THE ANDY MILLAR MEMORIAL BACKGAMMON CONTEST

The seventh international Azogires Backgammon contest took place on the 16 of August in loving memory of Andrew Millar. We had contestents from 8 different countries and it was very sucesfull event.

First prize winner was Pete from Canada and second prize winner was Sakis from Lebanon, both veterans of the Azogires tournament

In the Consolation round, with what I call Women power, winners included first time player Linda from England and 11 year old Jessica, who shocked everyone by nearly defeating the three times Champion Sakis.

They all receved a title and a prize and promised to re-enter the competition next year.

Note: if anyone wants to purchase a copy of the above Backgammon board, they can do so in Paleochora behind the Agricultural Bank in "Only Natural."

(Final Note; No information has been received as to where Lucky finished in the competition.)

INVASION FROM OLD RESIDENTS

We had an invasion from the Lebadas - Wolfgang and AnnaMaria that is -who have been coming to our village as long as they can remember. (Not to mention that they actually lived here back in the 80s for quite a long while and survived!)

All their children have Ancient Greek names and we hope to see them again next year following their return back home to Austria.

FROM BLOGGER TO BLOGGER

We had a suprise visit the other day from Mr. Ray, another blogger from Crete. He has the blogspot:

Crete, The Island In The Wine Dark Sea. (There's a link to it on the right hand side.)

He said to me "I was so amazed of the stories in your blog, I had to come and see for myself !"

I told him that I too am by amazed of his work and I hope to see more bloggers here in Azogires in the future

More Hydraulics

Hydraulic Engineering

Take a walk up the hill from the Alfa Kafenion and if you turn off to the right just before the entrance of the Alfa Hotel, you’ll be more of less able to follow the route of the once extensive water works that drove the mills that supplied the flour for the whole of the Azogires area.

The theory behind the network was that water, initially collected from the river, was stored in a series of concrete cisterns above each factory. When needed, it was then extracted from the cisterns by gravity feed through channels and used to drive simple water turbines within the factory. Having been used, the water was then channelled into the next cistern in line to be stored for use further down the hill.

The remains of the network can be seen to start with a cistern at the top of the valley, just below the road but now hidden and partially destroyed, and lead on through a series of concrete water channels, ending up in a final cistern located just above the now abandoned olive oil factory by the Ever Green Plane tree.

The scheme was initially developed by the famous local priest Pater Papagregorakis towards the end of the 19th century and though now in ruins, in its day the complex of channels and cisterns provided the motive power for three flourmills, an olive oil factory and a tannery. To provide some measure of comfort for the Azogirans while waiting for the flour to be ground, and presumably some income when the mills weren’t working, a kafenion was located on the top of the building containing the third, lowest, flourmill and olive oil factory.

The first flourmill, the one at the top of the slope, along with one of the two lower flourmills, the old olive oil factory and kafenion, went out of use in the 1930’s although the tannery is believed to have continued in use for some time beyond this. The second flourmill was still in use, and still driven via the original water scheme, until the 1970’s.

Of the three mills only the second one now remains. The first flourmill has long fallen into ruins. The lower buildings, flourmill, olive oil factory and kafenion, were eventually demolished in the 1970’s to make way for a new olive oil factory that can still to be seen by the Ever Green Plane tree. Although driven by electricity, this new mill didn’t last as long as its water driven forerunners, closing in 1992. Planted next to the remains of the tannery, and having outlasted it, is fine specimen of Quercus ithaburensis subsp. macrolepis (Q. macrolepis), Valonia Oak or Velanidia; an oak that was deliberately planted here in order to harvest its large, long scaled acorn cups, from which a black dye was extracted for use in the tanning process

The best spot for something approaching an overall view of this impressive feat of engineering is standing at the Venetian style bridge. Here you can see both the channels running down towards you, the second and third cisterns behind you and just a bit downhill on the path towards the Ever Green Plane tree, the remains of the second flourmill.

Waterworks

Sketch of mill works
'Leat' below road
Old Flour Mill ( Holding tanks and water channels are above the mill.)

The basic description of a Cretan water driven mill is given in “The making of the Cretan Landscape”, an excellent book written by Oliver Rackham and Jennifer Moody and published by Manchester University Press.

To see and appreciate just how they operated in real life, take the path opposite the Alpha Hotel down to the Holy Father’s Monastery. About 20 metres in from the road on the left hand side as you go down the path you can see the channel of the first leat or water channel. This took water from the hillside and would have originally directed it to a vertical chimney like shaft with a nozzle at the bottom. The pressure of the water falling from the leat was used to drive a wooden bladed turbine which turned a vertical shaft connected to a mill wheel. The water channel currently ends in mid air but in the past there was a flour mill, built by the priest Gabriel Papagregorakis, about 8 or 9 metres below. This mill was in use up to the early 1930's.

Going on down the hill, if you look from the Venetian style bridge back up towards the road, you will see a water channel on the left hand side of the bridge. This took the water from the flour mill under the bridge and into what appears to be a circular reservoir or holding tank. From this tank another leat carried the water to a point over another flour mill. If you venture very carefully inside the ruins of the factory you can still see the nozzle where the water would have come out from the wall, having fallen the 4 or 5 metres from the leat above. This mill lasted until the 1970's.

Also within the ruins is one of the old mill wheels.

Water from the holding tank above the second flour mill went to another tank and then was used to drive another flour mill, an olive oil factory and a tannery - all subsequently demolished in the late 1930's and replaced by the "new" olive oil factory.

The mill wheels along the road leading down to the Monastery are from the “new”, electrically driven, olive oil factory, built to replace the “old” water driven mills, which were then demolished; the "new" olive oil factory finally being shut in 1992. While it’s difficult to say where these particular wheels originated, mill wheels were apparently cut out of the rock on the sea shore just outside Paleochora. If you walk along the Sandy Beach towards Grameno and continue past the end of the sand, about 100 metres before you run out of land to walk on you will come to a stretch of grey stone sloping into the sea with numerous circular hollows where the stone has been extracted.

More Alfa Images

All this and good food too!

The Truth is out there!

Confusion reigns throughout the whole of the interwebnetty community in Azogires, Paleochora and beyond as to when exactly Mr Eftihis Koukoutsakis celebrates his 2? birthday.

According to the posting made by said gentleman on Facebook it was on 20 July. However, other people distinctly recall him telling them it was in mid August and yet more people think it’s sometime in September. The person in question seems reluctant to confirm any date and seems to have forgotten when his own birthday is, presumably a sign of his rapidly advancing old age.