Heather on her travels

A walk in the olive groves on Zakynthos – video

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 12:00 AM PST

In the autumn on the Greek island of Zakynthos, the sun is warm but the evenings are cooling and the miniature pink cyclamen are creating delicate dots of colours under the olive trees. In October we visited my sister who lives on the island, after most hotels and restaurants had closed for the season. This is the time when the Greeks, who have been working flat out through the heat of the summer season are ready for a rest and will close their businesses until December, when the locals start partying for the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

A View over Argassi in Zakynthos

This is the season when the Zakynthians turn their attention to their land, as most will own a patch of land near their house, or on another part of the island where they have olive groves or vines to make some local Greek wine. You can smell the woodsmoke in the air as olive branches are pruned and burned in piles. Tarpaulins are spread out under the trees as the branches are beaten to drop the crop of olives to the ground. In each community you may see a shed open up where the locals bring their crop of olives to be pressed for the oil that will keep them going through the year until next autumn.

I hope you enjoy the video below about walking in the olive groves on Zakynthos

If you can’t see the video above, view it on my blog here

This year we walked up behind my sister’s house in Argassi, sometimes on the tracks that are the routes for people to get to their olives and then up a rocky, overgrown area (we’d taken a bit of a wrong turn at that point). It’s best not to go up in the late afternoon as you may have an encounter with a hunter with his shotgun.

Olive trees on Zakynthos

We reached the top of the hill where you can see right over the resort of Argassi, over the roofs of the two hotels that my sister and her Greek husband Dennis own (Windmill Studios and Windmill Bay) and across the bay to Zante town where the ferries and cruise ships go in and out. Next time you’re staying in Greece, feel free to take a walk in the olive groves too, especially if you’re going to be rewarded with a fantastic view like we were.