Flora of Alonissos May 2009

Campanula reiseri. (Endemic to the Sporades & Cyclades)

This was a walking holiday in Alonissos a Greek island in the Northern Sporades. We had planned to go the first two weeks in May when the charter flights start but we could not get a flight until the middle of May. We flew to Skiathos then by seacat via Skopelos to Alonissos a small island in the National Marine Park approx 18 km long by 6 km wide. The island has extensive pine woods which make it ideal for walking in the heat of the day. Most of the island is virtually inaccessible except on foot there is one major surfaced road that runs the length of the island but the surface is pretty bad after a few kilometers north from Patitiri the main town. The flora was past it's best the weather had been unseasonally hot the previous week. Though it was cool with sea mists during our first week somebody then threw the switch for summer and the daytime temperture jumped from 23 degrees to 36 degrees overnight. I tend to concentrate on searching for and photographing orchids on these trips with a few landscape and pictorial shots thrown in when the occasion arises. The goats and rabbits got to the orchids first and what was left the hot weather finished off. So I only took about a hundred pictures during our stay and many were duplicates at different camera settings not a lot to show for walking 12 to 15 km a day. But we had a great time with a lot of happy memories.