White Horse Hill and Wayland's Smithy

Uffington White Horse

I first visited these sites in the late 80's whilst a student at the University of Hull. During the summer recess, I took lodgings in Witney with P, a family friend of a fellow student. Throwing my vegetarian credentials to the wind I got a job at the local pork pie factory.

Iron Age hillfort

The position paid surprisingly well, and working the 2pm - 10pm shift, it also meant that the hours suited my student body-clock far better than any 9-5 employment. For the sake of 2hrs overtime, I could work until midnight and earn an extra half day's pay. Being both conscientious and efficient at my job overtime was regularly on offer.

The Ridgeway

Paid in cash, and with endless free production-line rejects at break times, I had access to more money and more calories in my diet, than I had ever enjoyed before in my life. That the abundance of calories came from saturated animal fats, and refined sugars was not an irony that I missed even then.

Wayland's Smithy

That summer also gave my inner musical magpie, the time and opportunity to collect shiny aural baubles. Exploring P’s vinyl collection – I harvested amongst others, Chet Baker, MC5, Sly and the Family Stone, Peter Tosh, Culture and Lee Scratch Perry – committing each album to the ferrous magnetic tracks of a hand-labelled cassette tape.

And now up to date. I visit these sites for only the second time, with A; and with A & Z, whose friendship was forged when I returned to formal study at Sparsholt College – as a mature student seeking and eventually fulfilling a successful change of career.

".. Nothing to see here .."

towards "The Manger"

Of Walks and Wells .. Vamos to Gavalochori and back .. via the cave church of Agios Ioannis

With another humid, and rainy-day forecast – we put on our walking boots and set out from Vamos to explore the local area. Perusing the guidebook “Discover Vamos… on Foot” we decided to follow “Walk 5: To the villages of Gavalochori and Douliana”.

The easy walking route took us northeast out of Vamos, along small roads, and tracks between fields. We passed picturesque roadside chapels, and expensive looking holiday Villas. The views across the hilltops and valleys were unexpectedly lush, as they swept down towards Souda Bay.

looking north to Souda Bay 

Arriving at Gavalochori, we visited the Venetian olive mill. The vaulted building contains different examples of mills and olive presses including a metal press dating from the late 19th / early 20th century. The on-site interpretation has photos from the 1950s of these machines still in use.

Venetian period - four stone olive mill

19th Century metal olive press

On site interpretation

As we left the olive mill, I noticed a tourist sign pointing to the Gavalochori Wells 500m uphill. The guidebook does not mention these wells, so we followed the sign out of curiosity.

Rounding a bend in the road, the wells came into view. They were momentarily underwhelming, appearing to be square concrete topped cisterns, with a raised concrete cap topped by a metal hatch. As we got closer, we noted curious stone "caves" clustered towards the back of the site. A large twin stemmed Plane (Platanus orientalis) grows center stage.

Gavalochori Wells

I lifted the rusted hatch of a cistern and looked down a small shaft with water at the bottom. Going across to a stone built “cave” I looked within, experienced a moment of vertigo, and pulled back from the opening.

Listening to my body, I realised that I was hungry and thirsty, that I had expended the last of my energy on the approach to the wells. A, sat on the wall beneath the Plane. I sat down next to A, and we broke bread together.

After our lunch, I explored the “caves” further – they are stone-built roofs over stone-lined well shafts. A number were dry at the bottom, whilst others held the reflection from the water within. I dropped a pebble into one and a deep "whoomph" echoed around me. Laughing, I repeated the action. Later I was to regret not committing the sound to the library of Voice Memos on my iPhone.

The stone-built wells are of the Venetian period as is the arched bridge which spans the dry creek running past the site. The modern metalled road bridge also crosses the creek.

Venetian Well

Heading back into Gavalochori we passed inviting tavernas, knowing that we had only covered about a third of our walk, we declined to stop for a cold beer or two. Walking past the Folklore Museum, we agreed that this was also a destination for another day.

Gavalochori

Our route out of Gavalochori, seemed to be endlessly uphill on the bearing to Douliana. With even the short sections of downhill providing no respite. And then we turned left at a junction onto a small track, slowly climbing up through a small, wooded, valley or gorge.

Cut out of the rockface of the gorge, is the small cave church of Agios Ioannis, set back behind a tall white wall, and gate. In the courtyard stands a decrepit anthropomorphic olive tree, headless, legs akimbo, joyful.

Shortly after leaving the church, we turned right at a T-junction and climb a steep cobbled path up the side of the valley – the recent rain making the path stones slick and slowing the ascent.

Arriving at Douliana, we pressed on through the village, and back out onto the open hillside – gleefully noting the accuracy of the books instructions when turning left at a fork where “there are three similar houses on your left.” The last section of the trek crossed enclosed farmland. We passed between enclosures by opening “gates” comprising sheep netting or thin wire meshes, tied with string. A soft rain followed, and we were more than happy to end up roadside just a short walk away from our hotel apartment.

References

Cretanbeaches.com [Online] 2022 Cretan Flora Plane Tree https://www.cretanbeaches.com/en/flora/plane-tree Accessed 28th November 2022

Gavalochori.com [Online] 2022 the historical Venetian wells https://gavalochori.com/venetian-wells/ 

Accessed 27th November 2022

Gavalochori.com [Online] 2022 pre-industrial Olive Mill from Gavalochori https://gavalochori.com/pre-industrial-olive-mill/ Accessed 27th November 2022

Yiapitsoglou, K., (Editor) 2008 The Olive Tree Civilization in Crete; Olive Oil Production on the Post Byzantine Times; Oil Mill of Gavalochori Association of Cretan Oil Municipalities

.. "All the world's a stage" .. Aptera, Crete

The weather forecast was not conducive to a beach day at Georgioupolis, so we decided to undertake island exploration instead. I held the vaguest memory of an ancient site, described to us by fellow hotel guests, during our previous stay at Arosmari Apartments, Vamos. Archaeology perched on hill, or above a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea? Roman perhaps?

Sharing this uncertain description with our Simpson’s holiday representative, Susan had immediately recognised the site as Aptera; the remains of a walled city-state located on Paliokastra Hill, overlooking Souda Bay.

Aptera blew our expectations away – the visible archaeology spanning from the 4th or 5th Century BC, through the Roman period; to the 20th Century pill boxes, the legacy of the German Occupation during WWII, and the Monastery of Agios Ioannis Theologos built in the Venetian Period, and still in use up until the 1960’s.

the two-room temple 5th Century BC

WWII German Pill Box (rems)

Monastery of Agios Ioannis Theologos

Aptera's city-state walls (4th Century BC rems)

As a hill-top city with no natural springs to exploit, water was a vital resource to collect and store – the Greco-Roman effort to this endeavour was very much apparent in two of the remaining constructions on site. The L-shaped cistern and the three-aisled cistern are monumental buildings, with the latter holding the grandeur that I would normally associate with a Cathedral.

Greco-Roman L-shaped cistern

Greco-Roman three aisled cistern

However, for us the jewel in the crown was the Hellenistic theatre – which despite the state of ruin, still viscerally evoked the excitement of live drama, the sounds and smells of the audience seated upon its terraces.

Exit Stage Left

Climbing the short flight of stairs from the cobbled street approach to the top row of the theatre’s seating, I felt jostled, hurried, and engulfed by the ancient crowd. I simply buzzed. It was an unexpectedly emotional experience.

And, then there was the briefest of moments when A and I were the sole occupants of the theatre; joking and laughing together as we shared misremembered Shakespeare and Monty Python quotes.

Elsewhere in the complex you can find two examples of Roman bath houses, a Roman house with peristyle, and remains of later buildings dating to the Venetian period.

Roman bath with cobbled floor

Roman building with peristyle

Resources

Ministry of Culture and Sports (no date) Aptera A tourist guidebook available on site