Cruising the Agean Sea
A trip on the Agean Explorer
The second part of the group trip to Greece a visit to an archipelago in the Agean sea. Located to the far east near the border to Turkey, we sailed for Lipsi on Blue Star Ferries. The voyage took nine hours from Athens but we saw a nice sunset and had a good time socializing.
Lipsi is a mid sized island that is frequently serviced by the main ferries and is a launching point for getting to the more remote islands. It is also the base for the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation. Their research vessel, the Aegean Explorer was our home for three days while we visited their conservation sanctuary and some nearby islands.
When I was doing some travel planning I was surprised to find that almost all of the major ferry routes are to and from Athens. It is fairly difficult to travel between islands and hop around without chartering a boat. So while the class trip was somewhat expensive, it was also worthwhile. The islands are quite beautiful and it would be a hell of a time to sail around if I had a sailboat.
Our professor partners with the Archipelago Institute and is designing some of their research facilities. The institutes mission is to create conservation areas, protect the Aegean Sea, and develop methods for rehabilitation. They have been working in the Aegean for twenty years and are currently based on Lipsi. Our trip was a preliminary expedition to document the cultural and natural landscapes of the nearby islands. The survey and field data would lead to rehabilitation and a graphic lanaguage for communicating the environmental issues to non scientific audiences in the future.
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Our first stop was Marathi island which we were told had three permanent inhabitants. We were able to hike up the hill and see some abandoned structures that are probably around a hundred years old.
We also observed planting and terracing techniques to maintain the soil and resist erosion. These had various levels of success depending on their maintenance and the goats who eat all the shrubs rendering an arid landscape. We turned our attention to documenting the landscape, culture-scape and marine-scape as a test for ways of understanding the islands as a collective.
The top of the Marathi was very scenic and the wide angle lens began to show its worth. Panoramas of the surrounding islands were incredible and I felt like I was visiting a place few people see.
In the distance were some sea caves that a few of us went to explore. They ended up being very shallow but were still interesting to see. We found many sea shells along the wall and interesting rocks at the waterline.
An earlier European Union subsidy for raising goats has destroyed most of the Greek islands. Farmers received a sum for the number of goats they owned but would let them roam free. The goats ate up everything leaving a barren landscape and simultaneously trapped farmers in poverty as they now need to buy feed. The landscape destruction was noticeably prominent on Arki island where stone walls marking property would be red on one side and green on the other.
The stalk contrast was reinforced when we visited some old structures overrun by goats. We were interested in the historic construction of the houses. They had fallen into disrepair and the goats had taken them over. The grounds were covered in droppings and the caved in roofs provided little shelter.
Where the goats did not roam the landscape was quite beautiful with many colourful flowers and nice smelling herbs. At night we took a walk to a beach for some excellent sunset photos and to skip stones. On the way back, the sky lit up over the harbour to a briliant firey orange.
Although I’ve struggled to adapt to the wide angle lens, leaving the city for the landscape has helped. I’m drawn to the wide expanse of the horizon. That infinite line marks the boundary between here in the present and both the future where I’ll be and the past where I’ve been.
In Athens I struggled to find an identity for my photography and that challenge continues. I’ve remained mostly desaturated but brought back some colour. It’s hard to express the Aegean in monochrome but I’m still not ready for vibrant colours. I think this has to do with searching for something in myself that I have yet to find.
