Tilos

We were so sad to leave Nisyros but the good news was that we thought that Tilos, our next destination, would be great too, so we booked 10 nights there. Again, we arrived at some ungodly hour of the morning. The downside of this is that we weren't met at the ferry so we slogged up a steep hill at 3am with a bike, a backpack, a wheely pack and 2 daypacks. Oh well!

We stayed in an apartment and it was spacious and had great views from the balcony. The owners were nice and we found ourselves talking each day to the father of the owner as he owned the 'supermarket'. He was such a cheerful guy. 

Tilos is a very quiet yet beautiful island. It's very laid back. Not a lot seems to happen here which suited us fine. The town we stayed in, Livadia, wasn't an old town but is the main place where tourists stay as it has a gorgeous long stretch of pebbly beach and is right near the ferry terminal. 

The reason we came here though is for the walking and cycling. Tilos is well-known as a hiking destination and I was keen to try it out.

My first walk was my favourite. From the town I headed towards the track and was met with this sign. Only in Greece.....

They weren't joking about needing to pay extra attention. The track had been washed away by landslides in a couple of places and getting around them was a bit hairy.

I followed a track that ran along the hill above that stunning turquoise water that you've heard me rave about so much!

You can see the track on the left of this pic. These tracks were really well maintained as a rule.

The views were superb.

My destination was the long, stony beach in this photo. 

The beach was amazing. There was just me and the goats. I wish I'd taken my snorkel and mask with me but I had the most wonderful swim nonetheless. There wasn't a soul anywhere.

As I headed back to town I saw this car park. A car had been parked here on my way out. There's nothing like inventing your own permanent car parks ON the road!

Someone is seriously good at parking.......

My next walk took me in the opposite direction from the town. Walking through the town to get there, I saw this olive tree that had dropped olives on the road. The squashed olives left little puddles of olive oil on the road!

Again the walk took me along hills above the water. I saw a couple of larger lizards.

My destination was Gera, an abandoned village. It was in a beautiful setting overlooking a bay. Old fruit trees and threshing circles were still scattered around the ruined village.

I had fun scrambling around the old houses. They were all nearly identical - small, rectangular homes with a fireplace in one corner. The rooves were made by suspending beams of wood across the stone walls and adding sticks and dirt on top. This may sound flimsy but some were still in place.

While I was doing these walks, John was cycling from one end of the island to the other plus riding up the highest hills. Some of his destinations were stunning - a monastery perched on the end of the island for example but others, like the communications towers or the recycling depot, were uninteresting destinations but the rides there were great.

We hired a car for a couple of days and explored further afield. We found a beach where tame goats and peacocks live nearby. We still have no idea why they're here.

John found a tree that the goats liked and picked leaves for them.

It was weird seeing the goats and peacocks on the beach. 

Even a cat or two came down in case we had food!

We had been reading books about the Dodecanese islands by an English lady called Jennifer Barclay. Jennifer hikes all over these islands with her dog Lisa and we loved reading her stories about her experiences. John had chatted to her a few times on Facebook and we knew she was living on Tilos. Sure enough, we were driving through a small village when we saw her. We talked for a while and she was really lovely. It was great to meet her! 

If you're at all interested in her books you can find more details here.

We drove to the highest point on the island. The road up was really narrow but the views were amazing. John later rode his bike up here!

The capital of the island is Megalo Horio (meaning Big Village). It was a lovely town. The church had a terrific example of a terrace decorated with stones.

Nearby is the abandoned village of Micro Horio (meaning Small Village). Despite its name, it's really large and I found it a fascinating place to explore. John and I looked at it together then I came back later on one of my walks for a more in-depth exploration. 

It was obviously a busy thriving town at one stage. These grinding wheels were everywhere. Large, double-storied buildings that looked they were shops lined the main path and many houses were quite large.

I had the old town all to myself, not counting the goats, that is.

There were a couple of old churches that were locked. One had a big enough gap for goats to get in but not humans! Through a small gap above the door of one I could see there were some sort of paintings on the walls so I reached in and took photos without seeing what I was photographing. The photos blew me away! This one is looking up at the ceiling.

The churches have been maintained and are kept whitewashed. The rest of the village is just stone with the exception of one place which has been turned into a nightclub in summer! It opens at 11pm and goes until the wee hours. Apparently people come from far an wide to visit!

I loved the atmosphere of the old ruins though.

Another walk took me up to an old castle perched on a hill. The disappointing thing was that it was still so well protected that I couldn't find a way in!

Goats watched me scramble along the trails.

We snorkelled a few times. At least there was a little more life in the sea here than usual. This was a particularly striking drop-off.

I snorkelled along the main beach at one time and found a sunken fishing boat with three lionfish living underneath it! Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me.

One day, a storm was predicted. The clouds turned dark and brooding and soon we had thunder and lightning and it bucketed down!

The next day it was fine and sunny again - yay!

Tilos has a recycling programme called "Just Go Zero". It's a huge employer on the island. Every second person we see seems to work for them. Three times a week trucks come around and pick up everyone's recyclables. They take these out to a processing plant on the other side of the island where they're compacted, presumably to be shipped off somewhere for recycling.

That's all well and good, however we were gobsmacked the way locals buy everything in plastic bags! Buying a packet of biscuits? Get it in a plastic bag. Or a tub of yoghourt? Or some oranges? Yep, get them in a plastic bag. Surely the first step in reducing plastic waste is to reduce the plastic use in the first place. Unbelievable.

My trickiest walk was out to a headland that looked like it might have good views. This one wasn't clearly marked on my map apps and I soon found out why. The track was almost non-existent. I scrambled across the side of a steep hill on tiny goat tracks that criss-crossed each other making it impossible to pick one track. I found my way eventually but it took me ages! The views again were amazing.

After getting lost numerous times, getting scratched and falling over once, I was pretty pleased to make it to a lookout point!

It became apparent that the predominant plant life on most of these Dodecanese islands consists of just four plants - thyme (my favourite), sage, a horrible spiny plant and this little stunner whose thorns resembled the pictures for chemical compounds. I think it's really cool but you don't want to touch it!

My last walk took me up under a cliff to some more deserted, ruined villages. I love these old places. I wonder how people lived in such isolated and harsh environments. They were tougher than me that's for sure!

We were here right at the end of the busy tourist season so on our first few nights there were only three restaurants open then only two, one of which wasn't very good so we ate a lot at the other one! The one that closed while we were there was set right on the water and had great food.

 

Tilos was wonderful. Unlike Nisyros it has great hiking and plentiful, isolated beaches. We love remote, beautiful places and this one ticked all the boxes.

Until next time,

Heather and John