This morning I will revisit the upper Fournoi valley sites F23 - F55 near a ravine. Last night it poured rain here in Ermioni. I am interested in the effects the rain will have upon walking today.

I am now walking through the area identified as F23, a possible medieval village which is bisected by the motor road between Fournoi and Dhidhima (refer to RT1979p119). There is some construction underway within the bend of the road. I am just east of the bend in the road and there is a fair amount of pottery scattered throughout these fields. The ground is still moist from the rains last night. I will hike over to the area closer to the road, take GPS readings, a sound sample, and some video.

I am in the terraced plots just north of the bend in the road. The pottery drops off a little in this area. I will take some photos here along with a video diary segment then move down to the area near where the construction is taking place.

F23 is somewhat difficult to locate with any certainty. I am just west of the construction area and there are quantities of pottery spread thin by agriculture. I will have a look in the immediate vicinity then make my way up hill towards the gorge.

Some of the olives in F23 are ancient. No doubt some of the residents of the medieval village tended these very trees as others do today. Many are pollarded (cut so they will sprout and yield new wood, leaves or fruit) around 2 to 3 meters above ground level.

10:06am--GPS marker to the east of the bend in the road from Fournoi to Dhidhmia is @ N 37° 26.132 E 023° 11.491. I will hold off taking a sound sample here till I leave the area.

I took a video walk from some of the high terraces to the N of the construction area in the vicinity of where Red Team 1979 located F23. I walked more or less along the 140m contour line toward the ravine.

I am now sitting in the cool shade of an olive somewhere between F53 and F54 on the spur of the hill. I will take a video walk between F53 and F54 along the spur of the ridgeline.

11:15am--I paused at F53 to note in a video diary segment the recent gravel excavation that is taking place on both sides of F53. There are many tile fragments scattered about the surface of the area @ N 37° 26.174 E 023° 11.585. I will take a sound sample then proceed with the video walk to F54.

F54 has been bulldozed away. The site was located in a terraced field at the bend in the streambed. The field has been recently plowed and there is a cluster of stones in the area where F54 might have been. I will take video diary shots of the area and sound samples and move on. F54 is located @ N 37° 26.155 E 023° 11.638.

From F54 I proceeded on an E-W path directly towards the bend in the road through a recently plowed area. About half way between F54 and the road bend I came across a cluster of medieval pottery.

I have now hiked up to F23 to take a sound sample, GPS coordinates, and a panoramic shot. F23 is located @ N 37° 26.179 E 023° 11.339. The confusion regarding the location of F23 was cleared up when I came across the 1:5000 map with F23 clearly marked. Ground visibility within the terraces is extremely poor.

I have moved over to the western side of the streambed. I will take a video walk along the hill line through the parallel terraces from F51 to F50 to F52. On my return I will make observations concerning the sites.

I found F51 with some difficulty in the maquis on top of a limestone hill. There are a few obsidian flakes and little else. I will take GPS readings and a panorama and begin the video walk. Video panorama of F51 @ N 37° 26.298 E 023° 12.004.

I just completed the video walk from F51 through F50 and into the ravine and up to F52. I ran out of tape just below F52. I replace the tape and finished the video walk. At F52 I took a panorama and a short segment of video diary. Visibility was poor and there was some resent construction taking place of a concrete foundation on the lower terrace of the site, @ N 37° 26.383 E 023° 11.628.

I will take a panorama and GPS readings at F50 then head back to the car which s parked in the shade of a pine tree about 1500 m away.

2:00pm--My patience is waning. I didn't take any sound samples with the omnidirectional in F51, F50 or F52 largely because I was pushed for time. I am hungry and these are the last sites to do in the upper Fournoi valley. The heat, my hunger, the fact that I am out of water and that my ankles are full of thistles meant that it was time to go to lunch in Koiladha. However, before I walked back to the car I took a panorama and GPS readings at F50, @ N 37° 26.264 E 023° 11.814.

Koiladha is in a nice location for a small village but it is not very touristy. Few people were in the six or seven taverns for lunch. Half of these taverns were not even open. There are many commercial fishing boats and smaller craft along the port which stretches the length of the town and around the tip where larger ships are docked. Many boats are either under construction or are being salvaged and overhauled. Even though the views of Franchthi and Livanos are lovely there is something about Koiladha that is less aesthetically appealing than charming Ermioni.

After lunch in Koiladha I drove along a dirt road cut out to the small chapel at the tip of the peninsula near site C6. I took a sound sample near the shore at 4:15pm, @ N 37° 25.357 E 023° 06.718. Most of the materials were reported on the 22nd and 23rd of August, 1979 as lying in the spaces between the limestone outcroppings of bedrock close to the shoreline. These materials continued up hill for about 50m and 100m along the shore from the small lighthouse. The upper two thirds of the area is covered in vegetation. From near the shoreline I took a video panorama and walked a short video transect near the shoreline.

I left Koiladha after revisiting C6 for Ermioni. If I have time in the late afternoon I will drive out to where the excavations are taking place in the Western portion of the town next to the main road. And afterwards I will have a look around the aqueduct that runs parallel to the road into town.

The excavations on the edge of Ermioni are in an open field next to a large polygonal wall @ N 37° 23.217 E 023° 14.781.

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