We headed to the beautiful Pantelej my daughter, her husband and 2 granddaughters were holidaying with us and we were actually on a ‘donkey hunt’.

We weren’t disappointed and my granddaughter counted 7 donkeys. We actually got out to look at the donkeys and were rewarded with a resounding ‘ eye ore, eye ore’  from one donkey who really wanted to know what we were doing invading his mountain.

We also saw 2 donkeys saddled up and ready for transportation, but although we tried to communicate with their owner to find out more we didn’t get anywhere. We also tried the translation app but the gentleman said that he couldn’t read it as his eyes were not so good.

Anyway we continued up to the monastery, enjoying as always the quietness broken only by the sound of birds and the sound of the goats bells in the distance.

My daughter and son in law hadn’t visited Pantelej but had heard my stories and were looking forward to this amazing tranquillity.

We pulled up in the car, stepped out. Looking towards the monastery we breathed in the fresh air and listened to the silence.

Then we started walking….. and the silence turned into shock!

WARNING: Rant on its way.  

#furious

What on earth had happened here, literally just outside the monastery we saw this:

Hefty fines have been put into place for people going into forests in the attempt to prevent people picnicking, making fires and causing a lot of damage following the Forest Fires 2021 Obviously people had not gone into the forests but they had picnicked on the wide open spaces, the evidence was for all to see.

Shocking. And this right outside the gates of the monastery! Unbelievable! There was also evidence of people building fires on the grass as there were a lot of scorched areas’, although we have had a lot of rain this year, and the temperatures have been a wonderful 28^oC to 34^oC the risk of fire is still very relevant.

One word tragic. When will the mindset change and people realise this is just not acceptable?

Be the change you want to see in the world

– Mahatma Gandhi

It made us appreciate the inside of the Monastery even more than ever, how can people not see what they have done? Or is it a case of pointing a finger to others (in which case you point 4 fingers at yourself).

There was a wishing well, which the girls loved pumping up their own water and making a wish! The water was cold and fresh, wonderful on a hot day!

Whenever I mention this to locals they all agree that it is terrible and don’t understand why people do it. I have yet to meet anyone who admits to leaving rubbish.. so somewhere the mindset must be changing?

Lets hope that we will soon read this post and say “Can you believe it? That would NEVER happen now”.

We live in hope.