Fire and brimstone...followed by "The Rabbit Hop Hello"

A week ago we were about to send out our first blog of the season when we heard news of the devastating fires sweeping through Knysna and the Garden Route. To be so far away from home and see and hear what was happening was awful and we felt powerless to help.

Our first inkling of anything wrong was when little Naledi (Dineo who works for us's daughter) sent us a What's App that simply said "Don't worry we are safe".She is in hostel at Knysna Montessori School, and we knew the school had closed for the day because of the hurricane force winds that had been forecast, and so assumed she was talking about the wind. We immediately called her and she told us about the fire coming close to the school. It was a hugely traumatic experience for the children who were evacuated to first one place, then another as the flames came closer and then lastly to Thesen Island. But she is at home now with Dineo in Thembalethu, safe. Phantom Forest lodge was totally destroyed and our friend Warren lost everything. They fled from the fire and when we heard from him, he was huddled next to his dog Skye near the banks of a river. Our friends Guillame and Thandialso lost everything, as have so many other people from townships to towns. Our hearts go out to all of them.

And then yesterday we had our own drama.

We are moored in the harbour of Plomari on Lesvos Island with Henry's son Joe and his girlfriend Klara. Yesterday afternoon we got back to our boat after lunch ready for a siesta, when there was a loud roar and the boat started to shake violently. We looked around and everything we could see was shaking - the quay, the buildings. People were running around in panic and screaming. Next minute, the water started rushing out of the harbour, down nearly 2 meters and the next minute it rushed back to almost level with the top of the quay, and we thought we were going to be washed onto the quay. The tsunami carried on for about 40 minutes with a displacement of water initially of about 2 meters and then getting less and less. Nobody knew what to do, but we all loosened our lines and were poised ready to leave. The day trip boat on the end of the inner harbour was swept out by the water raging in and out and we heard it's mooring lines snap like bullet shots. We are moored on the end and could see it happening, but no-one else was watching. We yelled for the port police and people raced around the harbour when the boat was hanging by 1 rope but already nearly out of the harbour mouth. Miraculously 2 men managed to leap onboard and start the engine. It could have caused havoc being swept in and out of the harbour and crushing into us. It was all truly terrifying and our hearts were still racing 1 hour later.

Plomari was the closest area to the epicenter of the earthquake – at 6.3, the biggest earthquake in living memory. Luckily it was not on land but 10km out to sea, 6km deep between Lesvos and Chios. At least 3 people were killed, some injured and many houses have been damaged. We saw clouds of dust as an old olive oil chimney collapsed next to the harbour and further on more dust caused by rock landslides. 

​But, as so often happens when things like this occur, people were very kind and it was a good feeling of togetherness when everyone came streaming down to the centre. Although small earthquakes occur, nothing like this had ever happened, and people were terrified and shocked. But lots of ouzo was drunk and we ended up making new friends and having a good evening!

…… and backtracking to our first blog for 2017

​"I like to speak to the old people – they share with me treasures of their lives ……."

For the second year Henry and I started our sailing in Chios and we stayed in Kiriaki and Dimitri's magical Spilia once again, where the ruins fringing the old village and the mountain have been sensitively and authentically restored as close as possible to their former simple beauty.Kiriaki is a font of wisdom and information, much of which is, as she says, learnt from the old people.

" To make rose petal preserve, you can only use the sweetest small roses…."

I​"The factory man says, use copper sulphate to keep figs green; the old woman say's, use the leaves of the bitter orange. When I asked a chemist, he told me that copper sulphate is in bitter orange leaves – how did the old woman know? And the best is that the smell of the bitter orange goes through to the figs."

"For bitter orange preserve, only use the peels……"

"To get rid of the damp, musty smell in your boat, burn cloves and cinnamon." (It worked!)
When we told Kirkiaki that 4 vacuum packets of biltong that we had brought with us had come unstuck and that we would either have to eat it very quickly or throw it away, she suggested putting it in a jar and covering it with olive oil. Not only did it work, but both the biltong and the oil that it has soaked in is delicious.

The lesson she gave us in making Greek coffee made me an instant convert to the thick, black coffee much loved by Greeks and Turks. "It is an art – never boil the water. Watch it constantly and just before it boils when you see the small bubbles, pour from a small height. The more small bubbles on the surface, the more money you are likely to get." Trying Greek coffee the next day in a Kafeneion, I realized I am not a general Greek coffee lover, just Kiriaki's.

​We were privileged to be invited to Kiriaki and Dimitri's wonderful house in the town for Sunday lunch. Dimitri is a collector of old things beautiful, intriguing, useful. Seeing how much we had enjoyed the coffee-making lesson, Dimitri had set out a small exhibition of antique coffee making paraphernalia. The 12^th Century ancient urn, crafted meticulously and beautifully from copper; the various pourers, each a delight of careful metal craft, the traditional grinder not dissimilar to those we use today.Dimitri does not speak English, but his passion for every object transcended language and we were able to understand how everything was used.

​And then the feast was set out on the rose adorned dining room table. Fresh dolmades made with the newest spring vine leaves, (apologies for not making her speciality – fresh sardines wrapped in vine leaves), tangy tzatziki,succulent keftedes (small meat balls), deep fried cucumber balls (who could imagine fried cucumber could be so delicious). And then, the dish that Kiriaki had promised in honour of our "Rabbit Hop hello", rabbit stifado. Freshly skinned rabbit slow cooked with cinnamon, ouzo, tomatoes, cloves, baby onions all soaked up with a delicious Chiotan pasta.

​"The best stifada", connoisseur Henry, enthused, "in all of Greece". I agree - my mouth is watering at the memory.

Kiriaki has offered to host cookery classes in her beautiful Spilia (with Greek lessons thrown in). Let me know if anyone is interested and we will start organising.

​Every year that we sail, we start with repairs and maintenance of the boat, which usually takes four or five days before we launch. For the second year running, we have left the boat in the boatyard of a wonderful rough diamond, Adonis Kiotis, on the island of Chios.

​We like to intersperse our work on the boat with exploring.

South west of the town of Chios, which is in itself one of our favourite towns, lies an area known as the "Kambos"; a valley of about 20 square kilometers. The Kambos is relatively flat and was developed for citrus growing because of its rich soils and plentiful underground water supply.

​The area became wealthy as a result of the success of its agriculture. The Genoese built many of the mansions that are scattered over Kambos in the 14^th century, making it an important commercial area for at least 700 years. The earthquake of 1821 and the massacre by the Ottomans of 1822 added to the decline of the area as well as the destruction of many of the buildings. The fate of the gentlemen farmers is reminiscent of that of the feather barons of the Karoo in that in both cases agriculture flourished for long enough to make it possible to build houses that were beautiful, sometimes palatial, but unsustainable in the years when the industry failed.

​The orchards and gardens are protected by high stone walls that create a maze like feel as you travel along the winding roads, some with old cobble stones still bearing the marks of cart wheels.

​Each house has a well of about 4 meters in diameter with an elaborate water wheel over the head, the importance of which is obvious from the ornate marble structure on which it is built as well as its central position close to the villa. The waterwheels are interesting because of the unusual technology that is used to raise the water from 7 or 8 meters below ground level. It is more of a pump than the kind of waterwheel that is generally associated with producing energy from a running stream. The wheel raises buckets that were made of wood, clay or later, iron, from the water level to the top where they are emptied into a channel as they turn over the top of the wheel from where they are lowered back to the water below in a continuous chain filling up the cistern for irrigation.

​The wheels were originally powered by animals using a crown and pinion gear system made of wood in the same manner as the windmills used for grinding wheat. They were adapted to operate on electric or diesel motors but have now, sadly, been replaced by conventional pumps. The stone walled wells remain in use.

​Dimitri, of course, was familiar with the water wheels and the Kambos. In conversation he showed us a book produced to commemorate the life of one of Greece's most illustrious architects Dimitris Pikionis (18887 - 1968), an architect who has perhaps contributed more than any other to recording Greece's architectural heritage, including the houses of the Kambos, of the last two or three centuries. I was absolutely stunned by the 'book' – it is really a series of A3 loose pictures, a folio, beautifully produced and contained in a box. When Dimitri said he thought he might be able to get a copy for me, I was unhesitating! He managed to find one in an Athens bookshop and, miraculously, had it shipped to Chios before we left. I have included some pictures from the book that illustrate its extraordinary beauty.

​As usual, we were sad to say goodbye to our great friends and to Chios. After a week spending fascinating time with Kiriaki and Dimitri, getting Pegasus ready for sailing and exploring Chios, we set sail and within two days, crossed the stretch of Aegean between Chios and Lesvos, leaving earlier than expected for a safe anchorage on Lesvos ahead of the predicted violent thunderstorms. But one thing is clear for us, we will be back for another Rabbit Hop Hello – and we hope that as many people reading this will come to visit this lush and beautiful island that has been so devastated by the economic crisis and fallout around the refugee situation.