Beyond The Pail

 

This photograph was never intended to be a great picture... it was more of a note of how the Arethusa Spring on Ithaca looks.

But it has just taken on a new significance.

A reader in Key West, Florida, who saw my article in The Guardian on walking in the footsteps of Telemachus, got in touch to say he had hiked to the spring three decades ago... and left a bucket there for hauling up water.

I sent him a copy of this picture and he confirmed that the rusty bucket in the foreground looks like it's his.

Unfortunately, both his rusty bucket and the slightly less rusty one are no longer fit for hauling up water.

So maybe someone needs to take a new one up there...

If you fancy doing it, Walking In The Footsteps Of Odysseus – A Practical Guide To The Homeric Paths Of Ithaca, the book I worked on with author Jane Cochrane, may be helpful. Details at www.janeocochrane.co.uk.