Would here possibly be more perfect timing to visit Deep South Of Europe, than 28.4.-5.5.2004?
-spring migration going on
-no programs on television (only icehockey championships)
Why, o why on Earth Rhodes then? Steve writes in Chat, that he would have picked some other Mediterranean destination. Well, it is in higher hands to decide where I go - ie. my wife: as a botanist she partakes there a seed biologist meeting (with a poster), and needs me to take care of our twoyear birder. Nonetheless, this is an opportunity to me to rise my status in the global birding community by entering G600-club (Global 600), that I had so shamefully failed on my trip to Thailand. What I need is fifteen more species, and I have count it to be very well possible, as I lack such easy ones as Apus pallidus & Merops apiaster.
The first day.
Before I have spent 24 hours in country, I have pallidus & apiaster in lifers. Excellent!
This also was my first time in a fivestar hotel. High 17-store building where we reside in tenth floor. On a walk in the neighbourhood I manage to get our baby trolley badly dirty with clay when observing Galerida cristata on an abandoned lot. We have to do quite a cleaning in order to make a succesful entry back at our classy hotel.
In the evening we familiarise with fivestar hotel orders:
-it is prohibited to use any other electric devices than razor (government order G.N.T.O. F166/B/8-2-1976) - and for that I have nonelectric gadget.
-storing own things in minibar is strictly prohibited.
-when surfing tv channels I suddenly pop into hardcore porno. Usually these channels are activated on request. A hilarious situation with wife & little kid.
No Tyto alba today.
Day 2.
A nice feature of this trip is the fact that though having been on these latitudes many times earlier, I have missed many "ordinaires" (apiaster was my fourth Merops). Today morning my list is swelled by Buteo rufinus, just 500 metres from hotel. High on my wishlist is Tyto alba, which I have seen twice on my life - as a roadkill...
We take a family walk to the city. We get in there just for siesta. So we land in a cafe. I change battery to my handheld where I keep my notes, and accidentally get the memory emptied - with all the Rhodes birding tips I had loaded in there...
We manage to find one bookseller. I take a quick look at Lonely Planet's Rhodes guide and memorise that there is a bookstore at Amarantou 24. We walk there and find a hairdresser...
Later at hotel we start to abuse hotel rules (using electricity to all fancy digital purposes & minibar as milkbar) on regular basis. We also learn that fivestar shower can't be fixed - having just one position.
No Tyto alba today.
Day 3.
Wife joins the botanical lectures and the kid & me wander inland, kilometres uphill. Passer domesticus is the most common bird (evenings hundreds of P. hispaniolensis appear in their sleeping trees). In forest & bush Sylvia melanocephala is the most common. Looks like little grey Parus with black head, sings like a S. communis.
We stroll into a quiet forest road onto a minor hill, which's sides are used as dumping grounds. On the top there is a pig corpse, and halfway of the opposite slope a wrecked car. Falco vespertinus seems to have migration on, as I observe two little flocks. A F. eleonorae flies right over us every now and then.
On our return we walk through local shantytown. In hotel, feeling poor, too, we utilise all the shampoo bottles & soaps provided by our fivestar hotel. They have not provided our daily share - and do not change their politics later.
No Tyto alba today.
Day 4.
In Greece, American language is written in an inspirative way. Examples:
hum = ham (in a snackbar menu)
kiliometers = kilometres (a car dealer's offer)
Tzaki Tsan = Jackie Chan (movie poster).
A bunch of east europeans celebrated the fact that they, at midnight EET, lost their short period of independency when joining the EU. To finns mayday is traditionally a boozing day, a celebration of students and communists.
Windy day. Our balcony door is open - this is the first hotel ever where we have suffered of heating, and I also want to hear what's outside (much traffic). When I then open our outdoor, some fivestar roof panels are blown into air ventilation channels.
No Tyto alba today.
Day 5.
Today's agenda: an island roundtrip with seed ecologists. Seems that all important plant locations in Rhodes are archaeological sites or vice versa.
In Lindos we visit another ancient castle. A place with a view - and plenty of Monticola solitarius singing on it! On Katavia sand beach I get Burhinus oedicnemus (another "ordinaire") on my lifelist. -The white sand is unbearable hot barefeet. Low dunes are partially cultivated, with rather poor success (except for EU subvention?). Tour guides serve raki (anis booze) - "exotic" taste, but I'll rather eat Fisherman's Friend than drink raki.
Last stop in Profitis Ilias at sunset is somehow fruitful in birdy way: Saxicola torquata (one of my lacking commons) sings on roadside. I also see an eaglelike flying object and a Falco biarmicus/peregrinus. A botanist comes to ask, what is that gadget I have been carrying all day. It is a telescope.
Our little daughter is eagerly trying to use the fivestar telephone at our room. In order to avoid extra expenses I try to hide it. That is difficult, as the wire is permanently attached into the outlet. Besides the thing hums constantly like the connection was open.
No Tyto alba today.
Day 6.
Encouraged by last evening, daughter & I take a taxi on Profitis Ilias peak. On top there is a ghost hotel. According to the story no-one knows why this place with a spectacular view was abandoned.
Planning to walk down to the nearby Salakos village via one kilometer forest trail. After some hundred metres we notice that it is unpassable with trolleys. We have to go back via ten kilometres car road. Half of it in a dull Pinus brutia forest, with not much other birds than Fringilla coelebs and Troglodytes troglodytes. Luckily I took water & bread with me, as Salakos is the only open place in ten kilometres radius.
Evening: hotel has three elevators serving the customers. I wait four minutes to get one of these fivestar things - outside rush hours.
No Tyto alba today.
Day 7.
Last proper day to twitch 600. Kid & me take a ride to Fanes 20 kilometres south. Quiet little localvillage surrounded by crop and olivetree fields on seaside. In short time I observe lifers Hippolais olivetorum (many singing) and Ardeola ralloides. Twoyear daughter gets her lifer number 200: Calidris minuta. I had that much at the age of seventeen. O tempora, o mores.
Hours later wife skips the last lectures and together we drive to Petaloudes, a butterfly valley twenty kilometres inland. It is famous for thousands of endemic Panaxia quadripunctata moths, that appear there in late summer. Not seeing a single specimen now, we still are happy with the mountain scenery plus flowers and hawks. Actually the amount of moths has declined due to tourism.
The valley is a narrow gorge with very old Liquidambar and Platanus trees (like in fairytale). Taxi driver also tells, that there is a nature museum in Petaloudes, but this late in the evening it is closed. Good to know that.
More experiences with fivestar elevator: I take a ride from groundfloor to tenth. It first stops at second, nobody there; then at third, nobody as well - and hits the ground again.
No Tyto alba today.
The final day.
Our twoyearling breaks a fivestar toilet. The lid just is not attached in the seat.
Ten years ago Finland was thought to be the most expensive country in Europe (at least by the finns). Those were the golden days - that meant that every time we travelled abroad, we experienced the marvel of cheap shopping. In 2004 I can eat cheaper in Finland than in Greece, and more delicious Turkish pizza (angering all the Greeks?). Wife has visited Greece earlier, and we can conclude that the EU harmonisation has lead to situation, where prices are equally high in Finland and Mediterranean.
So, mission: failed. Yet seven points to G600. Anyhow, as this is my first trip to Greece - a country that is described as "Eurooppalainen kulttuuri lahti Kreikasta ennen ajanlaskun alkua. Eika se ole viela palannut sinne." (Hamalainen & Roikonen 2001: Voi Eurooppa!), I have the joy of listing all species as new country points!
On the last day - we (are) returned in Finland. When we step out of the aeroplane at Helsinki airport, the weather is
-sunnier,
-warmer and
-with no rain,
than in the Mediterranean four hours earlier.
An err..interesting report.
I'm hopeless at holiday "reports". I can't even remember what I did yesterday never mind on holiday!