Monday June 28

We have arrived on Milos Island. It is so incredibly beautiful here and such a treat to be out of the horror that was Athens…..

Monday July 25

Wow – one whole week later and I see I never got very far with that first attempt! I decided to leave that part to remind myself how much fun I’ve had in the last week. There was no time for blogging.

We actually arrived in Greece on June 25 where we spent our first 2 nights in the northern part of the mainland in a village called Kestrake. Our reason for going there was to see Meteora – an area of huge rocks jutting straight out of the ground. These ‘rocks’ are about 400 metres high on average (sort of like what we call hoodoos in Kamloops) and they have monasteries built on top of them (to provide protection from the Turks) The monasteries were built back in 1300 – 1400. There were a few hundred built and there are about 8 still fully operating out of those few hundred. The monks used to access the monastery by basket and pulley rope. Today, there are stairs or swinging bridges built.

Tracey and I spent a full day wandering around them. There are hiking trails connecting and we visited a nunnery as well as the regular (male dominated) monasteries. Part way through the day we had a cool interaction with 3 guys who pulled up right as we were studying our may while walking the road from one monastery to another.

They were an Austrian, an Italian and an Australian driving 1943 WW II BMW trikes across country from Rhodes. They were choosing the dirt roads and back country routes on the map. They offered us a ride to our next monastery and it was pretty cool to get a chance to ride on those things.

We bussed to Athens the next day and spent one night in the big city before flying to Milos Island. I don’t feel like I can comment much on Athens. We stayed in a not so great area and only went by train down to Styagmata (or something like that) – one of the main shopping districts and where the Acropolis is. Saw that – check it off the list!

So – kayaking. Wow wow wow! We left the following morning from Milos. There were 5 in our group including Dave (our guide from the north of England – retired and just helping out with guiding for the busy season), Dimitrios a 27 (or thereabouts) yr old Greek God who was kayaking for the first time. He teaches phys ed in Thailand and was just home for the holidays. Anna, a 30 year old beautiful swedish girl travelling on her own. And last, but not least, lovely and animated 30 something Tracey travelling with the lovely and animated 20 something Gill Stanley. Ha ha

Our route was to circumnavigate 2 islands off of Milos, in a figure 8 pattern. We headed off of Pollonia on Milos and went across to Porto Psathi on the island of Kimolos. Stopped for iced coffee at the Port – :-) and then crossed over to our other island, Polyaegos. Polyaegos was a volcanically formed mass so many cool formations and colours. The east coast was particulary fascinating and we spent our time poking in caves and going through cool arches. (That was the theme of the entire kayak trip, really) We travelled 16 km that day and camped in a really great spot, sharing our fire with a yachting family from the U.S. and their Greek guides.

Our group had decided to buy and cook our evening meals together and take care of our own breakfast and lunches. That first night we were relying on a fire to cook meat and a chef’s mess of veggies. It took forever, of course, and we were sharing the cooking stage with the yachting family. So many good laughs that evening!

Next day we came up the west coast of Polyaegus and stayed the night at the north west corner of it. It was the less eventful day. The winds were picking up, however, and so we got a chance to paddle in stronger waves than the first day. Our kayaks were Italian built Rainbows. Great design and well maintained.

The next morning we crossed back over to the same town on Kimolos, called Psathi. We walked around the town and went to the bakery and then had iced coffees again before setting out and heading up the east coast Kimolos. The northern end of the island is fascinating, with an area called the Labyrinth. Tons and tons of caves and archways to play in! This idea of ocean paddling through small spaces was big for me to wrap my head around – in that there is no tide in Greece (well, what tide there is amounts to about 3 inches) so there is no current or rip tides to worry about. Its so easy! All you have to do is show up!!

We spent our last night on the north west coast of Kimolos. Another great spot with trees for shade. In the morning Dave and Tracey and I hiked up to see some of the old ‘houses’ on the hillsides. Built for farming, they are stone structures and primitive. It was interesting to see everything still there. A well and wash basin. The hooks still in place in the house with the buckets for the well still hanging there.

There were many olive trees, still being used for their yield. The owners must still come back and get the olives because there were fresh prunings of the trees on the ground. In Greece, if you own an olive tree you get an allowance from the government. The same applies for a donkey! There are some 200 donkeys on Kimolos apparently.

We stopped at “the donkey beach” to see a special donkey the kayak guides like to take people to visit. He was very friendly and came and ate out of our hands (we gave him whole tomotoes, something we had excess of!) – then he grabbed my straw hat off my kayak and was going to off with it. Little monkey!

We crossed back over to Milos, essentially completing our figure 8 route and then continued kayaking up the coast from Pollonia to where we would meet our driver. BUT – on the way we got to see a really cool phenomonen called Columnar Basalt. |It looks like play dough hair, black, sticking out of the ocean. The scientific reason for the formation is that this particular Magma (liquid rock under the ground) while cooling, contracted uniformally to create regular hexagonal columns. Okay – Tracey helped me with that last paragraph! So cool to see – and there was even a cave in that one to go into! Stay tuned for pictures!

We had a great dinner out that night with our whole group. Said our goodbyes in the morning and then Tracey and Anna and I went to see the catacombes on the island. Basically an underground cemetary – is the main thing we were able to pick up from our 2 Euro tour!

We just spent 2 nights on Sifnos Island. That is a whole ‘nother blog! We had one event after another.

Cheers.

Gill

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