Bears.

Tuesday 3rd June.

We are parked this evening in a car park in Edessa (thanks Bernd). We are close to the waterfall, a supermarket and a couple of bars so have everything we need.

We left Kastorias this morning and headed for the bear sanctuary at Nymfeo, a lovely drive around the mountains until we came to a picture postcard village which is now, sadly, no longer a village but an expensive holiday resort for those Greeks who still have plenty of euros. But it was pretty and we walked through, marveling at the big houses, and then on to the bear sanctuary. The place is run by a charity, Arcturos, who campaign to preserve the natural habitat of the brown bear in Greece as well as the deer, wolves and jackels who are under threat. They work with local people, farmers, shepherds and bee keepers and seem to be having some success. They have ten bears in the sanctuary, rescued from circuses and closed down zoos and after an instructional chat we walked around the large enclosures and saw a few bears at a distance. I have a photo of a chain link fence. There are about 350 bears left in Greece and they are under pressure from hunters, farmers poison and illegal logging. Education, education, education. It was a good couple of hours and it's always a pleasure to meet folk who are committed to an environmental cause. They don't fuss over the bears and can't return them to the wild as they would not cope but they must be doing something right as a bear recently died at the sanctuary aged fifty years. The average lifespan of a wild bear is half that age.

Back down the hairpin bends and a short drive to where we are now. Sat Navs arguing all the way, as usual! We parked up, relaxed for an hour or so and then went to explore the waterfalls. Not Victoria falls but, hey, this is Greece and any waterfall is a bonus.

The waterfalls.

Pretty eh? And Phil looks good too!

The other good thing about Edessa is the reasonable prices. Two days ago in Ioannini we strolled out, called at a bar and had a small beer, small ouzo - seven euros, thank you very much. This evening we stopped at a bar on the way back from the waterfall; large beer, massive ouzo - three euros. We like it here already. But tomorrow it's back to Thessalonika. The air suspension kit has arrived from Germany and so it's back to Zampetas so they can fit it on Thursday morning. Then a couple of long driving days and we are in Athens for the weekend. We're not too sure about Athens but we rather think it's like visiting France without Paris, or Italy without Rome. We've got to like out of the way places and small towns and villages. Cities don't hold a lot of appeal for us but I'm sure Athens will impress us.

Pat.

 

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