François Le Diascorn

April 2012: Two weeks in Mount Athos, photographing the Greek Orthodox Easter ceremonies. This was my fourth time in Mt. Athos. All went fine until I had to leave. The weather had been iffy. And when that happens, the boats stop their crossings. I had a flight out on a Thursday and so needed to leave Wednesday if I was to make it. But no boats Monday. None Tuesday. And Wednesday morning I woke up to dark skies and knew the boats would still be docked. A Dutch fellow had told me he'd arranged with a truck to go the "overland" route that morning. I hadn't even known there was one (a well-kept secret by the monks!), and I asked the driver if I could pay to go with them. There were already four passengers however. I said I could sit in the back of the truck, and the driver agreed. Unfortunately for me, it was pouring down rain the entire trip. Fortunately, I had a good raincoat, but despite that I was frozen and soaked the whole three hours of the journey. Worse than that was the state of the road--really just a mud track--and while the driver was good at maneuvering his vehicle, I was thrown back and forth and shaken up to such an extent that at one point, about to be sick, I had to ask the driver to stop for a few minutes. We made it though and I got my bus back to Thessalonica, another three hour trip. I was pretty glad to have a hot shower that night. The next day I flew back to Paris. Now I've got a big sack of undeveloped black and white film which will have to wait until August to be developed--for I'm off for a two and a half month long trip to the United States in just a week, where I'll rent a car in Boston and cross the country East to West.