Barry's Ramblings

I spent much of Saturday wandering the streets of Kos, killing time until the ferry, rescheduled for 16.15 from the original 12.30.

I had breakfast at 08.00 and then headed out in search of a decent cup of coffee but not before wandering around the harbour to suss things out.  Kos harbour is orders of magnitude bigger and busier than Nisyros, with ferries, trip boats and fishing boats buzzing in and out most of the time.  There was a neat line of sleek caiques parked along one stretch of key, very colourful and orderly in the early morning sun.

One corner of Kos harbour

I wandered around to where the ferry would dock later in the day and was surprised to see it already there on its way South to Rhodes.  It was chaos with lorries, cars and motorbikes coming off from two large openings and cutting across the foot passenger people who were disgorging from the right hand side.  The chaos was exacerbated by a change in road priorities, the ‘straight-ahead’ option having been closed off and all vehicles forced to turn left straight across the path of those on foot.  Added to this was a young lass from the Hellenic Coastguard who was attempting to bring order to the chaos with the aid of a whistle. She had it clamped between her teeth and kept whistling furiously at few second intervals.  Unfortunately it was impossible to know what the whistles meant or who was being whistled at.  Three angry blasts on the whistle meant ‘STOP you’re going to run someone over’  Three angry blasts on the whistle meant ‘hurry up it’s your turn to go, get out of the way AND QUICKLY’ .  Two cars were whistled to and waved on simultaneously so that they nearly reversed into each other turning in opposite directions.  It was fun to watch but I wouldn’t like to have been a driver.

The chaos when the Blue Star ferry comes in

I wandered around to look at the famous ‘Hippocratus Tree’.  Yes, he of the oath not only practiced medicine on Kos but, it is claimed, sat under a tree which is now famous.  And a very sickly specimen of its kind it is, supported by extensive scaffolding.

The tree of Hippocrates, a 500 year old oriental plane, supposed descendant of the original under which Hippocrates taught his pupils 2,400 years ago

Old water fountain o n the opposite side

Detail of one of the marble columns of the fountain

My wanderings also took me past ‘Quaint Corner’, a tiny bit of St Ives in the egean, including the fish and chip shop, to the end of a marina quay with views passed a small peninsula and across to Turkey.  I have said before how close Europe and Asia are along the Dodecanese chain of islands.  From this point on Kos you can see individual blocks of houses on the Turkish coast with the naked eye.  You also get a good view of The Other Greece.

'St Ives Corner' complete with fish and chip taverna

Greece and the end of Europe on the left, Turkey and the beginning of The Orient on the right

The Other Greece

Then I just ambled back to the hotel, sticking my nose into an archaeological site where exploration work is obviously deferred until funding can be attracted.  But there  were a few bits of ancient marble carving including one incorporated into a small church on the site.

Old marble carving incorporated into church frontage

From there to the harbour in plenty of time to catch the ferry at 16.15.  Indeed plenty of time to have a very enjoyable fresh orange juice in the harbour café. As well as plenty of time to stand in the queue waiting until 17.30 when it eventually came.

From that point on I was stepping into the unknown.  It had been the unknown killing time in Kos for a good part of a day but at least I had been to Kos before. Walk across the width of the quayside and then ….. brand new experience.

In the few paces it takes to walk up the carpeted ramp to the passenger entrance to the ferry you go from the heat, noise, frenetic bustle that is an island harbourside into air-conditioned peace and calm.  Escalators glide you and your luggage smoothly up to the 7^th Floor where you have a choice of lounges and bars and coffee shops and restaurants.  Uniformed waiters come and ask if you want drinks or something to snack on.  I sat in seats by the floor to ceiling picture windows at the back end of the boat and watched the continuing activity on the harbourside as if it were on television it was so removed from this new reality.  And there was internet connection via satellite!!!!!!!  It’s not free but it’s cheaper than the internet café on Nisyros.

I sat for a bit and then as usual got restless so went for a wander around the boat.  It was huge.  I re-parked myself at the sharp end as we were heading towards the sunset but then went for a walk with the camera in the distinctly warmer air on the outside.

Sunset from the ferry

Lifeboats in the sunset

We reached Amorgos earlier than I expected, I think because the boat increased speed to try to catch up some time. Otherwise I would have posted this blog via satellite which would have been another first for me.

It was still nearly 21.00 and nearly dark when we finally got off the boat.  I didn’t want to end up in the position of wandering the streets looking for a place to stay as I had been after my arrival in Kos, so when a guy with a minibus asked if I would like a room up in the Chora (the old village in the mountains) I gladly agreed.  It’s very compact and bijou but it was a relief to have a place to lay my head.  And the very essence of ησυχία. Even down to the Van Gogh chairs.

All change on Friday.  Time to leave Nisyros.

It’s amazing that I’ve been here for a month.  Can’t really think of a hotel room as ‘home’ but I left it with some nostalgia.  Indeed I left the island with some nostalgia.  I’ll even miss the students on the roof of the house outside my balcony yelling at each other at 06.00 in the morning.  Yes, they were there again today for the third day running.

I had half thought to go for a walk in the morning before catching the ferry at 15.30 but it didn’t prove to be practical.  My room was in demand and it was very politely indicated that it would be inconvenient if I lingered longer than necessary.  No complaints from me, I had ‘room-blocked’ it effectively through one of their busiest periods when they could well have got a lot more for it.

Having finished packing my bags I went and said goodbye to some good friends.  Then sorted the photos and the blog for Thursday ready to upload and went down to the internet cafe on the seafront to access the internet.  Only to find that their WiFi connection was down.  I did a few essentials using an Ethernet connection while leaning on the bar and sipping an espresso but it wasn’t conducive to doing much.

It’s amazing how time drags when you’re not doing very much and then suddenly it’s gone.  I had a Greek salad at the seafront taverna where I’ve been going, said goodbye to some more people, collected my luggage from the hotel and ambled down to the harbour.  By then it was 15.30, time for the ferry, and I seemed to have done nothing.

It was strange leaving, knowing I would not be going back in a few days.  Twice in the last month I’ve been to Kos and once to Tilos but each time knowing I would be back shortly.

Familiarity and a sense of ‘belonging’ or even just ‘association’ are strange indefinable things.  I don’t feel I ‘belong’ on the island but I do have an affinity with the attitude of the place.  Certainly I feel at home wandering around it’s mountains, among its antiquities and ancient rocks.  I suppose that’s the connection, feeling at home among antiquities.  Nisyros is less dependent on tourists than many other islands because it has significant income from the pumice quarry and I think because of that it is more genuinely Greek. It is a locals place, less polluted by an ex-pat population, and the locals are generally very welcoming and seem genuine in their friendship.

It’s only an hour on the trip ferries from Nisyros to Kardamena, the nearest harbour on Kos but it’s a completely different world.  Geared entirely to tourists and principally ‘youth’ it is a pleasant enough place to while away half an hour waiting for the bus sitting in a taverna with WiFi, desperately trying to catch up on e-mails and on-line banking, and sipping yet another espresso.

Bus to Kos Town and that was a real shock to the system.  One of the guys I know on Nisyros, who speaks less English than  speak Greek, said that Nisyros is good, it has ‘ησυχία’ (peace and quiet) , Kos does not have ησυχεία.  Boy, was he right!  I arrived in the town at 18.00, declined the offer of a hotel from a guy on a scooter meeting prospective punters off the bus and set out to find the hotel which a British couple had recommended.  The town was just coming to life for the evening.

I was trundling my big luggage on wheels, it was hot, I was sweaty, the pavements narrowed every 20 feet or so to accommodate the large trees offering shade, I had a rough idea where I was heading but soon got disoriented.  Then triumph, I found it and it looked very pleasant indeed, on a tree-lined avenue close to the seafront.  But it was full.  The only room they could offer was a windowless, airless room in the basement.  I couldn’t face it so I politely declined the offer and continued my trundling, regretting that I had so peremptorily dismissed the offer from the guy at the bus station.  I must learn to be more inclined to consider all options and not dismiss them out of hand.  The thing is, I usually know where I’m going and have sorted things out beforehand, part of my psyche as well as years of being a planner.

Eventually I came across a small hotel in a side street close to the harbour.  While not the best hotel I’ve stayed in it would do for the night.  I was relieved to say the least.  I dumped my stuff, had a shower and then went to check out the action.

Well, actually, I went to check at the travel office which part of the large harbour my ferry would leave from tomorrow.  I’m trying to use Greek as much as I can and I think I’m becoming a little more understandable in that it now takes 2 or 3 sentences before the person I’m speaking to twigs that I haven’t a clue what they are saying and revert to generally pretty good English.  I asked the guy in the travel agent in my best Greek and understood his reply, more from his gestures than his words, but there then followed a torrent which I couldn’t make head nor tale of.  He repeated it and I got the impression that he was telling me that the ferry left at 16.00.  I protested, also in my best Greek, that my ticket said it left at 12.30.  Another torrent of Greek which I couldn’t follow by which time he saw that my face was showing total lack of comprehension so he got a piece of paper and wrote on it ‘12.30’, crossed it out with a flourish and said and wrote ‘Οχι!’ – No! And wrote underneath it ‘16.00’.

Exhausted by all this, and somewhat dismayed that my stay on Kos was to be extended, I went and found a comfortable seat in a harbour side taverna, had an over-priced ouzo and watched in a daze as the world went by garishly dressed and in large numbers.  Very different from Nisyros, a different world and one that I will never belong in.

The hotel has 3 WiFi routers with 3 sets of signals one of which was very strong in my room.  But there was no access to the internet.  I got over the initial excitement of thinking that I could at last speak to David and family and to Ruth and Tim by Skype and went to the Cyber Cafe opposite the hotel where I did a few more things and had an espresso.  Skyping was ruled out by the volume of the music.

After a meal in the old part of town, I went back to the Cyber cafe and checked e-mails, had yet another espresso, then, with my head ringing from the cranked-up music,  crossed the road back to the hotel and fell into bed exhausted.

Thursday and my last full day on Nisyros.  The island’s ferry has not been fixed, waiting for a part from Germany apparently.  Maybe next week.  Locals doubt it.  So I have to leave the island on Friday in order to catch the ferry to Amorgos on Saturday.  We long ago realised that such things are part of small island life.  Shrug of the shoulders and get on with things.  If travelling somewhere is time-critical then gather as much information as you can, weather forecast, state-of-the-sea forecast, information on ferry schedules from as many reliable sources as you can find ….. and build in a contingency.

Having opted for a ‘photo-opportunity’ walk yesterday I went for footpath exploration on Thursday.  I knew that there was a path of sorts going part way around the inside of the crater rim between the villages of Nikia and Emborios before reverting to the road but had never been enthused by the idea.

I had recently read in the book on Nisyros about an ancient fortification called Parliata built into the top of a volcanic plug high above the crater and this turned out to be on said path.  I decided a new path and a new fortress would be a good last day.

It wasn’t just good it was brilliant!  I had to take the volcano trip bus as the island’s public bus is still running  a less than skeleton service.  Then I walked up the kalderimi leading to Nikia, taking my time to soak in the view as this would be the last time for a while.  I remembered similarly stopping to soak in the views down to the harbour on our last day on Symi 2 years ago.  Who knows what lies ahead.

Looking towards the Parliata volcanic plug from the Nikia kalderimi

The kalderimi intersects a path just before reaching Nikia and the way to Emborio is in the opposite direction so I didn’t actually go up into the village.  However, the views back towards Nikia were quite spectacular with fingers of lava pointing dramatically upwards.

Looking towards Nikia with volcanic plugs on the left

Volcanic finger

The path was narrow along the top of  a high terraced wall down to the left and a similarly high terraced wall up to the right.  The very helpful tour guide on the trip bus doing the chat for her small group of 5 in a European language (which I decline to name for reasons which will become clear) had included some English explanation for the rest of the passengers.  This included reference to the fact that Nisyros had very little agriculture and that the terraces had been built to stop rocks falling down.  How can you trust anything else she said when there is glaring error like that!  The stone walls to my right and left were about 8 foot high, for the most part very solidly built, and the fields they created were quite evidently still harvested for straw.  Historically this was one of the richest agricultural islands in the Aegean if not the whole Mediterranean with a rich economy and culture.

Anyway, back to the path.  It was very good, picking it’s way more or less level around the inside of the rim of the caldera and passing huge outcrops of lava plugs.  The rock shapes were fascinating and I clicked away with the camera compulsively.  I would take the same shot 3 or 4 times just to try to improve on the composition, trying to force my thoughts into the camera.

The path was pretty good for the most part.  But then it became completely choked by holly oak and quite impenetrable.  Elementary rock climbing skills were useful as I climbed up the 8 foot wall to the terrace above and followed that until the path was clear again and then climbed back down.  In a few places there had been landslips and terraces, walls and path had  become loose scree.  No real problem but it isn’t a path for the trepid.  Which was odd because part way along it there was a new sign on a post saying that this was ‘Geotrail 5, The Nikia – Parlatia lava flows’.  No fear that anyone will try to follow the Geotrail because there is no information about them anywhere on the island.  I know. I’ve tried to find the information cards which the internet tells me have been published.  Not only not available but their existence is unknown.

At one point the path passes through a small group of ancient houses with a huge marker stone before continuing up the small col behind the volcanic-plug that is Parlatia.  The path continues in the direction of Emborio but I wanted to go up to the fortification itself.  The only way up is to climb the crag which has been fortified with stone walls.

Marker stone on the path

The only way into Parliata is to climb the fortified crag

It is one of the most amazing places I have been.  I have often said that Nisyros is probably the most dramatic of the islands for walking and Parlatia simply adds another dimension to that.  I had read that obsidian flakes have been found on the east side of the site which attest to its antiquity: there are.  The lava is contorted into dramatic shapes.  I couldn’t stop taking photos.  I was concentrating on taking shots of one lava finger which looks like the open mouth of a giant beast and was just zooming in for a close-up when a Blue Rock Thrush came and sat within the jaws.  Doesn’t get much better than that.  Shame my photo-skills didn’t do it justice.

Lava contorted into amazing shapes

Zooming in on the jaw of the beast

.... and in flies a Blue Rock Thrush

Just getting over the excitement of the Blue Rock Thrush and photographing another rocky outcrop when a Scarce Swallowtail butterfly came and settled in a tree in the shot.

More rock formation: note the butterfly on the right

Just in case you couldn't see it - the Scarce Swallowtail

My shutter finger wouldn’t stop.  I even photographed my rucksack!

Photographer's rucksack through a hole in the rock

But eventually I dragged myself away because i was still only half way between Nikia and Emborios.  No sooner had I set out than a lizard, the type we used to call ‘Dragon Lizards’, lingered just long enough for me to rattle off a couple of shots.

Dragon Lizard on stone wall

The rest of the path was rather more broke up and in places some interpretation of the topography of ancient settlements was needed to find it as it continued around the inside of the caldera.

A last look at the Parliata and the crater

But I reached the road as intended and clomped along it for a kilometre before taking another piece of ancient kalderimi to emerge in the top of Emborios. Frappé on the taverna balcony for a last look at the caldera and the crater and then 1½ hours back to town.

Brilliant walk.  Why has it taken me so long to do it?

Two blog posts in a day so I can hopefully make an early start on Wednesday

I finally had my quiet day today.  I walked just over half the distance I covered yesterday.

The island’s internet was working but not very well, everything very slow so I ambled down to the internet café on the seafront.  They had put screens up on two sides of the outside seating area because of the wind and the spray but the cafe hadn’t opened when I got there at 09.45.  I guessed they would open at 10.00 so I went for an amble and then came back.  Having done the necessary with the internet I then dawdled over an espresso enjoying the early morning sun and the caffeine rush.

It’s amazing to think that in 2000 when Enfys and I first started coming to the Dodecanese (the group of Greek Islands of which Nisyros is a part) it was a choice between very poor quality ‘Nes’ or Greek coffee.  Nothing resembling espresso or cappuccino which were unheard of.

Greek coffee may be traditional, and I’m all in favour of keeping traditions alive, but Greek coffee tastes awful.  Even if you avoid the ½ inch of sludge at the bottom of the cup it tastes awful.  I don’t know many Greeks who drink it.  Dimitri who I met on Kalymnos last year reckons there is no way it can taste good because it is boiled.  Coffee should never be made with boiling water nevermind  boiled in a saucepan over a gas ring.  The saucepan, specially designed for the purpose, is called a ‘breeky’ which I have an unfortunate tendency to pronounce  ‘freaky’ much to the amusement of Greeks.  Anyway, back to the coffee.  In 10 years the situation has changed dramatically.  Most tavernas, kafeinions and restaurants now offer a range of coffees and often have a coffee menu.  And in most cases it is very good coffee.  I enjoyed my espresso in the sun this morning.  The mark of a proper lazy day.

Coffee break over it was time to lay in provisions.  Getting a supply of bananas has been difficult for the last few days. I suspect the reason is that the island’s ferry has broken down.  Of which more in a moment.  But one of the fruit shops had had a delivery today and very good quality they were too.

I added the Kindle to the bananas and nutbar in the top of the rucksack and ambled up to the Paleocastro where I ensconced myself in the sun on a rock, ate my dinner and read more of Bill Bryson.  Funny word ‘ensconced’.  Means a bit more than ‘sat’ but that’s what it boils down to.  To sit comfortably with no intention of moving.  And that’s what I did.  For an hour or so anyway and then I got bored with doing nothing and went for a walk.  That’s why it takes me an age to finish a book. That and the fact that I have a tendency to doze off when I’m inactive for more than 10 minutes.  Particularly in the sun.  I’m now still only 41% of the way through the Bill Bryson.  Kindle doesn’t do page numbers it tells you what percentage you have read.

I walked further up the road and then off on a thin path through rocks and prickly scrub to the tiny ‘basilica’ of Panagia Faneromeni.  According to the book on Nisyros which I fancied in the bookshop here about 5 years ago and Enfys bought me for my birthday, this church is the only one of its architectural kind on Nisyros, it having a central dome.  The church is thought to date back to the 11^th Century and at the time the book was written (published 2001) it was described as in ruins.  It has now been renovated and the outside looks immaculate.  The inside is supposed to have the remains of frescos dating back to the 11^th Century but it couldn’t be verified whether it had any frescoes at all as the door was firmly padlocked.  Surprising where you can insinuate a compact camera but no evidence of frescoes.

The tiny11th Century basilica of Panagia Fanoremi

Sneaky shot of the interior with a Canon S95 held through a gap at the top of the padlocked door

Looking down from Panagia Fanoremi to the Paleocastro far below

That broken down ferry?  I have booked my ticket on A Big Ferry from Kos to Amorgos on Saturday.  I had sussed this out on the internet before leaving home, confirmed it when I got here, and booked my ticket yesterday.  The plan had been to get the island’s ferry at 07.30 on Saturday morning which would get me to Kos town in time for the Blue Star at 12.15.  But the island ferry is broken and may not be repaired in time.  Nobody knows.  Plan ‘B’ means crossing to Kos a day early.

Gentle ambling around gives the brain more time to mull over things.  It’s then surprising what sometimes pops out of the subconscious and which you think “that’s just so obvious why hasn’t it dawned on me before”.  If I have to get the ferry to Kos on Friday that gives me just 2 more walking days to go on Nisyros.  And there at least 5 things I want to do!

What has happened to this last week????

I really needed an easy day on Monday.  My legs were beginning to ache a bit by the end of the longer-than-expected walk on Sunday.  Part of problem with walking somewhere for the first time is that you don’t know how arduous it will prove either in distance or the condition of the route.  That was one of the reasons we kept coming back to the same islands after Enfys became ill.  We knew the paths and could judge each day how strenuous or otherwise we wanted the walk to be.

I woke at 07.00 Monday morning as usual.  Sun blazing from a cloudless sky, wind howling around the balcony, dark blue sea speckled freely with racing white horses.  So I thought: “no ferries or trip boats today, I’ll hang around the town and take pictures of wild seas”.  A Plan!

I’ve said many times before, plans have a habit of not working out.

The island’s public WiFi connection was still malfunctioning so having completed the text of the blog I went to the internet café on the seafront and cowered inside away from the wind and the spray to post the blog, check e-mails, bank account and so on.  Then, camera in hand, I headed for the harbour.  The sea was certainly wild, lashing up over the sea wall.  The small ‘sheltered’ swimming beach was heaped high with piles of seaweed washed ashore in the storm, waves crashing down where there is normally scarcely a ripple.  The sea was throwing up spume (I think that’s the technical term) anything up to 20 foot high as it hit the harbour walls.

The sheltered beach

Trip boat on its way into the harbour

Get back, get back !!!!

Amazingly there was one trip boat already in the harbour and two more on their way.  A quiet day in the town was not an option.

Once again I headed for the mountains with a very late start.  I wanted to find and follow a path the start of which is shown on one map of the island and which I think carries on down to the coast.  Bad move in terms of an easy day because once again I was committed to an uncertain path.

Long story cut short.  The walk was even longer and more strenuous than yesterday’s but yielded some interesting insights into a previously unexplored part of the island.  At least it was unexplored by me, many others had been there before as evidenced by the old settlements and long derelict kalderimia, in some places rough-paved and flanked by walls on either side.

Ancient walled routeway long ago fallen into disrepair

Semi-detached not so suburban. In need of some repair

Threshing circle with covered sterna to the left ......

.... and underneath the house, in pretty good nick for its age

An arch is all that remains of some

Change the shape of the arch and you've got a church

I got down pretty close to the coast but then time was running out and so was the remnant-path.  Eventually it seemed to peter out in a large area of terraced fields.  I didn’t want to risk losing it because it picked the way back up to the col and I didn’t fancy fighting my way up overgrown terraces as an alternative.

But I got to photograph what I think is a dragonfly.  Very difficult grovelling down in the scrub and focusing on something about 5cms long and nearly transparent.

Dragonfly .... I think

Another good day but again very tiring.

Sunday, no bells and no broadcast service across the town.  That must be reserved for Special Occasions.

I felt the need for a quiet day in walking terms after the long walk yesterday but, as is often the case, it didn’t quite work out like that.

I had a late start because of the breakdown of the internet connection mid-blog so about 11.00 I set out to walk to Emborios on the crater rim and then down to the coast to the small harbour of Palloi which once served it with supplies and so on.  I think from bits I have read that some centuries ago the population of Emborios lived in Palloi but got fed up of being pillaged by pirates and so moved up the mountain.  Of course a trading centre like Emborios (from which we get the English word ‘Emporium’) couldn’t survive without an outlet to the sea and there has always been a strong link between the two in the form of a well made kalderimi.  Last year John and I followed the top half of that route quite easily but then found the second half choked up with vegetation and dead trees and it became a bit of a nightmare.  I had heard of an alternative from the point where it is bisected by the new tarmac road and the plan was to find it.

I got to the church and the castle above Emborios in less than 1½ hours and sat there for my dinner …. and to take a few more photos.  Have I mentioned that I particularly like that small church and its courtyard?  Well, alright, I know I have but I’m saying it again.

The strength of the arch

That church again

Just below the castle, photographer in a well without a lid

I then dropped down to the taverna for a frappé on the balcony looking over the crater before heading down to the top of the coastward-bound kalderimi.

As last year the first part of the kalderimi was good, a little overgrown but that presented no problems. This time I turned left at the road instead of going straight across and eventually found a path.  Of sorts!!  It certainly wasn’t a kalderimi.  In fact basically it was following a stream bed floored with pumice gravel varying in width between half a metre and the width of a sandal, periodically so choked with spiky trees that the ‘path’ climbed out of it before rejoining it a little further down.

A good bit of 'path' just before it gets completely blocked

Eventually after a very prickly half hour, the path levelled out and reached a pallet in the fence alongside a house on the edge of Palloi.  The pallet of course was a gate and signified that there was a path leading to this point.  Whether I had been on the path I don’t know.  Whether there is a better path which I have still to find, again, I don’t know.

This section of coast is very different from the Western coast which I have walked a few times.  For a start there are thermal springs from the volcano emerging here.  At Loutra a little further along the coast is a geothermal spa, to which you can be referred by a doctor for treatment.  At Palloi, just where the path emerged onto the coast road, is the remains of a spa used by the Romans and possibly even earlier than that by the ancient Greeks. The remains of the vaulted roof which they built are still very much in evidence as is the original spa pool at the back of a cave.  There is also a  tiny church built into the side of the cave and inside the vaulted roof.

Entrance to the vaulted Roman spa with 19th Century church on the right

Looking back towards the entrance

The original spa pool in the cave at the back

Through the open door of the tiny church, dated 1871

Opposite the Roman spa is the shell of an enormous, palatial spa hotel, built at great cost but never finished, testimony to extravagant folly.

Obviously intended as a central lobby in the unfinished spa hotel:

I dawdled here because it was so interesting but then set out to walk into Palloi village.  That was when it dawned on me how rough the sea had become.  It had been windy all day but the sea was very much bigger than usual, at least as far as Palloi harbour which is very well protected.

Rough sea masks Palloi just beyond

This would brighten up any harbour

129From Palloi it was just 40 minutes along the road back to the main harbour in Mandraki where it became clear that there would be no swim today.  The sea was beginning to wash over the end of the quay and the breakwater by the small swimming beach was having very little effect, the waves were just overtopping it.

A lot further than I intended to walk, harder going, covered in superficial scratches but very enjoyable.

Apologies: mega blogus interuptus this morning.  All pics now inserted. Weather event here — howling wind probably interfering with internet signal.  I’M PAYING FOR THIS UPDATE!!!!!

A lot of rambling on Saturday too, but more in the physical sense.  I decided to go to the tiny harbour of Avalaki on the far side of the island.  There are problems getting there and back with the minimal bus service there is at the moment.  I worked out that the only way I was going to do it without getting up ridiculously early (06.30 bus) was to go on one of the trip buses to the floor of the volcano, walk up the steep kalderimi to Nikia perched on the rime, then walk down the path to Avlaki, then back up to Nikia and from there back to Mandraki.  I had done the whole thing in bits but never put it all together as a single walk.  And I knew I would have to push the pace in order to get back at a reasonable time.

The path from the volcano to Nikia is now fairly familiar and presented no problems other than being a tiring 45 minute, 1000 foot climb.

The path from Nikia down to the coast I had done on only one occasion with Enfys and I struggled to remember where it started.  It obviously isn’t much used now because it was getting seriously overgrown not only with grasses and cereals but a number of types of very prickly plants.  But it presented no real problems and was quite a dramatic walk. Much of it is paved kalderimi, in places very wide, anything up to 3 metres, in other places narrow between walls and barely half a metre.  The tall, ultra-prickly thistles I had noted in flower on Tilos but not Nisyros were prolific along this path, presumably because it faces south and so is warmer.

Paved kalderimi, becoming overgrown

Looking back up towards Nikia

It passes fascinating old settlements and terraced fields all the way down to the coast.

One of many houses. The number '1880' over the door is more probably the date it was built rather than the postal address

Some of the terrace walls are amazing colours

Avlaki is an amazing place, very different from anything I have seen on any of the islands.  Basically it’s a scene of industrial dereliction, another time-warp.  It would not have looked out of place in the South Wales Valleys 40 or 50 years ago, apart from the cloudless sky, hot sunshine and the bright blue Aegean that is.  The tiny harbour was used until the 1950’s to bring in supplies for Nikia, goods being loaded from larger ships into rowing boats to bring them through the narrow gap in the rocks which give partial protection from the rough seas. The rocks in the sea, on the foreshore, in the cliffs are amazingly variable somejet black others bright coloured reds, purples and ochre.

Avlaki: abandoned houses, tiny harbour, weird cliffs

Volcanic ash deposits in the cliff

Thankfully some people just love to add even more colour

Now it is used only as a place for swimming.  There is even a stainless steel ladder down into the water from the ‘quayside’.  The ladder would not look out of place in any modern swimming pool except that the handrail on one side has been broken off, presumably in winter storms which must swamp the place.  I swam out through the gap in the rocks into the open sea and realised how much protection the line of rocks does in fact afford.  I wouldn’t like to row a boat laden with goods in through that gap, get it slightly wrong in the swell and breaking waves and it would be crunch time.

The swimming area at Avlaki: note the black lava bubble and the ladder

After drying off leaning against a piece of bubbled black lava built into the quayside, I headed back up the paved kalderimi, the route the donkeys would have taken loaded with supplies for Nikia.  It was a long pull-up back to Nikia, nearly 1500 feet and it was hot work in the afternoon sun.  The path gets narrower, steeper and more overgrown as it comes into Nikia before giving way to the white-painted concrete steps of the village.  Suddenly the steps emerge into a small, bright, cool square with bench seats. Very welcome.

Cool square

On up to the main square at the top of the village and then it was time for the 2-hour yomp back to Mandraki.  Strange word that ‘yomp’.  I remember news correspondents introduced it into common parlance during the Falklands war.  Apparently it was (maybe still is) a term used by the Paratroop Regiment to describe marching cross country.  It certainly seemed hard going on the way back to town, particularly the 30 minute pull up to the col after leaving the crater rim.

I was tired when I got back to the hotel and pretty grubby and sweaty so I took the dirt and the sweat down to the sea and had another swim before my evening shower.

That EU Luncheon Voucher Scam?   There is some kind of EU-sponsored film-makers festival going on at the moment with about 50 or 60 people on the island, many in the hotel I’m in.  I see them occasionally paying for meals and drinks with coupons torn off a little wad of them. Some evening there are long tables set outside a restaurant where they all get together for a convivial evening.  But they haven’t been in the restaurant where I eat which is surprising because it is iconic on Nisyros and listed as a good place to eat in the Rough Guide among others.  It turns out that the same festival with the same voucher scheme ran on Nisyros last year and the vouchers have not been redeemed.  At least one restaurant business is now owed several thousand € and so has told the diners that they are welcome but only if they pay cash.  I don’t know what the reason or the excuse is for not paying but penalising small family-run businesses because of the economic ills of Greece is most unreasonable.

Last night they were gathered in the taverna next to where I was eating.  I hope the owners get paid.

A lot of rambling on Friday.  Feel free to change channels if, sorry, when, you get – bored.

As predicted I was distinctly sluggish this morning.  I blame it on late-night carousing with the Dutch couple.  You will appreciate that ‘carousing’ is a  euphemism for putting the European Union to rights, he being an Economist and she something to do with The Sock Market (many apologies, finger fatigue, that should read ‘Stock’ Market) and me … well happy to witter on about anything.  It was generally concluded that Greece should be declared ‘An Exception’ and funded by Germany and France in perpetuity in recognition of the unique contribution the Greeks make to a relaxed attitude to life and the fact that it was those two countries which bent the rules to let Greece into the Euro-Zone in order to dish one in the eye to the recalcitrant UK.

I digress.  The slow start to the morning was reflected in the slower than usual walking pace.  I had changed my mind and decided that late-night politico-economics was not conducive to the body-stressing walk I had originally planned.  So I decided instead to walk up to the ancient Minoan settlement of Nifios and spend a couple of hours poking around there rather than whizzing through en route elsewhere.   A slightly delayed start because I met the Dutch lady on her way back from the shops stocking up for the walk she and her husband had planned to the caldera and the crater.  I also stopped about 100 metres from the hotel to photograph some onions.

Now there's a gardener who knows his onions!

But I can’t blame it on the Dutch or the onions, I was very sluggish anyway.

I eventually got up to the monastery of Evangelistra but the pace completely failed to trigger the ‘aerobic walking’ recording on my pedometer (60 steps a minute.  At home I normally walk at 100 per minute).  Downed a good part of my 1½ litre bottle of water  at the monastery and then set out on the path signposted to the Volcano.  Within a couple of hundred metres I had barley ears and thistle twigs inside my sandals and had to stop to get them out.  For those who have never harvested barley-straw, the ears are so designed to catch on flesh and are so serrated they cut through the skin in microseconds.  I was right grumpy and sullenly watching every footfall.

You know when you subconsciously monitor something which jerks you in milliseconds into 100% focus mode?  Well, that happened.  I suddenly saw the rear 30cms of a large snake slither across the path and disappear down the wall of the terrace to my right.  I could literally have caught hold of it and given it a yank.  Fortunately, in focused-mode I’m rather quicker thinking than that so I went to the edge to see where it was going, got my camera switched on and ready for action at the same time, thankfully without falling over the 6 foot drop … and there it was on the terrace below about 5 feet long and looking peeved. We first saw a large snake in Greece a number of years ago on Symi and I have been trying to photograph one ever since.  Triumph!!  It’s difficult composing a shot accurately using the screen on a compact camera in bright sunlight but this one didn’t come out half badly.  I’m afraid I haven’t identified it yet, internet connection being a problem, but my guess is on a rat snake.  I was pleased to photograph the snake-in-the-wall but a snake-in-the-grass was far better.  I was buzzin to use David’s jargon.

Upwards of 5 feet long snake-in-the-grass

With lighter step and faster pace, I continued up to Nifios.  I headed to the far end of the ‘valley’, really an old, extinct crater I suspect, and sat on the rock Enfys and I used to sit on looking straight down into the two craters of the volcano.  I used to say then, and I said to the Dutch couple last night, I would love to be sitting on that rock with my camera in hand when the volcano erupted.  The Dutch couple said that if that were to happen they would find my camera in 1000 years time and then I would be famous.  It strikes me that the best time to be famous is when you’re dead.  No problems then with handling it.  Who needs Max Clifford!

The Rock-at-the-end-of-the-Universe

After spending some time on the Rock-at-the-end-of my-Universe I backtracked into the valley and spent an hour or so exploring it.  It is an amazing place.  Many tiny houses built into caves in the rocks, an underground church with a natural rock pillar in the centre, free-standing stone houses used as a dump for rocks to clear the surrounding flat-floored agricultural fields, water storage ‘sterna’, steep terrace fields going up the mountainsides.  A lost world where only the imagination can fill in the pieces.  My guess is that there were people here before the Minoans but probably not organised enough to be called a ‘civilisation’.  To my un-informed mind a lot of what I was looking at was Neolithic, stone –age stuff.  I’ll probably not go back again this trip.  Too nostalgic.  Too easy to get lost in the time-warp.

Semi-underground dwelling, spacious and barre-arched inside

Arches in the main settlement complex

Photographer in Neolithic well

Cut to an hour or so later and I’m back in the town.  And my priority ….. to have a haircut.  Last year I brought my hair trimmer with me and cut my own hair but this year decided that because of  the weight I would find a local barber.  I usually cut it once every two weeks and as I have now been here nearly 3 weeks decided it was time for action.

I had eventually tracked down a barber on the island.  More complicated than you might think because his shop is only open a couple of hours in the evenings and is behind a closed blue door identical to all the other closed blue doors and with no sign outside.  No red and white striped barbers poles here!  I had had a vague description –  “Just before you get to the little square with the Shipping Office behind the town hall”.  In the end I got someone I knew to take me there.

So, after a shower and with hair cleared of salt I ventured forth.  Another time-warp.  The blue door opens into a room about 8×10 feet maximum.  There is a large mirror on the far wall, a small table in front of it with neatly laid-out haircutting implements identical to those my barber used when I was a lad, a padded chair in front of the mirror and two very basic hard chairs in the corner behind the door for waiting customers.  I had got there just after he opened so no waiting.

I had been apprehensive about whether a barber on the islands could give me the short crop which  normally have. The reason for this doubt is simply that all the blokes have either long hair which may be cut a couple of times a year, or ‘short’ hair which is still pretty long.  No cropped heads at all. …. so possibly no electric hair trimmers.  .  Thankfully there was an electric hair-trimmer hanging on the wall.

The barber spoke no English at all and my Greek on the technicalities of hairdressing was woefully inadequate.  I managed “I need a haircut, please.  Short” and we then set about agreeing on the implements he would use.  I avoided having it ‘skefto’ which I think meant he would have used the hair-trimmer without the comb on the front, thereby giving me a Kojak-cut, a ‘cut-and-polish’ job.  It turned out well.  After every few minutes cutting he brushed my head with a soft-bristled distemper (sorry, emulsion) brush to remove the copious quantities of hair coming off.  Then he applied talcum powder before a finishing flourish with a pair of scissors.  And then he applied some oil which he rubbed onto the hair.  By the end I had a haircut which met my exacting standards but I smelled like a tart’s boudoir.  Not, I must hasten to add, that I have a ever visited a tart’s boudoir.  Or any other kind of boudoir for that matter.  Working class lads don’t go in for that sort of thing.  We leave that to Members of Parliament, actors and the like.

Much relieved that my hair was restored to its streamlined look, I could set about the evening’s inactivities.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the European Union Luncheon Voucher Scam.

Breakfast good again this morning but different.  It included the Greek version of egg and bacon with slices of green pepper and tomato.  Very tasty actually.

I didn’t have time to do much before the ferry which was timetabled for, and would therefore leave at, 11.15 prompt.  So I dawdled over breakfast, did a few things on the computer, paid for the hotel and went to the coffee shop in the main square for a fresh orange juice.  Very civilised and relaxed.

I read a bit more of Bill Bryson ‘Private Lives’ on my new Kindle.  It really is a very well researched and well written book. In Chapter 8 on food and the kitchen it confirms what us Northerners always knew, that the meal in the middle of the day is traditionally, and has for many centuries, been known as ‘dinner’. It was only posh people in London in the 18^th Century, constrained/screwed-up by trying to adhere to newly emerging social niceties and attending the opera and theatre at the end of the afternoon (because they were held open-air and needed daylight) which pushed the meal and the term ‘dinner’ into the evening.  (Or was it the 17^th Century?  Problem with Kindle is that there are no page numbers to refer back to, not that I ever remember the page number of anything memorable, only the position on the page …. sort of.  Brain researchers please note).  Hah!  I knew we did things properly up North.  None of your posh, new-fangled ways for me thank you very much.

The journey back to Nisyros was quick and efficient as one expects on the high speed cat. It seemed strange arriving back in the harbour and walking along the road to the hotel carrying luggage, almost as if I hadn’t been away.

Having had a completely idle morning I felt full of energy and as I was back at the hotel by 12.15 there was plenty of time to go for a good walk.  So I devised a plan to catch the 14.00 bus to Nikia on the crater rim on the opposite side of the island and to walk back from there.  The intention was to walk fast, rather than dawdle taking photos, so that I could see how long it took, part of an emerging plan for a significantly longer walk before I move on to Amorgos in just over a week.

The bus left right on time and deposited me in Nikia half an hour later.  Even though I had been away for only a couple of days the sight of the crater far below still strikes as very dramatic.  I don’t know if living there makes you immune to the view but I never cease to be amazed by it.

The first part of the walk is around the rim of the caldera with constantly changing perspectives on the craters far below.  I was walking pretty fast but nevertheless couldn’t help myself but keep stopping to take yet more photos.

View along the length of the caldera from 'Red Rock'

The main crater, named 'Stefanos'

The smaller crater known as 'Polyvotis'

As it turned out it took me barely two hours to get back to the town, surprisingly quicker than I had expected.  It just shows how much time is added on to a walk by stopping to look at and photograph things.  Not that I would zoom around like this as a matter of course.  A big part of the enjoyment of walking over here, walking anywhere for that matter, is looking around and exploring.  But occasionally it is exhilarating to simply enjoy walking fast.

Once again rounded off the walk with a swim.  The wind had been pretty strong up on the caldera rim and the sea was very rough but getting in at the beach sheltered by the breakwater presented no problems.

Altogether a good few hours of activity.

After the evening meal I fell into conversation with a Dutch couple eating at the next table and stayed there until after midnight chatting.  Irini was far too polite to say anything but I’m sure after a long day she just wanted to go home and go to bed.  The islanders have a very arduous life in the summer.  Starting early in the morning, finishing late at night, 7 days a week for 5 months.  And having to be polite and tolerant all the time.

The late night means I’ll be pretty sluggish on Friday morning.  But at least I can take it easy, the locals have to be up and busy from first thing.