Greece April 2018 - Statues and Snakes
The Peloponnese frequently features on European herping and birding trips and was therefore always on my radar for a visit. However, with Jillian’s background in Classical Civilisations, she explained to me that some of the Ancient Greeks' best work was to be found here and, having led her around several places with wildlife as the main focus, the time had now come for her to lead me to a bunch of ancient sites – with the chance of some opportunistic wildlife-watching thrown in as encouragement.
Other than one Emirates flight to Dubai per day, Newcastle airport only serves up useless budget airline stag and hen party flights to a few standard European cities and beach resorts, so our flight to Athens via Heathrow took up our whole first day of holiday – leaving us with a dusk drive to our hotel in Thebes for what would be the only leg of our trip on mainland Greece. The chap at the Philoxenia gave us ‘the suite’ for no extra cost and ordered us a couple of gyros which we inhaled on the balcony at around midnight.
After refuelling the Yaris the next morning, we were on our way towards Delphi, stopping to admire a long-legged buzzard (Buteo rufinus) circling overhead (and to flip the odd roadside mattress) before pulling in at the mountain town of Arachova for a quick (slow) Greek coffee and pancakes.
A brief peek on google maps showed a possible wildlife detour to the north, so we headed up to a delightful area of wildflowers and scrub in the foothills of Parnassus, where pine forest gave way to snow-topped mountains – a spot where we were able to get off the mark with our first few lizards including Balkan green lizards (Lacerta trilineata) and snake-eyed skinks (Ablepharus kitaibelii) as Tree pipits (Anthus trivialis) spiralled from trees nearby.
From here it was a short drive to Delphi where the impressive scenery stayed much the same. Perched on a steep south-facing valley side flooded with wildflowers and dotted with trees, the ancient site is awash with birds and inverts – but we’d have to wait until the morning before we could explore more of it. For now we had to make to do with a sunny balcony, a Mythos and the sight and sound of screaming swifts chasing above our heads.
As we entered the ancient centre of the world, Jill mentioned something about needing to seek council from the oracle of Apollo, but we were both (mainly me?) soon distracted by the birdlife amongst the ruins. Black-eared wheatear (Oenanthe hispanica), Cirl bunting (Emberiza cirlus) and Woodchat shrike (Lanius senator) were the most noticeable, with a Western rock nuthatch (Sitta neumayer) making an appearance later on. Kotschy's geckos (Mediodactylus kotschyi) were also observed around the site, with a quick glimpse of a fleeing juvenile Balkan whip snake (Hierophis gemonensis) providing enough excitement and frustration to put me into the usual stressed-out snake-finding state of mind which usually takes over me on every trip.
We left the altitude and greenness of Delphi and descended to the dry heat of the coastal village of Galaxidi where the ‘Galaxa Mansion’ awaited. This was a lovely old house overlooking the smaller harbour where we would relax for a couple of days. A few walking trails ran to the south and east – most of them ending up at an old windmill on a hilltop. Along one of these paths, through a shaded area of woodland, nearly every stone had been recently flipped and not replaced – so it was rather annoying to know a thoughtless human had been here. Just put the rocks back, it’s not difficult you fecking moron.
This place was alive with the comical call of Hoopoes (Upupa epops), with the hilltop windmill providing a cracking vantage point for watching a short-toed eagle (Circaetus gallicus), a Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) and a number of kestrels making their way over the hillside. Here we were also able to observe a bunch of Marginated tortoises (Testudo marginata), many of them comically rustling in dry vegetation many metres away! A lack of teamwork also meant that we were evaded by a juvenile Montpellier snake (Malpolon insignitus) and another H.gemonensis, both catchable but unfortunately on this day only one of us was in the ‘I must grab this snake’ frame of mind. We did turn up a Worm snake (Xerotyphlops vermicularis), but these are not in the same league as the previously mentioned serpents, so my wait for an actual snake continued
We headed west towards Nafpaktos where we had a little wander up to castle, finding a huge slough (Malpolon) and where Jill again refused to dive upon a fleeing juvenile Malpolon by the roadside…
We then crossed the Rion-Antirion bridge into the Peloponnese and headed past Patras (somewhere we’d seen before following an Ithaca trip gone wrong, but that’s another story) towards an area of wetland and umbrella pine where we’d spend the afternoon. Plenty of frogs, birds and lizards were to be found, but the downside was that we just didn’t have long enough here before we were back on the road towards Olympia.
It’s safe to say the site of Ancient Olympia is fairly popular with tourists, but some of the quieter areas have large numbers of Peloponnese wall lizards (Podarcis peloponnesiacus) and Greek algyroides (Algyroides moreoticus) - which keeps the wildlife enthusiasts entertained. However, maintenance workers at Olympia were walking around strimming all of the vegetation, so one minute there would be loads of flowers and butterflies amongst the stones, then within seconds all of the habitat was gone (presumably along with countless inverts and the odd lizard too). Because of this, Olympia had none of the charm of Delphi but around ten times the number of visitors. Like a microcosm of our planet, take the habitat out and pack more people in. On top of this, some of the tourist antics must have been seen to be believed – we watched a young college/high-school-type trying to do some weird kicking pose in front of a ruin. With a look of determination on her face, she kept on trying to ‘kick her height’, nearly beheading others standing nearby whilst looking not nearly as athletic as I believe she feels she is. I bet it was one for the album though. #don’tbother #moron
Our hotel surroundings provided some opportunity to stroll around to look for critters. Surprisingly I came across a couple of freshwater crabs, presumably Potamon ibericum, something which I didn’t expect to see on a terrestrial snake search. I also had to hang my head in shame, as just as I gave up on snakes for the day, I turned around dejectedly thinking ‘this is probably when I’ll find one, just as I’ve given up’ only to spy a young Malpolon crossing the trail (eyes on me of course, these guys are too streetwise). I took a second to register, a second to leap, and a further few hours to contemplate another missed opportunity. I must have been great company that evening, sorry Jill.
The next day we hit some winding mountain roads towards Dimitsana, where we stopped to walk a section of upland trail to Zigovisti and back. Now then, I’m not too sharp with some of my lizard IDs, but I snapped this guy as I thought it could be a Greek rock lizard (Hellenolacerta graeca), what with its two postnasal scales and blue spots behind the front legs – I’m sure someone (if anyone even reads this) will prove me wrong.
The trail wound through some splendid habitat (in which we temporarily got lost) before leading us to an area on the edge of Zigovisti where nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) song drilled out from a dried-out riverbed and, unlike the UK, they actually emerged from the undergrowth, chasing each other around before returning to hidden spots to continue with their delightful trills and warbles. Under some rocks here I was able to snaffle a couple of Peloponnese slow worms (Anguis cephallonica), adding another new species for us!
We were then back in the Yaris, reaching Nafplio just in time for yet another moussakas with a side of tzatziki and a bottle of Fix. This seaport town would be our base for five nights, giving us the opportunity to try our hand in a traditional cookery class (with Ivy @ https://www.kopiaste.org/cooking-classes), to explore the coastal areas to the north and south (during which another Malpolon gave me the slip) and, more importantly, to allow Jill to visit the ancient citadel of Mycenae.
Mycenae’s Lion Gate welcomed us early one morning, and for a while we were the only people there. We shared the ancient ruins with only Wheaters, Sardinian warblers (Sylvia melanocephala) and three local dogs until the hordes began to flood in. It wasn’t long before the maintenance crew and their strimmers turned up, destroying all the habitat and sending twigs flying towards anyone foolish enough to visit the ruins during peak wildlife destruction season.
We then attempted to drive to Epidavros for more ancient rocks, but as even Jill was put off by the volume of people there we decided to seek some lunch at a nearby coastal village. Following a healthy Greek salad (packed with unhealthy Feta) and a delightful (but unhealthy) orange pie, we decided to have a little wander around the olive and orange groves that surrounded the little harbour. The narrow tracks and trails just got better and better until, after climbing down from a wall to flip my 197th rock of the day, I turned to see a Dahl’s whip snake (Platyceps najadum) swiftly moving along a crack in the wall. A little dull due to the impending ecdysis, there was no way this one was getting away.
Placing the ‘Dahlies’ back within the wall, I then took no more than ten steps before seeing a silver and black-blotched snake disappearing into a plant growing out of the same wall. Rushing over and realising the last 5cm of vanishing tail belonged to a Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes), I decided to put catching on hold until I knew where its business end was. Eventually I was able to safely fish it out for a couple of photos – what an absolute gem!
Allowing the Vammo to return to its hiding place, it was then only another ten steps before something large shot off through the long grass, thrashing against dry shrubs as it covered five metres in barely a second. Surely not another snake, but more likely my old friend the Glass lizard (Pseudopus apodus) – but no worries, there’d be time for these guys later on!
We spent a final day wine-tasting in Nemea (of Heracles and Nemean Lion fame) before returning to Nafplio to admire the toys of the super-rich as ‘The Mediterranean Yacht Show’ was in town. We both agreed these yachts were a little excessive, but after seeing them I’m not sure the Bootle Bumtrinket would quite cut the mustard anymore.
We spent a final day wine-tasting in Nemea (of Heracles and Nemean Lion fame) before returning to Nafplio to admire the toys of the super-rich as ‘The Mediterranean Yacht Show’ was in town. We both agreed these yachts were a little excessive, but after seeing them I’m not sure the Bootle Bumtrinket would quite cut the mustard anymore.
Having endured a few early mornings for the ancient sites, Jill agreed for another early start to allow for some dedicated morning herping time before continuing to Athens. With phone alarms sounding at an ungodly hour more akin to duck-counting in Somerset, we were soon setting off on a two-hour drive towards an area of lake/wetland, only to find it cold and covered by a low-lying blanket of cloud on arrival. The long grass along the lakeside was soaking and there was a chill in the air, but it wasn’t long before the sun broke through and the whole place turned herpy. On another day I would have given the birds more attention, but with such a short window of time this turned into a searching mission, turning up more Snake-eyed skinks, countless Podarcis, a few Pseudopus, Herman’s tortoise (Testudo Hermanni), and the largest ladybird spider (Eresus walckenaerius) I’ve ever seen.
Finally, after much searching, another flipped rock revealed a beautiful Hierophis gemonensis – a really nice little snake that was not yet warm enough to flee from my camera.
Before returning to the car, one last couple of rocks revealed a few more worm snakes and a final endemic of the trip, the Limbless skink (Ophiomorus punctatissimus) - a great end to the morning’s herping!
Before returning to the car, one last couple of rocks revealed a few more worm snakes and a final endemic of the trip, the Limbless skink (Ophiomorus punctatissimus) - a great end to the morning’s herping!
A final three nights in Athens awaited, so we left the peace and tranquillity of this spot and set off for the concrete jungle. Despite the obvious historic interest of Athens, I couldn’t really see beyond this being yet another overcrowded location with a few depressingly isolated pockets of green space. The slopes of the acropolis revealed a sole testudo, a pair of hoopoes and some nesting pallid swifts, but unlike other sites during the trip, nothing else could be spotted among the ruins. They were even strimming the wildflowers here too!
Another such pocket of green, Mount Lycabettus, is said to be named after the wolves which inhabited this hill at a time when its slopes ran down into a forest of pines. Nowadays, the forest is no more and the wolves are gone. Yes, those Ancient Greeks were a dynamic and resourceful bunch, but as interesting as their history is, for me their success was just an early precursor to the ‘success’ of our species. How long will it be before we’ve isolated every single greenspace (and strimmed its contents)? And how long will it be until our tales of harriers, nightingales and ammodytes are confined to the myth books?