Adam Monk Photo Tours

This magical little spot was just a short walk from the room we rented just outside of Nas on the Greek Island of Ikaria.  It is a small pool in the Chalares Gorge which cut right through the landscape below the balcony of the room and ended at the beach shown in the previous post. This spot is cool, shady and tranquil, perfect spot to lean on a tree and read a book or just do nothing…

Tranquil Reflecting Pool. Chalares Canyon, Ikaria

Shot on the Canon 5D Mk2 with the 16-35mm f2.8L lens at 16mm.  10 images stitched with PT Gui on a Mac (of course!)

Just a quick one tonight, my bed is calling me and i’m keen to answer!  This one is the beach below the town of Nas on the Greek Island of Ikaria, it is also the opening to the sea of the Chalares Canyon from a previous post.  On the opposite bank of the river is the site of an ancient temple of Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the wilderness, the hunt, wild animals and fertility; there’s not much left of it now but the sea wall and the foundations, but it is a beautiful site.  I just found out the other day that this temple was originally built from stone quarried from Petrokopio beach on the neighbouring island of Fourni which featured in this post

Temple of Artemis, Nas Ikaria

For those interested… Canon 5D Mk2 with 16-35mm f2.8L lens at 16mm.  This image is a 14 image stitch shot after sunset…

The Greek Island of Ikaria is a haven for bushwalkers and nature lovers.  Unlike many Greek Islands that tend to be dry and windswept (though still beautiful), Ikaria is thickly forested and covered in gorges, rivers and waterfalls… i’m starting to sound like a travel agent or a travel documentary!  Way too formal.

Well, as much as i love beaches, freshwater rivers and waterfalls amongst shady forests are really my favourites, there is something more surreal and almost imaginary about them.  Its probably something left over from my childhood when i would ride off on my bicycle into the bush  and spend the day wading around in creeks and rivers catching little freshwater crayfish and turtles (then letting them go again), only to turn up at home again hours later wet and smelling of the swamp!

Whatever the reason, for me Ikaria was a paradise of rivers, waterfalls and freshwater crayfish (i tend to eat those now…), with lots of long lovely walking trails through shady forests and rocky gorges, that would take you down to places like this one…Chalares Canyon, Ikaria.

Are there any Hobbits living here? Chalares Canyon, Ikaria

I didn’t find any freshwater crayfish, but i did find some very cute little freshwater crabs and some very small shrimp…  I didn’t eat any of them, and i did spend many hours here just sitting.  Bliss.

Again, for those who are interested, this is an 18 image (actually 18 pairs of bracketed exposure) stitch shot on the Canon 5D Mk2 with the 16-35mm f2.8L lens set to 35mm, using the Really Right Stuff pano head.  they were all stitched in PT Gui, then manually blended to hold the detail in the brighter rocks and the darker shadows.  At 300dpi the image comes in natively at 2m long and takes up 3 Gb of space…

Last year in June/July i had the opportunity to go to Greece with my girlfriend Electra, who is Greek.  Greece is one of the places i’d always wanted to go but had never made it to… it’s a long list!  We stayed only 4 weeks, which is not long enough to really explore Greece, but seeing all of it wasn’t the objective, but to experience the life and culture of Greece a little, hear the language and eat the food…  and eat more of the food… Greek food is great, usually quite simple, but really good!

One of the places we visited was the Island of Ikaria, not one of the main tourist islands, and right over near the coast of Turkey. Ikaria was quite different to what i expected Greece to look like, and very different to the other Greek Island we visited on that journey, more on the other island later.

Trapalou Bay, on the Greek Island of Ikaria. Greece

I had always thought Greek Islands would be more like Rottnest Island,  off the coast of Fremantle, and many of them are, very rocky, dry and windswept with low scrubby vegetation and small white painted houses.  In contrast to this Ikaria is green, forested and has beautiful gorges with rivers and waterfalls, and the houses are not painted white!

One thing that was as i expected it to be was the crystal clear water of the Aegean Sea with it’s amazing deep aquamarine blue colour that just invites you to jump in, which i did on many occasions, including just after making this image here, which is the bay of a tiny fishing village at the end of a long rough dusty dirt road (it was a hire car…).  I cant remember the name of the place, but when we finally arrived it was around midday and the whole town (all 15 houses) was asleep for the afternoon, so it was quite eerie, like a ghost town, we had the whole place to ourselves.  So, we went down to the bay and swam around naked! It was lovely.

By the way, this shot was taken on the Canon 5D Mk II with the 16-35mm f2.8L lens and the awesome Really Right Stuff pano head.  It’s composed of 13 portrait format shots stitched with PT Gui Pro and the finished file comes in at 1.9Gb…  It makes nice big sharp prints.

Stay tuned for more on the Greek Island of Ikaria and Greece in general.