The heart of the National Marine Park of Alonissos is the remote island of Piperi. About 58km from Skopelos, the island is 4 km long and 1.2 km wide at its extremes. The island, with a highest point of 324 meters, is privately owned and strictly off-limits to the public due to its importance as a breeding place for the Mediterranean Monk Seal. Permission must be granted to even approach closer than 3 nautical miles of Piperi.
[Map enlarges]
The island has been owned for years by the Lemonis family of Skopelos. They, people accompanying them, and officials of the park are the only people allowed to set foot on the island. On Piperi the family keeps goats, a donkey, and two Skyrian horses. These animals are fairly self-sufficient yet someone needs to go to the island every six weeks or so to be sure that the animals are OK. Though Mr. Kostas Lemonis has a boat, he is willing to hitch a ride on someone else’s boat, the payback for which might be a short tour of the island.
This happy fate befell some friends a few weeks ago and they sailed with Mr. Kostas and his helper Andreas to Piperi. After an arduous climb from the south-western shore they were able to see the Church of the Source of Life (Ζωοδοχος Πιγι) that is well looked after. A priest makes the trip once in a while to keep the spot sanctified. Nearby are the foundation ruins of an even older church. The Northern Sporades used to have many isolated monasteries, occupied by monks from Mt. Athos (85km due north of Piperi). One wonders if such a remote posting was a form of punishment, or if one craves isolation, a reward.
Later in August Andreas (the helper) will spend a few weeks to conduct repairs, care for the animals, and most likely lead a very quiet life.
There is only one water source on the island, a precarious 15 minute walk from the Church/monastery/stable. Located on the side of a steep outcrop 300 meters above the sea, the approach is tricky for visitors walking along the nerve-wracking narrow loose gravel path towards the spring, especially when a thirsty little horse is nudging from behind and dislodged stones underfoot fall into the sea.
Over the years the Lemonis family visited the island for the purpose of collecting pine resin to sell, sometimes spending weeks on the island. Tapping trees is no longer profitable so the activity has been discontinued. See this link to an article with photos from 50 years ago.
From time to time the goat herd must be culled to prevent starvation (a “no win” situation for the unfortunate goat). The carcasses are flayed on the island and the meat brought first by horse and then by foot to the water’s edge, and then to Skopelos.
We hope that the photos show something about this remarkable island, one which most of us will not have the opportunity to see.
[Daphne suggested that I explain how this story came to be. Colette Verlinden sent me (Tom) photos and the story with the link to the old photos. I then reassembled, added spicy adjectives and then appended the maps. The article is basically Colette’s. We thank her for her generosity.]
All due to an inappropriate hyphen. I think that we are both on the same side of the Pequod regarding the slipshod misuse of language.
Oh dear, this has got a little political, such a shame because the original post was wonderful. I think we need a little less of theguardianistas here and a bit more reality about the real world. Hope I got all the punctuation in the right place 🙂
Sorry, again, Tom, but this slipshod misuse of language only feeds the racism against the refugees, migrants or, if you happen to be a member of the Apolafsi lunch club, the people they are too cowardly to call wogs in public (just as they are too cowardly to say what they really think about their island hosts out loud).
And on a purely pedantic note of aerodynamics, if someone, British or otherwise (and I’m out and proud as 100 per cent Irish), is having trouble ‘furling a spinnaker’, surely they would have known how to unfurl it in the first place to get it up and, well, wind it back where it belongs?
Call me Ishmael.
What an amazing article-I never knew this island was owned by the Lemonis family..it looks stunning.
Tom,and John I liked the extra discussion about use of the word expat vs immigrant or migrant…it could be just semantics but as we well know words have power.This article explores this some more ..
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/mar/13/white-people-expats-immigrants-migration
Whenever fellow non Greeks hailing from the UK used to start telling me how the UK had been ruined by immigrants I always used to enjoy pointing out that we were actually immigrants in Greece.It never went down well at all!
Thank you for an interesting article Tom. It is nice to find out about this island and its history.
Sorry for the hasty hyphen and perhaps the misuse of the popular contraction of expatriate. However, citizens of any country who reside (permanently) in another country have expatriated themselves whether they arrive by overcrowded rubber boats or by EasyJet.
Another word with the same meaning is migrants which often applies to people without resources searching for a better life as expats somewhere else. Though I appreciate your point that the word expat has a particular meaning to the British, it does not negate its meaning in other situations.
Trafficked refugees have indeed been rescued from the outer islands of the Northern Sporades. Few expats of the British definition have needed rescue out there unless they had trouble furling a spinnaker.
Jesus wept. The word expatriate and its abbreviation expat have never and should never take a hyphen. That little horizontal bar opens it up to cultural readings the word just doesn’t carry.
And having sailed around the littoral of both Psathoura and Gioura I have never seen places there to disembark trafficked refugees, let alone ‘ex-pats’. They normally reside in urbanizaciones on the Costa del Sol (or parts of Corfu) where they enjoy full access to Sky satellite TV and English supermarket food…
Ex-pats from Syria and Iraq have been abandoned, left by human traffickers on Gioura and Psathoura over the years. Some very recently were dumped on Peristeri next to Alonissos.
Superb article!
Great article — I never knew the story about the island. I was struck by the bitter tone of the author of the Eco piece about the actions of the Greek authorities — total neglect seems a strange way to protect such an important site. It was a wonderful privilege to go there — lucky them!
Given the BBC story about overwhelming numbers of refugees on Chios, Kos and Lesbos that could be a future threat to those remote islands. they look like the next stopping point if the authorities manage to push the boats away from the islands next to Turkey.
John
I enjoyed that – thanks.
To give an idea how much Andreas, Colette, and Jean-Claude had to climb to reach the monastery complex, the elevation of the monastery is about the same as the fire lookout tower on Palouki.
There is no nice winding road to walk, just a rough dirt and stone path from the sea and up, up, up. Good for them!
Very interesting article. Wonderful photos.
Thanks for a fantastic article and story and pictures. Beautiful.