Oddities Observed On Outings #7

On By stuartakenIn Author, Creative Writer, Nature, opinion, Photography

Walking on the lovely Greek island of Zakynthos, called Zante by the younger generation, in September 2023, we consulted a map I’d bought online for guidance. It took us to places we’d otherwise never have visited. On one of our almost daily walks, we followed the winding roads from our hotel up into the hills, hoping for a panorama of the inner part of the island.

We walked through a couple of small villages, quiet apart from the inevitable barking dogs protecting their properties as we passed. Eventually, we reached the rise that would take us to a potential viewpoint overlooking the interior. We passed an old house beside a lane clearly made for access of small vehicles, where we were joined by a large canine with the look of a bulldog, and entered an extensive olive grove that appeared to cover the entire hill.

The track took us around the contours until we reached the domed apex of the hill. There was the island’s interior, but not a scene really worth sharing. Largely agricultural land, it was pretty enough, but lacking that quality most viewers would treasure as ‘a view’.

As we neared the end of our hill walk, we came across this olive tree, possibly hundreds of years old, that bore a remarkable resemblance to a grumpy old man (I checked for the accuracy of that statement by glancing in the mirror!). For that, I just had to use my camera.

Throughout our walk through the olive grove, we were sometimes led, sometimes followed by the bulldog that seemed to think we needed guidance or maybe supervision. It stayed with us until we returned via a looping track to its home village, where it silently returned to the house it had left to join us.

We enjoyed our stay on Zakynthos, but it’s not the only Greek island that has presented oddities to us, as future posts here will reveal.

10 thoughts on “Oddities Observed On Outings #7”

    1. It is, isn’t it, Lynette? Perhaps these odd gnarled beauties are what inspired Tolkien’s Ents, and maybe gave rise to legends about various monsters in the forests.

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    1. It is, isn’t it, Noelle? And others have noticed this resemblance to an owl and commented on it on the version of this post I placed on Medium.

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    1. Doesn’t it just, Liz? Recent research hints at an ability trees may have to communicate with each other, using fungal mycelium fibres that frequently connect their roots, so, who knows, perhaps one day we may even find a way to communicate with them!

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