The Island of the Gods and The Spear of Keravnos

 Without question one of the most influential locations for my story has been a single island that rests in the middle of a river seven miles south of my home.

It was from this island that I took my altar stone, this island where I discovered the Eagle, this island where three bald eagles appeared during the season one finale of The Journeybook and this island where I was to return.

A return that was anything but easy.

Persistent rain, threat of flash floods, unknown dangers on the murky river bottom, no idea what I would encounter if and when I was able to set foot on the island again. In fact, there were so many unknowns that it would take two entire chapters of Journeybook to pull off. One dark, one light.

The first leg of the quest took me through a far more ancient landscape than the island itself. A dark forest of rocky ledges, a shallow streams, caves, and waterfalls.

This was the difficult part of the overall quest. I got lost twice and had to backtrack several miles in order to correct the mistake. The rugged terrain made the correction alone take nearly two hours. With the sun in the western half of the sky before I even reached the forest, things were even darker than they might have been mid-day.

While the dark forest was enchanting in its ancient feel that landscape was difficult to capture on film. Twice the camera fell during filming and while the camera itself didn't suffer any damage the tripod did after tumbling off of one of the slopes when a loose rock fell, hitting one of the tripod legs.

There is a cave in this same forest that I wasn't able to get into because the recent rains I mentioned had flooded the valley that cuts through the heart of the forest where the cave lies. By the time I got into the area the cave had already been flooded.

But... I was able to navigate through the ancient forested landscape and make it safely back into the light, even if the gear did take a beating in the process.

I came out of the dark forest with some of the most stunning images of the season to date and a twisted knee - an injury suffered while making the jump to the lower valley floor. The injury just happened to be captured in the video. You can hear the impact, the instant sting, and see me stumble when I hit the ground.

Island of the Gods - Part One (VIDEO)

This photo (above) is of a shrub that grows on the Island of the Gods itself which I was able to reach after a tenuous river crossing that I took inch by inch - having to keep my body turned sideways against the strong current. If I had tried to face it directly the river current would have swept me downstream. To date, I have not been able to identify these shrubs that grow in the Island of the Gods and no where else in the entire river valley. In all of my travels this is the one and only place I have ever seen them.

The island was pretty much as I remembered it. Here everything seems to be 4 times the average size from the stones themselves that make up the island to the various types of shells and sea glass that liters it. Even these mysterious shrubs grow to incredible heights and girths - somehow able to withstand the frequent flash floods of the temperamental river.

I really had no idea what motivated me to go back to the island aside from some of the most memorable stories in this series coming from it. I simply woke up one day knowing that I had to go back.

Once I made it to the island I set up a spot for my gear and began searching the island in a grid like pattern, looking for whatever it was I was suppose to find with no idea what that something was. Of course I found peculiar stones, large shells, huge chunks of sea glass, a wealth of goose feathers strewn about, and all of the other standards. The island happens to be huge in comparison to most others along the river with a swollen center where the shrubs grow.

It was amid these shrubs near the highest part of the island where I discovered this (above) wedged deep into the sandy crust. A discovery that was captured in the film because I just happened to be recording video of the island when I came across it. The piece is hallow, almost as a spear head but far heavier than one would expect a spear head to be. Still, that was the first thing that came to mind when I discovered it.

I've been working with the piece for weeks now in order to forge what will be called The Spear of Keravnos. 

The piece currently rest inside Hera's Altar Room.

Island of the Gods - Part Two (VIDEO)