WEIRD, WILD & WACKY Kefalonia has a reputation for, ah, eccentricity and here are some of the odder things...

Goats with gold teeth An old legend – with an ‘element’ of truth! The goats of Mount Ainos are reputed to have gold teeth. Of course, they don’t have gold teeth (neither naturally nor through cosmetic dental surgery) but, apparently, their natural diet contains minerals that can give their teeth a golden glow. Never looked in a goat’s mouth, myself.

The Katelios shark Word went round, back in the summer of 2006, that one of the Katelios fisherman had caught a shark. Knowing that sharks do exist in the Med, but rarely around Greece, I was somewhat sceptical – until a few days later some tourists showed me a photo, still on their digicam, of a baby shark (about 50 cm long) caught – literally by hand – floundering in the shallows of Katelios harbour. It did cross my mind that the reported adult shark was its mother. Anyway, the baby shark was given to a local fisherman who released it out at sea. More doubtful than worried, I managed to borrow some pics from Gerry at the Elliniko taverna in Katelios:

It’s a sandshark, uncommon but not unknown and totally harmless to humans

Pulling power An early indicator of affluence in Skala: the tractor’s a...

Sea Mine A few days before Christmas, 2006, this rusty old mine (appropriately looking a bit like a Christmas pud) was dragged up by a local fishing boat on to the beach outside Poros. The bomb disposal squad was summoned and it was safely detonated at sea. A few years before, one was washed up at Lassi. Seems there are a few of these relics from the last war still out there, expired, just waiting for their anchor chains to finally rust away. Until a few years ago there was one of these old mines rusting away in a garden at one of the old wooden bungalows in Skala. The bungalow’s gone now...

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