FROM TIRNAVOS TO SAMARINA
17
Many more came out to say good-bye, and send messages to friends and relations at Ghrevena and
over a mile in length. elsewhere.
Beyond Trikkala we
set
common
;
Here the become more and beyond Kala-
our faces northwards.
character of the country changes rapidly
;
the wide, open plain contracts,
trees
wooded valley through which the Peneus baka Malakasi. Up this valley is the famous comes down from route that leads over the Zighos to Metsovo and Yannina and throughout history has been the main road into Thessaly from the west. In the last thirty years since the cession of gives place to a
has fallen into disuse. The creation of a frontier and the high Greek customs tariff have strangled the once flourishing trade, and the villages on it, which are nearly all Vlach, have dwindled in size. At 10.30 a.m. a halt was made on the banks of the river of Trikkala at the foot of the hill on which stands the monastery Thessaly
it
across this route
of St
Theodore.
Two
views of this encampment showing the
rocks of the Meteora in the distance are given on Plate III.
At 4 p.m. we started
again,
and reaching Kalabaka
before sunset followed the valley northwards.
We
just
skirt the
foot of the Meteora rocks, pass the village of Kastraki,
and
going slowly over a rough track that had once been a paved road pass a khan, and then camp for the night at 8.30 p.m. in a
about an hour from Kastraki. Sunday, May 2gth. There was a long delay in starting. Two mules during the night had strayed into a field of maize, and had been impounded by the watchmen. By the time they had been ransomed and all was ready it was 6 a.m. This late start had its advantages as we had a glimpse up the Peneus valley towards IMalakasi and saw the isolated monastery-crowned crags of the Meteora by daylight. From time to time on our way up from Kalabaka we passed under rocks of the same weird formation and saw others standing by the edges of the valleys like grim sentinels. Then we turned off up the bed of the Murghani river where the plane trees on either side prevented any distant view. At about nine o'clock we leave the river bed, and at 10 a.m. field
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2