Photos

Near the end of the last Ice Age, about 9000 years ago, immense ice sheets still covered Europe. The cliffs of Meteora in Central Greece were carved by the scouring action of the glaciers dragging boulders across the region. This is also the same geological process that created the fjords in Norway, and the cliffs and valleys of Yosemite Valley in California, as well as the Alps in Switzerland.

In the year 2000 I was giving lectures on the cruise ship, Silver Wind, when the ship docked on the coast of Central Greece. We made our way to Meteora and hired a driver to take us up to one of the Monasteries, a site used in the filming of the 1981 James Bond film, 'For Your Eyes Only.'

On the TE-site I've seen much more beautiful views of Meteora, displaying variegated colors in the stone and illuminated by oblique light. (Indeed I recommend to other TE-viewers to seek them out. Just type in "Meteora" in the Search) What makes this particular image unusual — shocking — is what I discovered while looking at a facing cliffwall with a pair of binaculars. A pair of individuals — seen ant-like — in a narrow cleft, making their way up the vertical wall. Obviously individuals abound who like to take risk — jump out of planes with skimpy parachutes, jump off bridges with bungy cords, but free-climbing endless vertical cliffs is beyond my comprhension.

I shot the film with a Nikon-N90, using a 70-210 mm Nikkor AF lens, and recently scanned it. No cropping and color correction was needed, as the image reflects the actual site just as I saw it. The only reason I remember the precise date was because it was my birthday.