Autumnal Ramblings - Corfu Style
Photo © Rob Jones
My morning runs follow virtually the same route - largely because I never tire of the views.
It starts with a short run along the main road, unavoidable, before ducking up a rough track that leads dog-leggedly through some olive groves to a higher road. Here then comes a choice. Left takes me to Angela Beach through lanes which feel like eternal Welsh Summer (if you exclude some of the exotic plants along the way). This is the best place to gather acorns. Always with the fanciful notion that I will plant them somewhere and create a forest of oaks.
So many acorns and yet so few trees? Research needed.
So … it seems that most of the acorns a tree produced get snaffled by wildlife for food. The trees have also learned to be unreliable producers of acorns, and no one is entirely sure why they do it.
Roughly every seven years there is something called a ‘Mast Year,’ when Oak Trees create Acorns like they are going out of style. But this bumper crop drains them of their energy to produce them in the years afterwards.
One theory is they do it to discourage wildlife. Low-acorn years keep the wildlife population down, so that when they create the bumper crop there’s a greater chance of acorns surviving little gnawing teeth.
That, I find, is a spectacular fact of nature.
Anyway … after gathering some acorns, I go right, down the hill into Roda town and along the seafront lined with Date Palms. (Gather fallen dates).
Photo © Rob Jones
There I pause to take in the view, sit on the beach and watch the early dog walkers, before running quickly through the main street, where bars are mopping up after the night before, and out the other side where I run half way along to Acharavi. How far I go depends on how much energy I have and how much I dawdle.
I have another sitting place, which overlooks Albania. Sometimes the views of the mountains are stunning. It’s so close, you can see big downs, small towns. Different lives.
Back via the back road and the cross roads, main road and home.
Shower …
Then, over breakfast, review my gatherings to see what I can pot up and grow.
It’s a very pleasing way to start the day.
R
