CENTRAL MACEDONIA, GREECE
Kerkini Lake, an artificial reservoir
The best time to visit this lake is during the winter when the migratory birds pass by. However, when we went at the end of May we enjoyed a boat trip in the lake. Our well informed ‘Captain’ told us all the details of how and when the lake was created, the names of the few birds we did see and the names of the various trees on the edge of the lake. He also told us how the water rises and falls about four to five meters, the highest in the spring and the lowest in the autumn due to the winter rains which the river Strymonas/Struma brings down from Bulgaria and how the water is used to water the crops on the plain of Serres.
I enjoyed the peacefulness of the lake seeing some birds at a distance, noticing the trees on the edge of the lake which are sometimes edged by a dirt road when the level of the water drops and their bare trunks and some roots are exposed
Although I was hoping to see water lilies, I did like seeing Nymphoides peltata leaves making a floating carpet on the water, and the tidy olive groves on the otherwise rolling, bush clad hills.
