I do a LOT of photowalking with my husband Vishy. We go out most weekends with very little plan apart from where to start. We don’t use maps or set a destination. We just walk with cameras in our bags and see where the day takes us. It could be a couple of hours or most of the day. We started this habit about 15 years ago but have really done it regularly and seriously for the past 10. That’s a lot of walking and a lot of pictures!
This photograph was taken on Tourkovounia (the Turkish mountains) in Athens. It was an incredibly hot day, probably the last walk before the heatwaves hit. It’s an incredibly steep climb and we had already walked a lot before we decided to go up there. If you don’t drive up there, it’s a lot harder than you think to get there!
We live somewhere directly in the middle of that! Anyway, we wound our way up the small roads that have no pavements. And photographed scenes along the way. That’s Vishy in the bottom right corner in photographer mode!
This is the old Astir Lato that was part of the quarry works on the side of the mountain. It’s a rocky and quite a tricky walk past all this before you get to a steep climb to the top of the mountain. At this point, we were hot and tired but we could see the top so there was no way I was stopping and going back. We had water and our legs were still moving so we headed to the top.
It’s hard to describe the exhilarating feeling of reaching the summit and seeing the almost luna landscape stretching out around us. I sat down and just felt myself starting to breathe again. Not from being out of breath from climbing but from being able to leave the city under my own steam.
I took about 80 pictures that day. This is the shot that summed up the day! Here Be Dragons was minted as an NFT in June 2024 and is available on objkt. There are a couple left on the primary market, if like me, you’re into that sort of thing.
“Here be dragons comes from the Latin “hic sunt dracones” meaning dangerous or unexplored places. It is derived from the medieval practice of drawing dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist”
So that’s my story behind the image that made it to my NFT collection. It took some effort and discomfort to get there but the sense of achievement and peace was so worth it.
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