Crete Pilgrimage 2016 - Day 23

Greece - the Forgotten Anzacs at Vevi and Olympus Pass

Introduction

We left Thessaloniki and headed west to the village of Vevi, quite close to the northern border of Greece. Here in early 1941 a handful of poorly prepared Australian and New Zealand troops faced the best of the German military in the first Anzac action of the war. The Australians at Vevi were lucky to escape by heading south, on foot. The Anzacs were chased all the way south through Greece until most were evacuated at Athens and surrounding ports. Most were taken to Crete, where they again faced the best of German forces.

From Vevi we travelled south passing Ptolemaida and stopping for lunch at the hilltop village of Neraida. Here a street full of cafes looks down on a long narrow lake held behind a dam and power station. After lunch lookin out on this scene, we crossed over the curved bridge that arcs over the lake and then swung east towards Mt Olympus. On the northern flanks of Olympus Pass the New Zealand 22 Battalion successfully held up the German armoured columns, allowing the Anzac forces north and west of Olympus to retreat to safety. We then went east out to the coast to our hotel for the night, the Dion Palace.

Petrol is €1.379 per litre

Could be a rural area anywhere in the world

I wonder if the Greek trains run to time? I wonder if they run at all?

Well the track is shiny so something runs on them!

Coal-fired power station

Goats!

Just above the town of Vevi looking west

Small shrine at the road junction

Even the road signs are slow to change - Yugoslavia disinegrated years ago.

Open cast coal mine for the power stations

Lots of poppies in the fields

The turnoff to Neraida and lunch.

The local church

View of the lake looking towards the dam and power station

The Balconi Cafe, one of many looking out over the lake

Lunch with a view

Where we dined

Or just a flop!

Back on the coach and across the bridge!

Olympus Pass

The defence of Olympus Pass was the New Zealand 5th Division's first contact with German forces in 1941. They were well dug into the Pass and held a strong position, rebuffing the German forces in their first contact. But the Germans had managed to outflank the Allies through Vevi and the Pass was soon abandoned for another strong position further south.

Our coach climbed up Olympus Pass from the south, the road today is narrow and winding but is in much better state than the cart track in 1941. We stopped at the village just beyond the Pass and here met a local who remembered the New Zealanders being here in 1941.