Following our new travel plans, we left Italy and flew back to Greece. Our plan is to spend October island hopping around the Greek Islands. I adore the islands - I can walk here, John can ride his bike and we can get around between them by ferry.
We returned to the same hotel in Athens where the lovely owner had a bag stored for us. We now had a bike plus all the associated equipment plus gear for hot and cold weather. We bought an extra bag....
When we were working out which islands to visit (there are up to 6,000 Greek Islands of which 227 are inhabited) we asked a few people which islands they liked. One of the people we asked was a young girl in a bookshop where we bought our Lonely Planet guide book. She liked Amorgos and Astypalea so we looked at those as well as others that people recommended. We really liked both of these islands so we looked around and found we could start our trip at Amorgos and move on from there.
It was a five-hour ferry ride to Amorgos but the huge ferries here are so comfortable. As it's off-season, the ferry wasn't full and we had a table and comfy chairs to ourselves. I had had a terrible sleep the night before (no reason - just getting older!) so I was able to sleep comfortably on the ferry and arrive fresh.
Our ferry:
On the way we pulled into a number of other islands, including Naxos which we had previously visited with Fads and Mark. Remember this F&M?
These ferries are massive. There are smaller ones as well but we just happened to have been on large ones only so far. When we pulled into Naxos another huge ferry was unloading and loading beside us.
We finally arrived at Katapola on the island of Amorgos, our destination. We stood in the hold of the ship with the loading ramp half-lowered as the boat manoeuvred into place. All we could see was the sky, then distant hills then finally whitewashed buildings as we turned. The ramp was lowered and we could see the town at last. It was beautiful!
Our room here was fantastic! Picture a large, bright and airy room with curtains billowing in the breeze. It was right on the harbour which meant we had blue water sparkling between those billowing curtains and we had a small balcony where we could sit and watch the comings and goings of the small port.
I apologise in advance but you'll just have to accept it now - if John sees me filming, he has to burp! My camera seems to have a magical burp filter though cos it doesn't really pick them up, thank goodness!
The downside of this place was that we were about five metres from a small ferry that left early each morning and we were directly above a small restaurant. These had the potential to be really noisy but surprisingly, it wasn't too bad.
This photo's taken from our balcony.
The town was beautiful - all whitewashed buildings and painted shutters.
We had three days here. I had some lovely walks and John had some good bike rides. As John rarely takes photos, here are some of the scenes from my walks.
I was amazed to find this gorgeous statue of a Greek woman holding a lute and staring out to sea. She seemed to be guarding the harbour.
Boats chugged into the harbour on water the same colour as the sky.
A very pregnant donkey at an animal rescue shelter.
One long walk took me out beyond the harbour. This church was so beautiful perched on the water's edge. I just noticed a person in this photo that I didn't see when I took it. This was a nudist area - don't zoom in, haha!
I walked through a really rocky, arid area (ok, it's all rocky and arid!) and these brave flowers - maybe crocuses? - were pushing their way through the stones and grit.
The sunsets were amazing!
Our favourite thing to to was to walk around the bay to a restaurant on the other side. We'd order a drink then sit on the water's edge and watch the sunset. Then we'd grab a table and have a lovely meal. Wonderful!
Looking back to the side of the bay where we were staying with a crescent moon above.
It was just warm enough for us to have a swim one day. Little did we know then that it would be quite a while before we could swim again.
We had planned a seven-night stay on this island but our ferry arrived into one port and the next ferry left from another port so we moved to the other port town for a change of scenery. We were very reluctant to leave our amazing room though.
John rode his bike the whole way - 20+ kilometres up and down enormous hills. I took a taxi with all the bags and we met at our accommodation at Aegiali, the next port town. Again, our accommodation was lovely. One of the advantages of travelling outside of the summer season is that we got good deals on great accommodation. The fussy owners were a little concerned about the bike scratching the paint on the shutters but it looked right at home on the verandah,
We stayed about 1.5kms from town which was actually a good thing as it made us exercise even more. One day I did a 6km hike then walked in and out of town four times - that's 18kms!
The beach here was beautiful but sadly a cool wind picked up and just didn't go away. We started to wear jumpers at night and were hit by strong gusts of wind when we were walking and cycling. We didn't get in that lovely water once!
There's something about Greek fishing boats that makes them extra photogenic.
We ate at the same two restaurants each night. I love this sign at one of them.
In the evenings, the setting sun always made this little street seem magical.
A small, presumably fake, windmill stood near the jetty. It was very pretty though.
Out 'thing' each evening was to watch the sunset at a local bar and we came to know the great staff there quite well. The sunset was spectacular every evening.
There were a few other villages nearby and one of them was Tholaria. It was pretty but quite empty without many tourists being there. The church was different to most.
A solitary church on a stark hill.
Another village I walked to was called Lagada. Like Tholaria, it was almost deserted. It was very pretty though. I turned one corner and found these mules waiting to be loaded. I saw lots of mule poo around the place so they must get used a lot. I tried to pat the closest one but he wasn't friendly at all.
Nearby was a small but striking whitewashed church on a cliff.
One day we hired a car and explored the whole island. It's only about 25 or 30kms long and a few kms wide so it wasn't a big day. First stop was Panagia Hozoviotissa Monastery, "one of the finest and most impressive monasteries in Christendom" according to a blurb they gave us. The whitewashed building that seemed to be etched into the stark cliff certainly was spectacular!
We could look through the church inside and they gave us small glasses of raki (a sweet local alcohol) and sweets afterwards. Gotta love the Greek tradition of alcohol for every occasion!
The views on the way up and down were great too. It's just as well as there were 350 steps to negotiate!
Nearby was a beach that was used as a location in the 1988 movie "Big Blue" which is about freediving. Amorgos is a bit of a mecca for freediving.
The 'capital' is Chora, another whitewashed town. It's located inland, away from the eyes of pirates of old.
We wandered the streets and were amazed to find this guy scaling a power pole using only curved steel frames with sharp spikes attached to his feet plus a loose band around his waist and the pole. He reached the top of the pole, leant back into the band, reached out and changed a light globe. If he missed just one of the spiky footsteps there was nothing to stop him falling.
The wind was really picking up and as we got part way up the stairs of this tower is was a howling gale. It was so strong that I had to crawl up the steps and come back down on my bum. If I stood up I would have been blown backwards. As it was, my sunglasses got blown off my head and went sailing into the air.
At the southern end of the island was a glorious little harbour and beach. If only it was warm enough to swim!
Hmm, I wonder which is the prevailing wind direction here?
We almost stumbled on this ship wreck. It was really cool!
We found ruins of an old tower.....
....and an entire village that was almost, but not quite, abandoned. There were a few dogs that went ballistic when they saw us. We were glad they were behind fences. We heard a noise or two that showed us that people were there but we couldn't see anyone. It was windswept, barren and a little creepy. Ooohhh!
John is always looking for places to practice his karate. He usually prefers quiet places but the beach was the only bit of land flat enough!
The day came for our ferry to leave. One of the strange things about ferries here is that they come and go at odd hours. We were scheduled to leave at 2.30am! It was still very windy and there's always an issue of boats not sailing when it's too rough but everybody we spoke to said, "Don't worry! You're on the big ferry - it will go!"
It didn't go.
As much as we loved this island, one of the best accommodations that we had lined up was on the next island and it was paid for and non-refundable. To make matters worse, the somewhat strange guy in the ferry office said there wouldn't be another boat for four days. Oh no! We only had six nights booked at the next place. We suddenly felt quite stuck here.
We were having an AFD (alcohol free day) that day but abandoned the idea at this stage. We had met some lovely French people, Michel and Monique, and we had a great evening with them at the sunset bar.
When we went to leave, Ilias, the owner, shouted us all a shot of tequila. We followed this up with ouzo at dinner then it was back to the bar where I introduced Monique to Cointreau and Baileys then there was another shot of something at the end thanks to Ilias. He seemed to sense our disappointment and was determined to cheer us up. I had a rotten hangover the next day! The good news though was that a new boat got scheduled and we were only stuck here for two days - yay!
We had a great time here but the things that made it really special were the people. The longer we stayed, the more people we got to know. There was Yorgos (yes, Yorgos from Amorgos!) who worked at the car rental place. We saw him around town a lot and always had a short talk. On our last night he was in the bar at 1am when we arrived there to catch our ferry out. It was there that we learned that he's a bass guitarist in a death metal band that's about to tour Australia! I still can't believe that sweet, gentle, soft-spoken Yorgos turns into a heavy metal guitarist! The band's called Dead Congregation if you're interested in checking them out.
This isn't the best photo of Yorgos - it was Saturday night after all and he had been at the bar for hours before we tuned up!
Yorgos in full flight (I pinched this from his Facebook page).
There was also Ilias, the owner of the bar. He was a great guy.
On our last day we went to bed at 9pm and got up at midnight. The owner of our accommodation kindly drove me and our bags to the port while John rode his bike. The ferry arrived at 1.30 (earlier than the previous one) and we boarded the almost empty ship. It rocked a bit but we arrived at Astypalea at about 4am in one piece.
See ya!
Heather and John
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