I am unvaccinated and so international travel has been very difficult lately with borders shut and there is also the ten day isolation on my return to deal with. This makes booking time off work difficult but as I am between assignments at the moment I took a chance,sorted out PCR tests and booked some flights, desperate just to get away somewhere. I had always wanted to visit Northern Greece and thought the weather would still be mild at this time of year, big mistake!
I landed in Thessaloniki and began the long drive in the rain to Alexandrouplois, I paused enroute to check some ponds by some houses and was surrounded by several large very loud dogs, as it was 3 am I decided to make a hasty retreat. I checked a few more but the roads and tracks were very wet and the ponds were very dirty but as I left I saw a Buresch's Crested Newt Triturus ivanbureschi walking on the wet road and then a Green toad Bufo viridis
1 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
2 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
3 by Kevin Byrnes, on FlickrI spent a couple of days here but it was very windy and very cold, one night I returned to where I had seen the newt and found 6 more in a flooded roadside ditch.This was a new species for me so I was very happy. The next day I just drove around the area before heading west to my next apartment at Kastoria. I dropped my luggage off, had a bite to eat and then drove to Lake Prespa, a place I had always wanted to visit although admittedly not in the snow with the temperature at 1 degree c. I visited and photographed a few familiar places and vowed to return when it was warmer . I was saddened to find a certain pond was frozen but there was an area free of ice at one end and I managed to see three Macedonian Crested Newts Triturus macedonicus another new species for me.
4 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
5 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
6 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
7 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
8 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
9 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
10 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
11 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
12 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
13 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
14 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
15 by Kevin Byrnes, on FlickrThe next day I stopped at a small quarry where I found the carapace of a Hermann's tortoise Testudo hermanni and then drove to Thessaloniki for a PCR test before my journeyhome. I stopped at a hill outside town in the sunshine hoping for a lizard but found only a tortoise half buried in some soil and a dragonfly
16 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
17 by Kevin Byrnes, on Flickr
18 by Kevin Byrnes, on FlickrSo, that was the end of my crazy cold trip but it was a nice break and I did tick off a couple of new species
