Vasilitsa Pass (1750 metres)

Monday morning matters: take out the trash, recycle the beer bottles and cans, replenish the water supply, sweep the dog hair away.

But then more pleasurably, I drove back up from the gorge through the narrow streets of Spileo which at the weekend had been busy with visitors at its restaurant and bar, and was now as quiet as dreaming trees. We parked and wandered those streets too narrow even for the van, took a Greek coffee, which I’m becoming attuned to, and chatted to an old guy sifting his beans.

Then, more driving through this remarkable landscape, on the way out of Western Macedonia and heading into Zagori, a non-stop sequence of sharp curves and steep rises and plummets, a pleasure to navigate.

On the way I discovered some new podcasts, interesting enough, potentially, to share..

Legend, the Joni Mitchell story – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gnw42f

Fed – Planet Chicken https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gn8h0y

How to Spot Potential – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001ry9q

Schwarzenegger on Leading (Rory Stuart and Alastair Campbell)

and a dramatisation of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s tremendous novel, Lolly Willowes – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001140k

I was headed for the Vasilitsa Pass, at 1700 metres, where there is a small ski resort. Such places usually put me off, but in recent years this place has been barely used for skiing, despite the investment put in thirty years ago. There has not been enough snow, the same problem as many places in Europe, and consequently, the damage to the mountain in not as evident as in other resorts.

https://videopress.com/v/P8ZEVTva?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

They usually do make good places for stopovers out of season, and this certainly was. There has hardly been a vehicle on the road all afternoon, and I’m a kilometre or so off the road, completely quiet, and the moon still almost full. I would imagine it can be windy up here, but today the weather was pretty much perfect; cloudless, windless, high of 14C, low at the moment (9 pm) of 5C.

Some incredible trees today.. one above, but the best below..

As is hopefully evident from the pictures, and a rare video even, it was really easy to gain a bit of height, and get the ski lifts and runs out of eyeshot.