Kampos, Ikaria

Image: Ikaria’s Atheras range in late afternoon light

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As I write this, wild winds are roaring across the top of Ikaria’s mountainous Atheras range. The bolder-strewn, bare hills of the Atheras range divide the northern side of the island from the generally, calmer, southern side. Today however, the winds are whipping up stinging dust, tearing at clothes hanging on washing lines, pummeling trees and potted plants, people and animals, and making flight all but impossible for even the largest of local birdlife.

The evening ferry will almost certainly be cancelled due to the rough seas and wind-lashed waves (see Who Pays The Ferryman?), and who knows what sort of damage is being dished out on the terraces and family gardens that cover the valleys and hillsides. Ikaria is entering olive picking season, and I have visions of millions of ripening black olives being shaken to the ground from olive groves across the island. As long as the winds and gathering clouds don’t bring heavy downpours of rain, I suppose the locals will be happy. The last thing the island needs is another devastating storm to add to the damage caused by the recent thunderstorms that have wreaked havoc on this and other Aegean islands (see The (Greek) Gods Are Angry).

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Image: Recent storms damaged this bridge near Rahes, Ikaria

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I’ve been hanging out at Kampos*, once the site of the ancient city of Oenoe. Along with Therma (see Therma, Ikaria), Oenoe has a history that goes back to around 750 B.C. Echoes of this history can be seen in the church of Agia Irini (St. Irene), parts of which date to the 11th century.

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Image: Night image of the church of Agia Irini at Kampos, Ikaria
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Image: Remnants of building columns and other structures in Kampos, Ikaria

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Near the church, the visitor will also find the remains of the ancient Oenoe temple (often referred to as a palati , or palace). The church and temple are thought to date back to the sixth century A.D. Today, Agia Irini is still used for regular church activities including weddings, baptisms, and memorial services.

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Image: Remains of the Oenoe temple wall at Kampos, Ikaria

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Image: This temple seating faces the wall shown in the previous image

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But what happened to the original marble and stone with which the temple was constructed, I hear you ask. Well, dear reader, it was used by enterprising villagers to build their own homes and barns, and even to build new churches. The image below shows an old stone house on the valley floor near the old temple. The rectangular blocks of white marble that have been used in the house’s construction were almost certainly taken from the temple of Oenoe and other ancient structures.

As outrageous as this may seem, it would have made perfect sense for villagers to use the nearest source of building materials for their own purposes. One suspects they would have reasoned that since the old temple was no longer being used, they might as well utilize the stone and marble slabs for themselves. Bear in mind, we are taking about an era when everything was done by hand, and when the only mode of ‘transport’ would have been the humble, long-suffering donkey. Like I say, it made sense to cart temple marble and stone the short half a mile or so to your new home, rather than have to extract the stone far from your chosen site and move it laboriously a few pieces at a time.

Image: White marble slabs from ancient structures recycled into ‘new’ homes in Kampos, Ikaria

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New discoveries of structures dating back to the days of the Athenian League and the Byzantine era, are still being made in Kampos. Some years ago, local villagers raised money to build a community centre less than a hundred yards from the Agia Irene church. During the excavation process, workers uncovered sections of walls and other early building remains, which have now been incorporated into the new centre.

Over hundreds of years, dirt, silt, mud and other debris has been washed from the hills of the Atheras range down onto the valley floor, covering a treasure trove of ancient sites. In fact the recent storms alluded to above have probably added hundreds of tons of new dirt and debris to previous layers. The remnants of Oenoe may never be uncovered again, which means we will never discover the full extent of its boundaries, the size of its buildings, or the uses to which they were put, and maybe that just the way it should be.

Let the earth keep its secrets, and let the living get on with the daily cycle of love, labour and life.

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*A note about the spelling of Ikarian place names. It occurs to me that authors writing about Ikaria, are in desperate need an Elements of Style guide, since no two authors seem to be able to agree on the same spelling for many of the locations on the island. Even the spelling of ‘Ikaria’ is subject to variation, often being Anglicized to Icaria.

Those readers wishing to do further research or look online for more information about the island, are sure to find numerous discrepancies when it comes to the spelling of Ikarian place names. As always, I try to stick as close to the Greek spelling as possible, or adopt the spelling used in English language Greek publications. Hence, I prefer to use the letter ‘k’ instead of ‘c’, since the letter ‘c’ does not occur in the Greek alphabet.

Therma, Ikaria

Image: Therma, Ikaria

I don’t know a lot about hot springs and their healing properties, but people have been travelling to the small seaside town of Therma on the Greek island of Ikaria for centuries to immerse themselves in the hot, healing waters of radioactive springs, which many bathers claim have cured – or at least, eased the pain of – arthritis and other rheumatic aches and pains; made infertile women, fertile, and helped lessen the impact of a variety of other long-standing medical problems.

For the past two weeks I have been staying with my niece at Therma, where she is managing six rooms for an assortment of elderly Greek visitors who have come to bathe in one of several purpose built hydrotherapy centres in the town.

While here, I have also been reading the Anthony J. Papalas book, Ancient Icaria*. I will review the book in a later entry, but it has been fascinating to learn something about the history of the island, including the little village of Therma.

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Image: A flight of stairs that would test even Rocky Balboa!

Looking at this place, nestled as it is in a small, steep valley, with its whitewashed homes and multi-storied hotels; narrow winding streets, twisting stairs, confined walkways, and ever-present village cats: looking at all this, it is hard to imagine the village has a history stretching back to the 5th Century, BC, and beyond.

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Image: Modern hydrotherapy centre, Therma, Ikaria

According to the Papalas book, there was a time when Therma was the island’s second city – the ancient city of Oenoe (now Kampos) being the first, or largest. Both ‘cities’ have now been reduced to large villages, and several towns – Agios Kirikos, Evthilos, Karavostamo, and Armenistis amongst others – have all overtaken Therma in terms of their size. However, Therma continues to draw thousands of visitors each year to her radioactive springs, and can rightly claim to have had the last laugh on many of the larger towns and villages on Ikaria.

This is because the peak season for visitors across the rest of the island is concentrated around the months of July and August, whereas Therma’s season can begin as early as May and continues through until the end of October, thus ensuring that villagers, café and restaurant owners, hotel operators and their numerous suppliers are able to earn a living servicing the needs of the elderly and infirm long after the tourists and summer visitors have left other parts of the island.

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Image: Derelict hydrotherapy centre, Therma, Ikaria

Having said that, without the hot springs, there is little reason to think that Therma would have attracted much attention from anyone in the last two hundred years, let alone the past two thousand. The small valley floor, and the steep hills surrounding the valley are not easily cultivated. The villagers who have managed to eke out a living by working the land have had to carve small, narrow terraces out of the surrounding rock and dirt to grow what few vegetables they could. In addition, they have planted extensive groves of olive trees, which seem to thrive on the precipitous slopes. Meanwhile, the ever present goats which many families still tend in Ikaria, are perfectly suited to the island’s rocky landscape.

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Image: Early morning sun lights up homes clinging to the hills of Therma, Ikaria

With the summer rush well and truly over, it has been a real pleasure to spend some time in this ancient village, winding down from the hustle and bustle of New York City and my travels through southern America. I spent a couple of hours here in 2008, when my brother-in-law Ilia, was still in the early stages of building his three story Helion (Sun) Studios. It has been a long, slow process – everything on Ikaria seems to involve a long, slow process – and he is still not finished fitting out all nine rooms. However, one more winter should see everything finally completed in time for next year’s season of health seekers and sun worshipers.

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Image: Helion (Sun) Studios, Therma, Ikaria

*A note about spelling: Anthony J. Papalas uses the anglicized lowercase ‘c’ in Icaria. However, since the letter ‘c’ does not occur in the Greek alphabet, throughout this blog I have chosen to keep the Greek spelling for the island – hence, Ikaria.

The [Greek] Gods Are Angry

Image: Therma, Ikaria - pretty as a picture postcard - before the storm

Lightening dissects the sky, thunder rips the air, and sheets of water fall from the clouds, pulling a rain soaked curtain down over the hills surrounding the small village of Therma, Ikaria.

Waterfalls pour from terracotta tiles, rooftops fill with pools of water, and rivers form to wash the streets clean of autumn leaves, cat shite, plastic bags and bottles, goat droppings, loose garbage, and a summer’s worth of dirt, pebbles and powdered dust.

It is impossible to know whether the whole island is experiencing this, or just the northern side. Last night, I woke at 2.30AM, and noticed the sky illuminate with brief flashes of light. Looking out from my balcony, I could see stars and scattered clouds along our side of the island, but clearly, some other part of the southern Aegean was being washed clean of its accumulated summer detritus.

Today, it is our turn.

Mind you, it has been threatening to do this for days. The air has been heavy with humidity and dark, brooding clouds. These occasionally unleash short, violent downpours, but nothing as sustained as today’s drenching.

Looking out through the rain spattered glass of my balcony doors I can see half a dozen elderly men and women wrapped in dressing gowns. They are taking advantage of a brief lull in the storm to make their way back to their hotels and rented rooms, following their allotted session at one of Therma’s hydrotherapy centres.

They couldn’t have timed their return better.

… Image: Villagers watch flood waters surge below overpass

Five or ten minutes later, my attention is drawn to excited shouts and noise from the street below. I open the balcony doors and look down onto a group of twenty or so people milling around on the small overpass below my room.

Rain water has been steadily making its way down the high hillsides. First in trickles and rivulets; then gathering strength in streams and watercourses until finally, a large mass of accumulated water has finally reached the foot of the valley where the village is located. This water is now coursing through the centre of the village along a large culvert that does double duty as a road and parking area throughout the summer. With the rain, the culvert has reverted to its status as an open drain funnelling water into the Aegean Sea.

I quickly pull on a pair of boots and head down to the street, camera in hand.

… Image: In ‘clear and present danger’ these cars are at the mercy of surging flood water

Standing on the overpass with other visitors and locals, I see two cars in ‘clear and present danger’. It appears at least half a dozen cars were left parked in the culvert overnight, and now some are at serious risk of being swept into the sea by the onrush of water.

The culvert is covered from one side to the other with a fast-flowing river of dirty water the colour of chocolate. Floating and sliding, rolling and swirling, and bobbing along on this sea of brown are old car tyres, tree branches, plastic crates and bottles and large slabs of concrete that lined the culvert somewhere further up its length.

Some of the concrete slabs get jammed up against and underneath, the two cars caught in the flood. Rather than bump and push the cars further down the culvert, the slabs seem to be anchoring the cars in place, although both vehicles must have sustained some damage from the constant buffeting they get from passing debris.

… Image: Flooding water gouges away at the shale supporting this car

Meanwhile, a hundred yards further down the culvert, other car owners and café and restaurant operators have not been so ‘fortunate’. One or two cafés at street level are in danger of being flooded, and one car in particular is in imminent danger of sinking into the shale twenty or thirty feet from the Aegean’s beckoning waters. The car is perched precariously over a deep gash in the shale which continues to deepen by the minute as the torrent of water gouges its way towards the shoreline.

… Image: The normally clear Aegean waters at Therma covered with scum and debris

In complete contrast to the mess on land, the sea is perversely flat and calm – presumably due to an offshore breeze. Sadly, the usual crystal clear turquoise waters of the Aegean are discoloured with mud and other waste.

By midday, the storm seems to have run its course, or maybe it has simply moved offshore to drench the nearby islands of Fourni, Chios, and Samos. Eventually, the flood of water down the culvert slows to a safe negotiable flow, and the owners of the two cars up by the overpass are able to free them from the accumulated rubbish that has wedged underneath their chassis and amazingly, drive them to higher ground.

Even the car sitting perilously on the disappearing shale is pulled to a safer location.

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Image: With water still around his ankles this café owner starts the clean up process

Café and restaurant owners begin hosing the mud and debris off their forecourts, and retrieving overturned plants, tables and signage.

Visitors and locals start rehearsing their ‘tales of the flood’ stories, and blog writers rush back to their computers – grateful to have something new to write about.

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Image: Once the flood water recedes, cars are again parked in the culvert!
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Image: This village cat is clearly not happy with the situation

Image: Storm clouds dump tonnes of water on the Aegean island of Chios

Addendum: October, 19th, 210. I wrote the above piece three nights ago. Last night another storm swept through the northeast Aegean Sea with even more force than the one described above, causing even more severe damage. Where the small white car in the image above is sitting, there is now a massive trench at least three feet deep, several yards across, and even greater in length. On the nearby island of Chios, one person lost his life when he was trapped in his car in flood waters.

Since there are only the most basic of drainage systems on many islands, storm water has nowhere to go but down hills and mountains sides, gathering force, pace, and strength until it reaches the valley floors. If there is no clear route to the sea, massive damage can and does result.