Day 9  SATURDAY  6^TH OCTOBER 2012.

Returned to our country house having experienced life in a typical Greek island village.

Bev attempting to get us a lift.

Bev did her best to get us a ride but being Saturday there were few cars moving about. The owner of the apartment where we stayed decided the only way we were going to get back to Therma was by taxi so he walked towards the town hailed a taxi and directed it to us.

Back in our country abode Aleka welcomed us with a helping of bread pudding.  Greek bread pudding is even better than my mother used to make.

Bread pudding Greek style.

At lunch time we ate goat courtesy of Aleka and her husband.  They cooked in an outdoor kitchen similar to the one under the veranda of our cottage.  These kitchens are really functional and I’m designing one for the end of our deck at home.

Outdoor kitchen cooking area.

There were a couple of innovative ideas in the kitchen.

Neat chopping block. I like the way the legs are attached.

I’m not sure but I think this was a pot stand.

The circular section is a brake drum disc and the legs small cluster bombs. Finding things like this pot stand makes travelling worthwhile for me.

Terracotta ewer

DAY 10 SUNDAY 7^TH OCTOBER 2012.

Walked up a nearby valley towards a  waterfall.  Found a rock pool frequented by the campers and continued up the mountain above the pool.

On the way to the waterfall through a picturesque plane tree forest.

Concrete aqueduct delivering mountain water to storage tanks.

Water from the tanks was gravity fed to open cisterns at houses around Therma village.  I suspect this was the tap water connected to our cottage.  It makes good sense to boil water wherever we stay.

There were a few ‘mysteries’ being revealed at the pool.

Part way up the mountain we came across a goat herder’s shack, a bit of a rough turnout.

Goat country. The understory is flogged to death.

This is what goats do. Thankfully goats don’t have necks like giraffes.

The mountain walk was rough underfoot due to the track being pushed by a bulldozer. These machines make very rough tracks as they bring to the surface underlying boulders.  However we pushed on and by luck rather than good management we came out in the creek near Aleka’s cottages.  Along the creek there were a couple of surprises.

One huge burl on a plane tree. Woodturners would give their best turning tool to get their hands on one like this.

Another surprise,; an ink plant.

I hadn’t seen ink plant since I was a kid. I used to draw using the juice from the plant.  I thought I would have another go.

Squashed ink plant seeds.

Bamboo painting using the juice of the ink plant.

Sunset in Kamariotissa.

Sunset through white cedars in Kamariotissa

One has to be careful not to get carried away with sunrise and sunset pictures but every one on Samothraki was uniquely different.

 DAY 11  MONDAY  8^TH OCTOBER.

Last day on the island. On the 4-00pm ferry to Alexandroupoli in the company of our neighbours John and Litsa.  Arrived Thessaloniki just prior to midnight.

Mistake on the above map! DAY 12 should read DAY 11.

Even though we didn’t need to board the ferry for Alexandroupoli until 3-30pm Litsa and John had us in Kamariotissa well before lunch.  They took us to lunch and wouldn’t let us pay or at least contribute our share. Many a reader will agree that paying your way (having a shout) is part of our heritage.  It goes back to early gold mining days when a miner on the field hit pay dirt (struck gold). He would shout with excitement that he was in the money and because of this he was obliged to buy other miners a beer or rum at the end of the day.

Lunch with Litsa and John .

We bumped into Leonidis again and he had just picked up a parcel off the ferry from his sister.  His sister makes creams from natural products and he was going to try selling them at the local market. Some of the ingredients she uses are calendula, propolis and neem in a beeswax base.

Leonidis explaining the benefits of his sister’s beauty preparations.

If you read this blog, Leonidis; thanks for your company on Samothraki.

The trip to Thessaloniki with Litsa and John went without event other than to say we passed  through a patch of snow, most unusual for this time of the year.  Bev and I had driven the route between Thessaloniki and Istanbul a number of times before but now the road is of motorway proportions with tunnels and overpasses.

The impromptu layover coming up in Thessaloniki makes me think: ‘We might not know where we are going but we will end up where were we were meant to be’.

 BELOW IS MY FAVOURITE IMAGE FROM SAMOTHRAKI.

Sebastian from the mountains behind the Gold Coast Queensland. He probably doesn’t know it but he is making memories. Oh, to be youthful again!

BEV’S FAVOURITE IMAGE  FROM SAMOTHRAKI.

What made this scene additionally attractive was the tinkling of bells attached to the sheep’s neck. It’s a pity the sounds of the morning can’t be recorded in a photograph.

Blog readers: let us know via the comments section which of the images you liked.