20 March
2025 – Tortoise Ramble
Miles
driven today = 0
Total Miles
to date = 2,120
Look what
we chanced upon while we were out for our walk this afternoon.
Lisa stepped right over it and I had to do a
double take before I realized what it was.
From a little Google I believe it to be a Greek Marginated
Tortoise, based on the elongated flange at the back of its shell.
They are the largest species of Mediterranean
Tortoise, reaching 35cm in length and 5kg in weight.
Their shells turn almost completely black
when they are fully grown so I’m guessing this was a young adult.
It’s only the second time I’ve ever seen a
tortoise in the wild and I have a real affinity with them given my nickname is
based on my party trick of having a remarkable ability to resemble one.
It didn’t
quite get down to the predicted freezing point last night but we were still
very grateful for our thermal screen covers and also the included electric hook
up which allowed us to luxuriate in the van with the thermostat set to 20 degrees
until the Sun finally got his hat on and the chill wind dropped at around
lunchtime.
Once it did
we set out on our search of the illusive path to Kondyli Beach.
But the trails that we spotted on Google
Maps and started to follow turned out to be nothing more than sheep paths
judging by a few droppings and tufts of wool and one very bleached leg bone.
We’d
already resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren’t going to find our way to
the beach without scaling some significant rocky inclines when our path was
fully blocked by some very large and prickly Agaves.
We turned
around and retraced our steps to camp, but by that time we had already met our
Testudinidae friend so our little ramble was far from being a dead loss.
By the time
we got back the weather was very much warmer and our summer wardrobes were broken
out once again for an afternoon of sitting around doing very little and not feeling
the slightest bit guilty about it.
We really
have been very fortunate with a lot of the park ups we have chosen so far on
this trip.
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