‘This is village life! On my way to beautiful Karitsa, I came across an unexpected roadblock, but it was worth every minute!’
Members attending tomorrow’s Father’s Day function at the Pan-Laconian Family Centre may notice a familiar face missing from behind the bar.
Executive Committee member Vangelis Katsambis, who can usually be relied upon to serve drinks with a smile, will not be pulling beers or pouring wine this time. He has a perfectly understandable excuse: he is enjoying a short holiday in his ancestral village of Karitsa, Laconia.
And judging by his latest adventure, he is experiencing village life at its very best.
A traffic jam of a different kind
While travelling towards Karitsa, Vangelis encountered a rather unusual roadblock near the landmark known locally as ‘O Vrachos tou Roumanou’.
There were no cars, impatient drivers or blaring horns. Instead, the entire road was occupied by a large herd of goats, accompanied by his good friend and fellow villager, Leonidas Malavazos.
White, black, brown and speckled goats stretched from one side of the road to the other, leaving Vangelis with no choice but to stop and enjoy the spectacle.
Leonidas, with his shepherd’s crook in hand, was guiding the herd towards lower grazing country as the first signs of autumn began to appear.
Born and raised between Karitsa and Geraki, Leonidas has now settled permanently in the village with his young family, continuing a pastoral way of life that has sustained the Laconian mountains for generations.
A roadblock worth remembering
The moment the two friends recognised one another, any thought of delay was forgotten. The car stopped, the camera came out and the unexpected encounter became one of the highlights of Vangelis’s visit.
‘It was my good friend Leonidas Malavazos with his large herd,’ Vangelis said enthusiastically. ‘I enjoyed it more than I can say!’
The photographs capture the occasion beautifully. In one, Leonidas stands smiling proudly before his herd, with a small kid remaining faithfully at his feet. In another, the two friends pose together with broad smiles as hundreds of goats fill the road behind them.
For Vangelis, who was born and raised in Australia, this was much more than an amusing interruption to his journey. It was a glimpse of the living village, the hard work of the shepherd, the warmth of friendship and the continuation of traditions that have shaped rural Laconia for centuries.
Sometimes the most memorable experiences happen when we least expect them: around a bend in a country road, beside a familiar rock and amid the bleating of goats and the ringing of their bells.
The herd may have stopped Vangelis for a little while, but it also gave him a treasured memory to bring home to Australia.
So, when the bar becomes busy at tomorrow’s Father’s Day celebration and his fellow Committee members wonder where he is, they can picture him back in Karitsa, swapping the queue at the bar for a rather larger queue of goats.
We will excuse him on this occasion.
After all, as Vangelis himself declared:
‘This is village life!’
