Greece - Lemnos and the Incident of the Bogged Car

Ohhh, we're back on a Greek island! Woohoo!

It was exciting to lug our gear to a ferry again. The four-hour trip from Kavala to Lemnos Island was as smooth as a baby's bum and we arrived much fresher than if we'd been driving a similar time. It was a bit of a slog from the port to our accommodation in the main town of Myrina, but we made it ok. 

Much to our delight, our apartment was quite large. Apart from being a bit dark (the most common complaint I have about Greek accommodation) it was great. But best of all was the view from the back patio.... Yep - that's a castle on top of the hill!

We had arranged to meet John's cousin, also called John, and his wife, Val, there. You might remember that John and Val have a house on Halki island. They were on their way to Halki and came via Lemnos to catch up with us and to see the island.

It was so good to see some familiar faces. We might have shared a few meals and just a few drinks together, lol.

The two Johns.....

..... and the two non-Johns!

A string of restaurants lined the beach near us. A waxing moon hung over the pretty scene.

We had some great sunset dinners together.

The castle was lit up at night. It was really lovely.

While John was riding one morning, I explored the castle. It was a striking looking place.

Bold geometric designs contrasted strongly against the vivid blue sky and sea.

A solitary windswept tree held on determinedly against the wind. 

The views over Myrina were amazing. I adore the turquoise colour of the Aegean Sea. To the right of this picture is where we swam. It was wonderful swimming beneath the castle!

Somebody gifted the town two female and one male deer at one stage. Now a cluster of deer roam the castle. They're supposed to be quite tame but they were fairly skittish when I saw them.

A beautiful sailing boat pulled up and disgorged tourists to explore the island.

John and I went back there another afternoon. There were great views over the town.

There are a huge number of archaeological sites on Lemnos. I was amazed at how many there were. Val and I visited the local archaeological museum. It was one of the best museums I've been to! Signs were all in Greek and English, everything was labelled and numbered, videos brought ancient sites to life and the information was terrific.

Ancient knucklebone jacks!

We decided to rent a car between the four of us to explore the island. What a day we were in for!

Our first stop was a walk to Panagia Kakaviotissa, a small church inside a cave. It was a long, hot slog to the site. The landscape around us was quite barren and rugged rocks poked out at intervals.

Val in a wild landscape.

We reached the small roofless chapel inside the cave. It was founded in 1416 by monks who managed to escape the Turkish invasion on the nearby Agios Efstratios island. The church used to be a shelter for monks and hermits.

Val lit candles.

Next up were two ANZAC cemeteries. Lemnos isn't that far from Gallipoli and the island became the principal base for the Gallipoli campaign. The Gallipoli attack was practiced here before the event. Over 300 Aussie nurses worked in more than 10 hospitals here and the injured soldiers from the Gallipoli battle were shipped here. Many died as a result of their wounds and now over 1200 soldiers, mostly from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India and Canada, are buried in the two cemeteries.

Street signs don't look anything like this in Greece. This was clearly done for the Aussies' and Kiwis' benefits.

JK, John's cousin, had a friend who had a relative buried here so we tracked his grave down. It was quite sobering walking around the graves, seeing men as young as 18 buried there. There was even a J. McMahon!

I think the saddest ones of all were the unmarked graves. There were quite a few of these. Imagine dying in a foreign country, surrounded by people that don't even know who you are. Or having your body found by a mop-up crew after a battle, and you're not recognisable. It's all so awful.

Both cemeteries had mown lawns, something we rarely see in Greece. They were both very well maintained.

After that we had to shift the mood and we had a lovely lunch at a simple taverna in a small village.

Next stop was a salt lake. It took us ages to get there, bouncing along rough dirt roads in our little rental car in the process. 

In winter, many flamingoes come here but there is no water in the lake in summer. The edges of the lake were clay but the centre was all salt.

We soon realised we could drive on the hard edges of the lake. I walked ahead and told John to stop the car when I felt the ground get a little softer. I ran out onto the vast stretch of salt. It was such fun!

Meanwhile, Val collected salt to use at home.

While we girls were having fun on the salt, I suddenly heard a noise that sounded like tyres spinning. I turned around to see that our rental car was bogged!

It turned out that JK thought the ground felt hard and motioned to John M to drive further onto the salt lake. John M, who had clearly learned nothing from 60 years of getting up to no good with his cousin, thought that was a good idea! We were now stuck on a salt plain where we clearly shouldn't have been with a rental car. There was nobody else in sight. We had no shovel and no tools. 

Once the tyres broke through the salt, there was clay underneath and the tyres just spun on it. We went hunting for whatever we could find to put under the tyres so they could grip. There were no large trees nearby so we came back with bits of sticks, a few leaves and even bits of plastic. We packed all this in behind the front wheels (it was a front-wheel-drive) and pushed. The wheels just spun, flicking mud all over us and sinking the car lower down into the lake bed. The sun was blazing down on us and it was hot work but finally, with everyone pushing and by rocking back and forwards, we got it out. We were so relieved. Can you imagine what it would have cost, and how much trouble we would have got into, if we had to call for help?

We woz ere....

Next stop was a petrol station where we found a bucket and did our best to wash the car to get rid of the mud evidence. We thought we did a pretty good job but we couldn't get all the mud out of the suspension and areas around the wheel hub.
After that we dropped into an ancient site but it closed five minutes before we got there!
Our last destination for the day was sand dunes. Yes, sand dunes on a Greek island! And weirdly, they weren't at the sea. They were inland. Apparently, they are proof of the presence of sea in the area during the Paleolithic era.

There were a lot of people there and we were all hot and tired by then so we just had a quick look.

The road into the dunes was pretty rough and the car got covered in dust. We figured this was a good thing as it would help hide the mud, the mud being an indication of a much more serious crime.

We had a lovely dinner in a well-regarded taverna in a high village then returned the car after dark, hoping they wouldn't be able to see any tell-tale mud. To our alarm, they backed the car right up to the front of the shop under the strong lights to inspect it. The owner didn't speak great English but his message was clear - "The car is too dirty. You've taken it on too many off-roads!" Fortunately, we had accidentally put more petrol in it than we needed to so I think he decided that the extra petrol was compensation for the dusty car. We got out of there as quickly as we could and I avoided going past the shop for the rest of our stay, in fear that they would find the mud and realise what we'd done!

The next day, while the two Johns watched the footy, the two non-Johns went shopping and had a lovely time. We even found an awesome ice-cream at a shop that was so good that John and I had one almost every day after!

After four days it was time for JK and Val to head off to Halki. It was sad to say goodbye. It had been such a great catchup! 

We still had another three days on Lemnos so we continued our morning ride and walk regime. I soon found historical trails winding through the town with info boards. They were supposed to connect to a website, but this was no longer operating. I got the gist of a few of the walks anyway.

I spied this memorial sitting below the road. It was in an unkempt area and the property next door had junk all along the fence. When I read the info board, I was horrified that this hadn't been better maintained. The site was an execution ground during WW2. 

I was surprised to find a whitewashed church near the port. We haven't seen many whitewashed buildings here so far. I climbed up to the top for a great view of the harbour.

I found this tiny fort perched on a small hill. It was circular and only about 10 metres across. It had a very surprising history. In 1774, the Russians built this to attack the Ottoman-held fort that I had explored earlier. Amazingly, it worked! The Ottomans surrendered and the Greeks were now free from Ottoman rule! Unfortunately, before the treaty was signed, a 3,000-strong Ottoman fleet arrived and quickly reversed the situation. Greek freedom was short-lived.

Another sobering sight was the Holy Trinity Bridge, near the Holy Trinity Church. In retaliation for the attack on the castle by the Russians, the Ottomans killed 300 elders of the island. They singled out the bishop and one of the priests and hung them from this bridge.

The view across to the whitewashed church that I climbed up to earlier.

There were signs all over the city indicating points of historical interest. There were ancient burial grounds, old churches built on the ruins of previous churches, pottery shops, entire suburbs, wealthy homes, drainage systems and more, all from different eras, and some of those were thousands of years ago. The island had been occupied for so long. It's quite amazing.

As recent arrivals to Australia, the people of European descent just don't have a long history in Australia to relate to. It's a very different experience to being born in a place like Lemnos where the evidence of history, and your own ancestry, is everywhere.

The port was large enough to be divided up into areas for different boat sizes. The small, local boats bobbed prettily with the castle as a backdrop.

I walked to Platy one day, the next village over. It was very pretty and had a lovely beach.

John had read that there would be a lunar eclipse on our last night so we climbed part way up to the castle to find it. Much to our amazement, it was a blood moon eclipse! 

It was hard to photograph but we could clearly see a dull red moon with a brighter arc at the bottom. How cool!

What a great week we had in Lemnos! It's a big enough island to have a lot to explore plus the beaches were sandy, a rarity in Greece.

As I write this, we're sitting on a ferry to go to our next island. It's a small island and, so far, we are the only passengers on the ferry!

See you soon.

Heather and John