Skyros 2014: Flying Visit

In September 2013 I started fundraising in earnest for my favourite pony conservation project, Skyros Island Horse Trust. Over the academic year there was a bop (my university's name for... a disco? Okay, there's no other name for it) which wouldn't have been possible without the help of many supportive friends, a fantastic amount was crowdfunded through Indiegogo, and the sales of a children's book I had written called The Orfead added a few pounds too. The object? To buy vital supplies to deliver to the remote island by car, with a week's stay on the island as a reward for the hard-working drivers.

Except a few months before the trip was due to head off, many volunteers had arisen, and many had dropped away into the void again. Finally two girls from STAAG (St Andrews Adventure Group), Emily and Casey, took on the challenge, put in the hours at university ball cloakrooms to raise enough money for petrol, and drove my car across Europe with a boot full of horse feed and muck scoops. 

In the midst of the driver-no-driver crisis I resolved that I would go to Skyros myself in June, with suitcases crammed full of supplies if need be. When it became clear that this would not be necessary (thank goodness) the flights were already booked and - poor me - I had to go to the Greek island anyway.

Here are some snippets from my diary from the trip.

4th June

Set off at 11am, reached Manchester 5pm, flew at 10.15pm, arrived Athens 4.30am. Tried to sleep in various public places, used all my internet allowance, sent many texts, read two books, made many lists. Possibly going crazy. Hoping no one weighs my hand luggage. 

Later - arrived in Skyros. Three other volunteers - Ilya, Corey, Anna, all lovely. We have music and fairy lights. [Their names are actually Elia, Corie and Anna!]

5th June

Long chats with Amanda, lots of memories of Dimos coming back. Asking him if leggy beasts [hornets] could sting - he said "I wouldn't want to find out". He & Karen telling each other riddles. Not wanting to hug when I left because he was sweaty. Up late drinking wine and chatting.

6th June

Practised festival parades with mares and stallions. [Preparing for the first Skyros Horse Festival]. Trying very hard not to scratch my mosquito bites.

Poster for the festival (I am on the left!)

8th June

Raining in the morning so we slept for two hours after the muckout. I began training Klio to lie down for the festival and then we went to Takos [the farmer next door]. He gave us each two beers, bread and cheese. 

9th June

Went to Takos' at 9.30pm for dinner. It was served at 11.30. All the Greek men kept refilling our glasses. [Including the mayor!] We drank until 3am. Takos made us all bracelets. Mine says AΓOGO which means horse. Takos said I look like a Skyrian girl! Elia and Anna slept outside. 

10th June

Went to Skyros town in the afternoon, had souvlaki, sent cards for Dad's birthday and did some shopping. Worked the horses until it was dark and the moon was huge. Klio lay down five times this evening.

11th June

Shepherd's pie for lunch!

12th June

In the evening we ran through the outline of the festival performance twice and Amanda was over the moon. We ate crisps and drank beer on the roof of the house under the full moon. [One year before, in the June full moon of 2013, Karen, Julietta, Amanda and I lay in the fields with the horses under the stars.]

13th June

Said goodbye to Skyros.

Though this was my most brief trip to Greece so far, it was perhaps the greatest. The sense of community with four teenage to early twenties volunteers crammed into one room was so lovely, and when you're working hard side by side each day you bond basically at once (how can I forget Corie crying at the story of how I got engaged, about forty-five minutes after I'd met her?). I didn't take a day off throughout but I didn't need to since every day I was so grateful just to be there and spend time with Amanda and my new friends. I have promised Stathis, too, that when I return to Skyros I will be able to chat to him in Greek!

Elia, Amanda, Anna, me, and Corie

Before heading back to Scotland for a week in the Perthshire woods I had a day and a night to kill in Athens. It goes to show how much I've changed over the past few years that after finally travelling to Greece solo - without even a friend at my side - I ended up befriending other travellers at the Athens Backpackers (whose Sky Bar has an unbeatable view of the Acropolis at sunset). I had dinner with a girl from South Korea and ended the night drinking with a whole host of Aussies who were travelling with toothpaste tubes of Vegemite (great respect). In the morning I handed over a few euros for a comprehensive walking tour of the city I have now visited three times but never explored for more than a few hours; I am really growing to love Athens. It was a fittingly fantastic end to my trip.

And that leads on to the next big adventure, really. Melbourne, August 2014 - ?

My Second Skyrian Summer - Photo Journal

I decided to articulate this post mainly through photographs, because this wasn't a day trip to Prague but an entire month of my life, and I think in this case fewer words and more pictures will say it better.

At the end of May last year, pretty much as soon as my exams were done, I took a plane to Athens to meet my best buddy Karen.

The two of us stayed the night in a hostel, had a good old fashioned Greek kebab, took a look around the Acropolis and then hopped on a bus to Kymi, and a ferry to Skyros.

You may remember that I had visited Skyros Island Horse Trust the previous year for a couple of weeks. Now I was returning for a month, and bringing horse-crazy Karen with me.

We bought the most delicious, succulent cherries I have ever eaten at the port, and ate them on the journey as the sun set over the Aegean. 

This time there were new characters at the farm: Hara (above), a rescued dog, and Heidi (below) - a goat.

Some animals had been lost, too. Roughly sixteen cats come to the farm to be fed by morning and night, but they weren't exactly the same cats I had met the year before. Leon, the friendly dog, had also died. Hara looks very similar to him and was found abandoned on a beach; it's possible she is his pup.

We settled into the routine quickly enough. Mucking out, feeding, watering, three times a day (for almost 40 horses - no mean feat), and various other jobs as and when, including building a fence, clearing out the stables, and moving horses from field to field.

Taking Ifestos and Nefeli out for a bite of grass among the neighbour's grapevines became one of the highlights of our day.

As were our evening training sessions and lessons in horsemanship with Amanda.

It wasn't horses 24-7, however (well, not quite). One day we collected as many plums as we could from the orchard, boiled them up and made an exquisite crumble for dessert. In my day to day life, crumble is an unremarkable thing. In Skyros, where I can't afford to be picky with my food and snack all day and every meal is the best and most satisfying thing I've ever eaten, that crumble was heaven.

Our days and evenings off in the village were some of the best. Above is a rally against the construction of a huge wind farm on the island (see my article) for which the village turned out in full force. Karen and I ate chicken souvlaki that evening (and never looked back).

Over the month I made real progress with Orfeas, the pony I have adopted. On the final evening I led him out of the paddock where he has lived since he was weaned (again, no mean feat, and with the help of Stathis!) and walked him around in the field. I hardly recognised the pony who used to flinch from being touched when I met him in 2012.

My favourite night on the farm does require some words to articulate, because it was dark. I snapped this photo of the full moon coming up. That night, plans for a dinner on the rooftop terrace went awry, and we were all feeling fairly grumpy. But Julietta made us each a plate for dinner: olives, bread with rosemary oil, tomatoes, cheese. It was the most wonderful, simple meal I've eaten. The four of us - Karen, Amanda, Julietta, and me - talked and drank wine (except for Julietta, of course), and Amanda began telling us how amazing it is to be with horses in the dark when everything is so still and quiet. So we went out into the fields and sat down with the horses and even lay down beside some as they dozed. They came over and snuffed at us, pawed at us, eventually just chilled out with us as though we were part of the herd. It was the most extraordinary evening.

A few days before we left, a ferry tour group came to visit the farm. Karen and I put the skills we had learned to use, along with Julietta, and demonstrated natural horsemanship for the audience. It was the culmination of everything we'd learned, and a fitting end to our time at the farm. That night, I lay out in the stallions' field under the stars until about 2 o'clock while the horses chewed above me and dropped hay on my head, and knew that I would be coming back to Skyros for the rest of my life. 

I would like to dedicate this post to Dimos Kypraios, a true friend and a wonderful man, who died later that summer saving Julietta's life.

For more information about Skyros Island Horse Trust, visit www.skyrosislandhorsetrust.com.