Another day, another trip to the Pindos. The range seems to contain so many geological treasures, buried away in remote valleys and shrouded in dense forests.
The essential purpose of our trip today was to take photos of a single locality. Although not in the high Pindos, the network of tracks are sometimes hard to navigate, and impossible to drive up without four-wheel drive and no small amount of bravery. So Adamos was hired again, and after a short stop for a panorama at a small church, we passed around the small village of Kakoplevri and up the rust-coloured dirt track lined with peridotites.
The essential purpose of our trip today was to take photos of a single locality. Although not in the high Pindos, the network of tracks are sometimes hard to navigate, and impossible to drive up without four-wheel drive and no small amount of bravery. So Adamos was hired again, and after a short stop for a panorama at a small church, we passed around the small village of Kakoplevri and up the rust-coloured dirt track lined with peridotites.
Wall paintings inside the local Greek Orthodox church
Limestone trapped between two peridotite imbricates above Kakoplevri
Having completed our task for the day, we continued through peridotites and molasse. The contact was exposed in several places; a coarse poorly mixed conglomerate marking the erosional base of the sedimentary sequence. The track took us through pristine deciduous forests; the cool breeze through the car windows welcome respite from the alternating stifling heat of the exposed hillsides and biting cold of the air conditioned Blazer. A mixed herd of sheep and goats resting on the road blocked our way for five minutes before the goatherd and dogs appeared over the slope. Further along the road, we were stopped again by a felled tree. Luckily, the forester responsible was working a little way behind us, and cleared the way ahead once more.
Our helpful wilderness woodcutter
Our passage back down to paved roads took us through cumulate sequences before providing me with a blast of nostalgia in the form of a several meter thick unit of interleaved amphibolites and sheared ultramafics.
Sheared amphibolite-dunite contact
We returned to civilisation via another small village, and stopped for lunch at a new and well-equipped hotel, complete with faux antler chandeliers and gym. Its wide wooden balconies overlooked a wide river, the shallows glistening invitingly in the afternoon sun. A small dog padded back and forth between us, hoping for scraps. A pleasant end to a relaxing day.
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