Jungle Jim: The Akti Peninsula and Mt. Athos

We left the north coast of Greece and began our sail south to Athens. From there, we pass from the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea, bordered by Greece and Italy among other countries. Tonight, we arrive the tranquil bay of Plati on the Atki Peninsula. There is no place like it in the world. For the Greek Orthodox it is a true holy land. For the crew of Jungle it is a spectacular sunset.

We have only one neighbor on this lovely evening.

The next morning we set out on a once in a lifetime tour across beautiful coastlines.

The Atki Peninsula has an incredible collection of monasteries. As a matter of fact it has only monasteries and the priests and men of the cloth that reside here. The are no women allowed, ever. It dates back to the 9th century. This Monastary is an example. It's called Esphigmenou (I have no idea), built around 1034.

The rock formations, all volcanic in origin, are something to see close up. The fact is there is no telephone service, no electricity, no cars, no roads ... It is truly a step back in time.

We'll shed a little light on this one. The best way, and one of the only ways to see the monasteries is by sea. As luck would have it - we have a boat.

Mt Athos is now coming into view. We will sail southeast around the tip and Athos rises over a mile from the sea at that point. Impressive. We are supposed to stay 1 mile from land, if any women are on board. Jenée put a hat on. Good disguise.

This is Vatopedi from the 10th century. Until recently, they did not allow smooth skinned people or any female animals. The rules have relaxed somewhat on that, but still no women!

I realize, as spectacular as this scenery was to us, it gets lost in many of these blog photos. So I'm going to spare you the pain of flipping through poorly detailed photos. I cut it down from 14 monasteries to 4 or 5. Trust me, they are all quite large, ominous, a little creepy and old. The surrounding scenery is spectacular.

We are closing in on Mt. Athos and the Monastary of Pantokrator. A photo opportunity I missed was two fully robed, bearded younger monks out on a quality inflatable boat (25'), checking out fishing spots on the south side of the island. I saw them cast a few lines. Amen. See, everyone likes to get in a little fishing.

A closer view. We are seeing Mt. Athos, the holy mountain behind Pantokrator. This is what is called an Idiorrythmic community within the Monastary. This means the monks are on their own resources for food and clothing and basically live alone. Other monasteries may be Coenobite which are communal, every one shares and dresses alike. I like the communal approach, better parties.

Mules are used as transportation and trucks. We saw some in action from a distance moving along dirt tracks.

This is Greek territory, but the peninsula acts with total autonomy.

Just to make things a little more challenging, they use the Julian calendar (13 days behind our Roman calendar) and a Byzantine clock which has hours of variable length. That's the way it was done 1000+ years ago. So, it's a different world.

There are 20 monasteries in all and they include not only Greeks, but Bulgarians, Russians, Serbs, and Romanians. A multinational effort. Once accepted in, your considered a Greek subject. This is not a Monastary, but rather a small castle.

Here it is in the rear view mirror. There is also a collection of religious hermits and other smaller religious orders on the peninsula.

There are some villages located on these steep hillsides as well. All to support religious devotion.

Incredible panorama.

Plenty to see.

What is difficult to see are these incredible stone and wood structures (hermit homes) built into the steep sides of Mt Athos. How they got there and constructed these things is unbelievable to grasp. A great deal of patience I suspect. Something a hermit should be good at.

That is a village on the side of Mt. Athos.

Hopefully you an make out the homes on the face of the mountain.

How they did it is impressive to consider.

Another Monastary stands alone.

Full view of Mt. Athos.

This is the last Monastary we'll see today. They are original 1000 year old stone structures with wooden structures (residences) built on top. We read that fire has wiped out 19 of the 20 monastaries over the centuries. We noticed a lot of scaffolding on our tour. Monasteries need sprucing up after 1000 years.