Jonathan Proud

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Chania, Crete	Lefka Ori, the White Mountains
Camp at Samaria	Sun 12th: Got up late and had a good breakfast in the Kydon Hotel, then walked to the harbour and found the Omalos Hotel. Wandered about all morning, had a toasted sandwich for lunch, then went to the Omalos Hotel to meet the Earthwatch group. After a long introductory briefing, we went to the zoo and saw some Cretan wild goats (agrimi). Returned to the hotel, then went to a restaurant in the harbour, for dinner. Had a huge variety of traditional Greek dishes, finishing off with raki. Had a bad night.
Mon 13th: Got up at 05:45, had a quick breakfast, then took the bus to Omalos. Had drinks in the restaurant at the top of the Samaria Gorge. Waited there a long time, until it was very hot, before starting our descent. My pack was extremely heavy. Had numerous drink stops and stopped for lunch, before arriving at Samaria old village at about 2pm. There are 'wild' goats just wandering around the camp. We were shown round the primitive facilities, then I pitched my tent. Had a shower before dinner of spaghetti Bolognese. Slept well in my own new tent.	Camp at Samaria
Goats in the village	Tue 14th: Toast and coffee for breakfast - every man for himself. Walked up the hillside to a ruined fort for 'observation' training. It was too late in the day (10am) to actually see anything. Returned to camp, which was full of goats. After bread, cheese and sardines for lunch, I spent the afternoon watching and photographing the goats. The 5pm meeting which was supposed to be for trap clearing turned out to be a talk by Erica about DNA testing. It was interesting. The Bulgarian girl pointed out that the agrimi in the village may not be pure. The village had long been inhabited by people who kept domestic goats
and the wild ones would have been attracted to the village just as they are now. Later we had a lecture on capture procedure and allocation of tasks. I was assigned to PIT tagging. This involves the injection of an electronic tag into the goat's neck, using a needle the size of the average screwdriver. Silvia cooked an excellent dinner. Thank goodness we have an Italian in the group. Wed 15th: Got up at 04:30 and left camp at 05:30 for a trek to the castle. Observed goats until 10:30. I think we saw six, all very briefly. Returned to camp for lunch of bread and	Goats in the village

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