大象传媒

Tim Salmon's a traveller, writer, film-maker and shepherd. He's pretty tough, but even he gets to breaking point...

Tim's travels have taken him far and wide, but there is one place, Greece's highest village, Sammarino to which he returns year after year. The people there aren't Greek, they're Vlachs and have their own language and history. It is their tough, semi-nomadic existence high in the mountains on the Greek-Albanian border which held an irresistable attraction for Tim. He stays with the same family each time, and has become great friends with one brother in particular - Jorgis, "He's a little ball of muscle, ambitious, unstoppable, fierce - if anyone's going to tackle a mountain bear bare-handed, it's him!" Tim's proud of their friendship and proud to be accepted on equal terms with the Vlachs.

For the past few years Tim's spent his holiday helping out with the Autumn muster, as the Vlachs move their flocks of sheep down from the high pastures. He's a pretty good shepherd now, even guarding the flock by night, wearing the traditional, all-weather cape, thickly woven from sheep and goats' wool. Sheep are biddable creatures on the whole. But cattle are different, and Jorgis gave Tim more and more responsibility for rounding up cattle on the high and wild mountainous terrain. This year it's brought Jorgis and Tim's friendship to breaking point, "I have a reputation of being as tough as the Vlachs, but in the end I was being used as an unpaid slave to round up cattle turned loose in a mile or so of forest and steep ravine - I'd be on the go all day, and up at dawn. I protested and said I needed a rest - I'm not a kid any more!" But Jorgis simply ignored Tim's plea for a break, coming along to get him out of bed at dawn if he attempted a lie-in.

Eventually, exasperated by Jorgis' behaviour, Tim took action,"I sneaked off into the forest at four o'clock in the morning and walked to the nearest village - about 5 hours on foot." Tim's anxious now that this may have affected their friendship, one of which he was proud, "Psychotherapeutic talk about 'relationships' and 'negotiating' and stuff doesn't mean a thing to the Vlachs - as a people they've a strong sense of pride and I may have offended Jorgis - everyone in the village knows me and that I disappeared hurriedly. I don't feel I have been as tough as I should be..."

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