John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

My 50-Year Journey To Delphi

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In 1970, in my father’s Landrover (see below), on a month-long journey en route for a month on Skiathos, six university friends (Rex, Ian, Martin, Jan, Elaine and I) arrived at the gates of Delphi, to find the site closed. Ever since I have longed to try again.

Now, 50 years later, Elaine and I finally made it, courtesy of a ‘The Glory That Was Greece’ tour organised by Travel Editions, led by Jeremy Paterson. The coronavirus contagion sweeping the world severely disrupted – and ultimately truncated – the trip, but the net result was glorious. Some glimpses are afforded in this short series of six posts.

Pomegranates as the sun sets in Arachova
Passer-by walking away from setting sun; anti-viral measures already coming into force
Hauled Elaine up something like 165 steps to see the ravishing St George’s church
Artefacts of religion and war, cheek-by-jowl
As the sun touches the horizon
1970: Ian Lovell and Rex Gowar in the Landrover, with box of peaches
1970: Elaine at the time, at Hill House
1970: Landrover sunning itself in Skiathos
1970: Saying goodbye to our American friend Gail, a calligrapher, on Skiathos. By a gunboat – this was the politically grim time of The Colonels. Elaine in pink and Rex behind her. Gail lived on a rowing boat – and took us on a memorable mission to “liberate” lobsters and Sinigrida (the “Queen of the Sea”, listed alphabetically here) from a holding pond owned by a Greek oil billionaire. It was a dark, dark night, except for the Milky Way, so bright and sharp we could have put our fingers around it and swung from it. Phosphorescence spread every time the oars went into the sea, and ran back down the shafts of the oars and across our hands, illuminating whatever it ran across. At the end of our month-long stay, Gail later came down to say to the dock farewell with a huge block of halva for me.
Wish I could track her down again.
Then on to the Peloponnese, with the Landrover here on a remote dirt road, blurred because the image was shot from a photograph album for present purposes, like the other 1970 images here.
1970: A memorable afternoon, in a cistern inside Nafplio/Nauplion’s Palamidi fortress:
Elaine left, Rex right (from album).
1970: a real blur this one – me in Nafplio castle, overlooking the sea

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John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

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