that a lot, if not most of them, end up tied to about 2m of rope, in the middle of nowhere. Quite often without water and food. They last, for as long as they do, roasting in the sun with minimal shade and get replaced by another poor canine soul.

Pezi guard

The purpose of all this nonsense (to the common outsider) is supposedly to keep the goats away from roads and villages. Whether a dog can effectively do this, tied down as it is, is something I’ll let everyone decide for themselves.

Ag. Isidoros guard

I have talked to one of the shepherds about this practice, specifically I wondered why they refuse to use dogs proactively for guarding, herding, driving and other similar duties that resulted in such wonderful breeds as appenzellers, collies, kelpies and other sheep/cattle dogs. (see dogbreedinfo > flock guardians & herding dogs). I didn’t get a definitive answer but I did manage to raise some interest and ended up describing how dogs work with animals elsewhere. So maybe there’s hope. Maybe it’s not just a case of lack of interest, time and energy but more a case of lack of information.

Kalamos guard

Whatever it is, it constantly amazes me how incredibly friendly all these dogs are, despite their miserable existence and ultimate fate. They will greet you enthusiastically and most will assume a submissive position if you approach, then start playing if you feel so inclined. Quite unlike what I’d expect…

Ag. Dimitrios guard

The ridge walk from one end of Ikaria to another has been an idea some of us have had pretty much since I came here back in April. It’s been discussed, considered and planned many times but never quite to the point of execution.

Johanna & Jude on mt. Melissa

Since Jude was leaving us this week, there really was no more room for delays and excuses and with my parents on the weekend visit of the island we had a perfect logistics support system. A few days before setting off we finally managed to meet with Angelos and we also discussed the walk. Hiking Ikaria group calls this a 5/6 day Swiss walk so I was slightly concerned if this route is doable in 2 days and I just needed some more information to convince myself into what I suspected was possible.

somewhere above Plagia

Since we were feeling a bit lazy we decided beforehand to skip the hard part of climbing up from Karkinagri and focus on the ridge line itself. Ag. Isidoros was to be our starting point and the windmills on the other side of the island the end. A long way off… but definitely not 5 days away.

As it turned out the route we did could actually be completed in just one long summer day. We walked 5 hours on the first day (I had to pick up my parents coming off the ferry so we couldn’t start before the afternoon) and 8 on the second. Those 8 hours were an unfortunate result of getting slightly lost (more accurately, off the correct route) between the church of Ag. Dimitrios (above Koskina) and somewhere above Plagia. Angelos suggested that there are two ways of crossing that part. One on the ridge, one below the cliffs. We chose the latter but in the process managed to end up where we didn’t want. Very low and very far off the ridge. Eventually, after a frustrating climb up (just over 400 vertical meters) over lots of thorny and spiky vegetation in the middle of nowhere, with no real trails (and surprisingly little goat activity), we got back on the ridge and continued as planned. Estimated loss of time because of the detour was somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. The rest of the walk was much more of an easy cruise though with some short sections of jumping and climbing up and down rocks.

the way up, photo by Johanna Robinson

back on the ridge, photo by Johanna Robinson

Navigation during the walk should not be much of a problem in general (ironic isn’t it?). For the most part in the western end of the island you don’t really need to follow the trail as the terrain is open and easy to walk. You may not pick the easiest or most direct route but as long as you walk in the correct general direction there should be no problems. The one part where you really need to find the trail is the section through Radi. Good luck if you don’t. You’ll be stuck in those dense trees for hours probably. We stumbled across the trail more by accident then intention. After some tough going under, over and around the trees and bushes we suddenly found ourselves on the trail and followed it out.

As we had the luxury of having someone pick us up at the end of the day we decided to travel light and not sleep in the forest. With the strong winds it would probably be impossible to catch any anyway. So we cheated (again), drove back to the comfortable beds and some proper dinner and continued from the same point the next morning.

The other tricky part can be the section the other side of the road from Radi. As mentioned previously you have two options. I can only suggest you take the one on the ridge rather than below the cliffs. If nothing else you’ll at least have a clear view of your way forward. Although, it has to be said, the cliffs are beautiful.

The eastern end of the island has a much more pronounced ridge line compared to the plateaus of the west and you’ll be able to see both sides of the island at the same time, making it a navigational no-brainer. There is one section with some trail marks (stone piles) guiding you over a slightly more exposed section. I suppose that’s the one Angelos warned us about crossing in windy conditions but even with rather strong northern winds we had on the weekend it was really straightforward to cross.

We ended the walk at the windmills (as that was the easiest and most obvious pickup point to describe) but you could easily continue towards Faros and the eastern tip of the island. It shouldn’t take more than 2 hours or so.

our route, click for double size

Please note this map is only an account of our route (with our unfortunate mistakes included), not the trail itself, and should not, under any circumstance, be used for critical navigation. Although the sketch was done to the best of my ability and does align quite well with the GPS waypoints I recorded it is, after all, just a sketch.

Best of the best: trail section through Radi forest, section under the cliffs above Plagia
Worst of the worst: the thorny shrub section between Zizokampos and Radi, climb back up to the ridge (as explained earlier)

Much respect to Jude for completing this walk on 1ml of water. She must have been a camel in some previous life. Huge respect for Johanna for continuing to walk around this island without any proper shoes (sandals rule!) and never complaining about thorns, spikes and rocks that must be permanently embedded in her feet by now. I don’t know how either of them did it…

first row audience

bald soprano

photos in the gallery

I can tell you that Chalares river, for example, has over 70 swimmable pools (over 1m deep) starting from the beach in Nas and ending at Megalo fragma (dam of Chalares) and Raksounia waterfall (the second fork) with the average surface area of between 50 & 60 square meters (based on rough estimates, varies with season and amount of water) and there are about 40 waterfalls over 2m high (again, depends on amount of water).

The time it takes you to make it from one end to the other will depend greatly on your swimming habits and other variables but I’d suggest you take your time and divide the hike between at least two days. The other two major rivers in Rahes area offer a similar challenge.

If the title evoked images of canyoning of the adrenaline kind (such as the ones in the video below) I can assure you it is not the most likely situation you will find on these rivers. There’s simply not enough water to allow for such sliding or jumping over waterfalls (except in certain specific sections).

No, canyoning on Ikaria is more of a peaceful kind that takes you to places rarely seen by others since the trails mostly stay higher up on the sides of the valley.

Ratsos waterfall in Chalares, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

upper Raksounia waterfall, Chalares, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

Why such places are rarely seen becomes quickly apparent once you try to get to them. Most of them are inaccessible for the most part of the year when water levels are too high and even in the summer they can present quite a challenge.

Eva & Jude climbing in Myrsonas, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

I would sum up the skills required into three groups. First off we have classic rock climbing. Mostly this won’t be that hard or high and can often be avoided by climbing out and around on the sides of the valley rather than over the obstacle. But not always (especially the section of Myrsonas between Vathes reservoir and the first bridge downstream) and you will have to find a way forward right over the wall, usually next to a waterfall. I would suggest bringing some safety equipment just in case you’re not too confident.

Next up is bouldering. You might argue this is the same as rock climbing but as it involves low obstacles it is not as dangerous and much more common in all of these rivers. Sometimes it might be hard to get over a particular problem but a little skill and ingenuity goes a long way.

Thirdly we have parkour. True… you may not actually need this skill per se but it sure makes life a lot easier. If you do know some of the moves and principles involved you’ll be saving a lot of time and energy getting over the obstacles.

In short that would be it. I may expand it at a future date though.

video copyright: Archipelagos

Thanks to ENSAR team from AgroCampus Rennes for doing the interviews & all the work in the field… and putting up with me tagging along everywhere. Certainly a huge thank you to everyone at Archipelagos involved with translations and other stuff that needed to be done during and after filming. And let’s not forget the people in front of the camera. Not all of them made it into the finished movie (or the photo album) but I assure you the contributions were all very helpful.