Leaving Kefalonia

1st July 2010

As the huge ferry ploughed away from Kefalonia it churned up giant waves in it's wake and the wind whipped hair into my eyes. Today, after six weeks, Aaron and I left the Katelious group volunteer project and began the next step of our adventure, making a journey over land and sea to Georgia. Liz, Ueli and Peter also left on the same ferry to mainland Greece, having been with the group for four weeks. As Aaron and I made our way back to Athens we reflected on what a wonderful, but exhausting time we had experienced in Kefalonia. Starting the project in May had been ideal since there were not many volunteers at that time, so we got to know each other and the group leader Manu and his wife Fiona well. When we arrived we started with just the Mounda beach patrol and the school shift, before Koroni, night patrols and other activities were added. This gave us a great opportunity to become familiar with the work and the area.

At the beginning of the season the Mounda beach patrol consisted of a lot of litter picking since there wasn't much turtle or tourist activity, but there was a huge amount of rubbish. On Aaron and my third day we were fresh and enthusiastic, so in one afternoon we dragged fourteen bin bags of rubbish off Potomakia beach. There are no bins on Potomakia, so Aaron and I (mostly Aaron) carried them about a mile to the hotel. This was the beginning of the period of exhaustion for me! From then on the group limited ourselves to about eight bags per shift till the bulk of the refuse was gone, which took about 200 bags. The day after the intense rubbish collecting I had school in the morning, then Mounda beach patrol in the afternoon. The next day I had the first Koroni shift in the morning and school in the evening. The following day I had Koroni in the morning, Mounda in the afternoon and night patrol training in the evening. Those few days I didn't get much time for anything else but eating and sleeping! Thankfully Manu had given me a much lighter load for the rest of the week and when the new volunteers arrived in June things got easier. I have probably never been so fit in my life as at the end of this project. As if the Koroni shift wasn't hard enough already some masochists like my husband started cycling to Kornoni and back, in addition to the walking and kayaking!

At the beginning of June James, Liz, Peter, Ueil, Marcus and Caroline arrived from England, Greece, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Scotland. Caroline stayed in Aaron and my apartment for a few nights until she was terrorised by bed bugs and moved into the fourth apartment when Ellie, from England arrived. During shifts I enjoyed training the new volunteers and feeling knowledgeable after only two weeks with the group. Manu did a great job at organising a complicated rota. He gave Aaron and I days off together and recognised which shifts people enjoyed and were good at. In mid June Helen, Elina and Marcus left, Elina taking the playful, stray puppy, Sola, she had adopted with her. We would miss them, it had been a great group to work with. We were apprehensive about the new volunteers, though we needn't have worried. The new volunteers were Vanessa, Rhiannon, Sarah and Jon, from Ireland, UK and USA. Jon shared our apartment for a couple of nights until he also got plagued by insects and moved into the boys house when Marcus left.

During June I did ten night patrols which is more than usual, since I started on the first night and I also covered an extra night for Caroline at the last minute when she wasn't feeling good. During the patrols I saw five turtles on four of the nights. With Sarah we had needed to tag our first turtle and I held her flipper while Sarah used the tag gun to give 'K218' her new jewellery. My last night patrol was with Dagmar who arrived at the end of June, just a few days before we left and she also shared our apartment. By the time it got to 4am I was resigned to thinking that we wouldn't see anything, then there in the shinning moonlight we found her nesting. 'K189' had been tagged by others in the group the night before. I also saw several loggerhead sea turtles when snorkelling and the only green turtle living in Mounda beach.

I am going to miss the people we met and the beautiful beaches of Kefalonia. I will not forget a couple of our friendly local shop owners, Mariza in Ratzalki, where we brought bread every day and Gabi in Katelious, where we would buy fruit and veg. Gabi was such a genuine, kind person, she was always telling us how hard we work and giving us free fruit from her garden. However Aaron and I are looking forward to some more time on our own and some rest and we will not miss the mosquitoes!