Greece - Northern Aegean
Heading north to the Macedonian region and the three legged Khalkidhiki peninsula took us seven hours motorsailing from Alonissos and wouldn’t you know it - we caught another bluefin tuna - 8.5 kg and we hadn’t even finished eating the first catch! Isn’t that just the way, the two times we land a fish we have just said goodbye to friends – it would have been so good to share the spoils….
Deciding to forego Thessaloniki (second largest city in Greece) we bypassed the western and most developed finger, Kassandra, to the middle Sithonia - small golden bays lined green to the water’s edge, very few houses and lots of camping spots - quite beautiful. This region is the holiday playground for the northern Greeks and Balkan countries; Athenians sticking to the middle and southern Aegean. On our first morning we woke up to the sound of goats herding along the beach and fighter jets overhead, October juxtaposition....
We had thought the Sporades a welcome greenness from the barren sunbleached Cyclades and Dodecanese – well the Khalkidhiki was on another level with more, and a greater variety of, trees – poplar, chestnut, magnolia and the ever present pine. A 4 km provisioning walk in 28 degree humidity, saw us trampling sidewalk grapes and walnuts and finishing up at the Naval bar in Neo Maramaris where, over a beer, we were entertained by George of the broad Aussie accent. This is not at all uncommon - many Greeks left and settled in Australia after WW2, their children returning a generation later. It is also not uncommon to trek kilometres to find a supermarket and then partake of a refreshing beverage before heading back to NOETA!
I had read a little and become fixated a lot on the third peninsula leg – Akti or Mount Athos – and when we rounded the Sithonian cape I got my first glimpse of the majestic mountain - it was like seeing Mount Vesuvius again, quite overwhelming.
We were in a southerly weather pattern with a clear patch forecast towards the end of the week, so we had a couple of days to explore the Singitic Gulf before heading southwards along the Akti coastline and down to Lemnos.
Dhiaporos and Ammouliani are small islands in the Gulf and easily accessible from the mainland so popular holiday destinations. The former, population 2, reminded us of Lake Rotoiti – it forms a sheltered bay with the mainland, attractive holiday homes and small motorboats nestled amongst a variety of deciduous trees. The latter, population 550, is a coastline of small golden sandy bays with one main town and contrary to Auntie Google - two supermarkets – the one she showed was closed and the one she didn’t show was open and what’s more it sold homemade 1 litre tsipouro for €1.50 – what a bargain! Both islands had that very shutdown, end of summer feeling.
I had been wanting to buy an ikon and some kombolói beads for several years and being so close to Mt Athos decided the time was right – a gold leaf, cross-shaped ikon, carnelian beads and a recipe book written by one of the monks from Megiste Lavra, a trinity of beautiful things. I read the book immediately, I wear the beads as a bracelet and the captain won’t let me hang the ikon on NOETA in case we get boarded by Muslim pirates…
With no anchoring permitted on most of the Akti coastline we got away early in the morning and spent a leisurely four hours cruising from Ouranoupoli down and around to the oldest Megiste Lavra monastery, keeping the prescribed 500m offshore. It is possible to go onshore, if you are male and have a permit, but for women – oxi! Supposedly because it is the garden of the Virgin Mary and she alone represents females – this applies to all animals (except cats), so eggs and dairy products are supplied from elsewhere. Mt Athos was founded as a monastic state in 963, and is home to 20 coenobitic (community) monasteries and 2,000 monks – green hills, dusty roads, sweet lupin smell, morning kitchen fire smoke curling, old abandoned small stone monasteries and lookouts, half renovated churches, barely accessible sketes and hermit cells, magnificent large painted monasteries, cranes, front end loaders, fishing boats and buoys, vineyards, beehives, olive groves, with the ever present mountain towering above, magic.
With a favourable current and light NW, it took us four hours to sail down to Lemnos, population 16,000. The northern approach was unappealing - barren and half-finished houses and did not, as we discovered later, reflect the volcanic fertility of the island with its swathes of fertile farmland and extensive cropping and silos (Lemnos was Constantinople’s granary in the 1300s). And we were pleasantly surprised by the charming capital Myrina, a small fishing harbour overlooked by a large, 13th-century Venetian castle/fort, now inhabited by fallow deer and goats. The deer (Dama dama) were gifted by the mayor of Rhodes in 1968 to provide a sense of nobility to the town - it was wonderful watching them on our morning hike up to the fortress which also provided a spectacular view of the town, harbour, bays and across to Mt Athos on the mainland.
Expecting several days of strong S winds and storms we decided to head around to sheltered Moudros, rent a car and explore the island. On the way we stopped for a night at Paralia Plateos and a 15 minute sunset walk up to the chora for slow cooked beef casserole at Taverna Kalouditsa, where the lovely owner Maria gave us suggestions of places to visit on Lemnos. Water 22.8 degrees, air temp 26.
Moudros is situated in a very wide, shallow harbour which was used by the Allied forces in the WW1 Gallipoli campaign and consists of smart harbourside tavernas, rundown backstreets, one closed gas station and sadly one closed museum
We rented a car for two days and spent the first six hour (150 km) day exploring the eastern half of the island and the second eight hour (140 km) day, the west.
Two days of silent allied military cemeteries, large salt lakes, 6000 year old Poliochne (settled in the late Copper Age preceding Troy), stunning volcanic “fragokefala” boulders, an eerie abandoned hotel, a cave church high up in the mountains and the largest variety of animals we have seen anywhere in Greece - chickens, turkey, geese, ducks, pigeons, crows, flamingos, cows, sheep, goats, horses, rabbits…
Leaving Lemnos and heading south, the days were getting shorter which meant we needed to be anchoring by 1630, so Efstratios was a convenient waypoint - population 300, a small tidy town and harbour. A late afternoon walk took us up through the quiet town – cats and fishermen mending nets (not the cats) to a view-commanding church and derelict wind turbine, oh and sadly another closed museum. The harbour was tight so we anchored 50-60m out from a diesel power station, and, needless to say, very little sleep was had - station generator, a departing naval ship, late night ferry and thunderstorm - we spent a good part of it watching the wind, shore, anchor, rain, lightning… that’s what afternoon naps are for!