29/07/2009 Greece VI: Black Mountain

Today was the first of three days with Nikos and the IGME LandRover. As a result, we were able to travel to regions of the Pindos Mountains that would otherwise be impossible. Of course, this isn't an ordinary LandRover; the vehicle is at least 15 years old, and because of this has no seatbelts in the back. The suspension was pretty good, but our heads were still more reminiscent of the Churchill dog than that of a human for most of the journey.

Most of the day was spent up Mavrovouni. We saw several faults in the fresh mantle peridotites, some of which have green and white amphiboles in them, suggesting that fluids aided faulting (I'll probably do some work on these in the next year, as the literature on exhumed mantle faults ignores fluids). At the top, we took some pretty good panoramas, and Annie almost made it up to the very top, which is a huge advance on the last three years.

After coming back down the mountain past the trekkers' shelter, we travelled to Vovousa, a beautiful village in the heart of the Pindos, and a possible village for future mapping groups - especially given the fact that the nearest mountain is basically an upside-down ophiolite (lavas, overlain by cumulates, and capped by peridotites). We finished the day with another lovely meal at Aetofolias, before returning to Grevena.

Me, working hard on Mavrovouni