Intrepid traveller... Man make fire

We spent the night in Olympos, a small bungalow 'community' slightly off the beaten track. Once a great port town, established in the Hellenistic period, now it's kind of a tourist trap for those wanting to chill out on an isolated pebbled beach, smoke shisha and disappear for a while.

According to our itinerary, halfway up Mount Olympus (one of the twenty or so Mount Olympos' throughout the old Roman Empire) there are holes in the mountain that spontaneously ignite with flames: the area named Chimera after a mythical Greek fire breathing creature. Usually seen at night, Chloe suggested the 'legend' more impressive than the reality (apparently a thousand years ago ships could see the flames from the sea) so we skipped the 15 lira evening tour bus and instead chose to hike there this morning. We're taking our first overnight bus tonight so we were all keen for a bit of strenuous activity.

The sun shone brilliantly so the 12km walk was actually a pleasure - except for the part where we had to wade barefoot through a pebbled creek bed and sunk in quicksand.

But it was worth it. We climbed from the base up a good 800 metres and there in the clearing were a dozen or so open flames - like an abandoned campsite, although these barbeques have been burning for thousands of years.

While the flames were little, the boys were able to amuse both themselves and others by dousing the fires with water and reigniting them using various sticks and dried grasses they found. This activity wore on for a good hour or so before Chloe and I dragged them back down. Although the fact that two tour buses had arrived with others wanting to play with the flames helped our cause.

On the beach below Mount Olympus

The smile on Boyfriend's face was priceless. On the way home he even got to skim pebbles across the creek... fire and rocks made for one satisfied Homosapien.