Greece - Cyclades
Every day is a planning day and goes somewhat like this - what is the weather doing and how far do we want to travel, where is a good anchorage based on weather and seabed, do we need access to shore, a supermarket, diesel, data… and lastly will we like it, will it be interesting? Windy.ty, Navily and Google Maps are a tremendous help with the first considerations, the last, not so easy, which is why it was great to read a Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/aug/03/20-best-greek-islands-off-the-beaten-track-cyclades-dodecanese. We picked some islands that sounded interesting, secretly hoping that not every English speaking person had done the same…and since it had been published in August 2017, there was a good chance.
Heading across the Cyclades we were expecting some 40 knot Meltimi winds over the coming week so we were looking for lee shore anchorages and found them in Kynthos, Serifos, and Sifnos - unspoilt, dry and barren, hillside and ridgeline age-old stone walls - goat farms but also to keep erosion at bay, perhaps if there was no former there would be no need for the latter? We were amazed at the lack of trees and suspect that this has not always been the case, certainly where there was water it was green and apparently it really pours in winter. The main town on every island is called the chora and is usually situated up steep and high, church at the peak with whitewashed cube houses tumbling down the hill (sometimes literally – the islands are prone to earthquakes), a defensive strategy.
White and blue Cycladic architecture – the colours of the Aegean, and churches – so many and all expressing an Ottoman influence in style.
We caught up with Tigger on Kythnos - Kolona Beach isthmus – Loukas’s family owns the surrounding farm with a small hilltop chapel (St Loukas) and a great beachside restaurant. He drove us to the chora and answered all my questions - 30% energy from windmills and solar, 300+ chapels on island - every family has one on their land, dedicated to different name day saints - which means there is a celebration practically every day of the year! Population is 1,500 and everyone is related.We managed to find a small sheltered southern anchorage on Serifos: it was so green and empty… turned out the town wastewater was located at the end of the bay! It was a good hour dusty ridge/beachwalk to Livadi - main town with interesting little gift shops. Minny and I took on the old chora town - 40 hot minutes up to a spectacular view.
We picked up our last crew for the season in Serifos – Simon and Jeanette - an even more exciting arrival for them dragging suitcases down a goat track to our sheltered bay, in retrospect Minny was lucky – she only had to manage a hot busy main road and sandy beach.
Working our way towards Paros we stopped briefly in Sifnos, highlight was a four hour Father’s Day lunch at Manolis restaurant in Vathy - small, sheltered, pretty, delicious food and rosé
And still the wind continued….
Paros, Naxos, Ios and Thira gave us an idea of how busy these islands get in the high season of July and August; although it was the start of September and some of the tavernas were shutting and all the shops had sales, there were still crowds of people getting on and off ferries – and man are those ferries slick – turnaround 10 minutes. Fortunately, our Aegean experience was tempered by the delightful down-to-earthiness of Schoinousa, Irakleia and Koufonisi.
I had last been to Antiparos in 1985 on my OE and wanted to see if it had changed - a southern bay saw us swimming with turtles and enjoying an early dinner -tossing fishbones straight into the sea from our table - magic.Further up the island while the girls searched for end-of-season bargains and the boys a beer, I took a dusty road pilgrimage to Camping Antiparos and the nudist beach for a swim - 34 years later it hadn’t changed one bit...
In Paros we farewelled Minny and I welcomed wee grandson Milo born in New Zealand Sept 4th, with a candle and a prayer in Panagia Ekatontapiliani (church of the hundred doors) said to have been founded by Saint Helen, mother of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 300s AD. The architecture in Paros is typically Cycladic - white washed cubed buildings with blue doors, window frames and shutters and the ever present crimson bougainvillea. It is a picturesque old town, a narrow maze of cobbled streets, upmarket shops and tree shaded bars leading up to an old 1260 AD Frankish castle reconstructed from an earlier 5th century BC Temple of Athena which fell into the sea. At the top of the island is a National Park, 80 hectares of walking trails along the Ai Yiannis Detis peninsula and to a small remote lighthouse at Cape Korakas - wind sculptured granite rocks and sparkling mica paths. I did try to capture the paths, they were beautiful, but alas I couldn’t get the light right.
Working our way eastwards we sheltered for a night in Naxos inside the breakwater with several other catamarans, cargo ships and ferries... it is all interesting. Naxos was a late afternoon wander up through twisting alleys, arches and tunnels, art galleries and handmade jewellery to the kastro and a dull main road trudge to a large supermarket… it is all interesting.
Catching up again with Tigger we tied up two down from them in Schoinousa – an easy 1 km path up to the chora, small and sleepy with main street donkey traffic. Provisioning was limited but we met a lovely local woman who proudly displays her 8 married children and their children in her shop. We later shared a lovely dinner at Taverna Mersini with the usual fare of chickpea balls, courgette balls grilled calamari, fried cheese (feta and saganaki), Greek salad…
We loved Irakleia, especially the first night when we had the whole bay to ourselves – Beautiful, quiet, sandy beach with no road access, good snorkelling and an interesting WW 2 seaplane wreck at 9m. A daytime hike around the top of the bay took us through old abandoned stone villages with underground water tanks and a communal bakery - now goat shelters.
With the Meltimi getting up to 36 knots at times, we found a southern bay on Ios with a good wind shadow and, again, we had it all to ourselves. Another lovely sandy beach, no road access, nudity approved, an easy tender to main ferry town and the much larger Mylopotas Beach, plus a good 15 minutes uphill walk to the chora. The island had that the-party-is-over feel which suited us just fine.
Thiros (Santorini) is still a large active volcano and well worth a visit. The island’s fertile green northern approach is quickly replaced by looming grey cliffs streaked with a myriad of fiery colour upon entering the caldera, white village patches on the crater rim like giant bird droppings. It is a dark coloured, very deep harbour with a middle jagged black lava dome island (Nea Karmeni) formed over the past 300 years. It is so deep in fact that there were three cruise ships holding their positions in the crater with their thrusters - too deep for them to anchor!). It is thought that Santorini erupted in the 16th century BC and may have inspired the legend of Atlantis as well as being responsible for the decline of the Minoan civilisation on Crete. Forever seeking shelter from the Meltimi we cruised along the south coast past a crowded red scoria beach and tuff carved dwellings to Perissa where we found a good anchorage at the bottom of the headland where once old 9th century Thira had stood. It was a small town with end of season tourists, reduced clothing prices and a good supermarket only 15 mins walk. The next morning we hiked up the steep 1.5 hour return walk up to the old town, which was closed on a Tuesday, oh well it was good view and exercise.
Last stop in the Cyclades was Koufonisi – another beautiful sheltered sandy anchorage off "Colored Beach", again nudity the norm, goat bells at the start and end of the day, old stone ruins, impossibly farmed stony fields and interesting rock hunting. Our anchorage looked across from Kato to Keros island; an archaeological site so all landing prohibited. Great local art ranging from Cycladian marble figurines to painted consumer good boards. A diesel hunt took us on a 20 min uphill walk to the top of the island with a great view of Naxos, we organised a next day port delivery, hitched a ride back with a local restauranteur and farewelled our last guests of the season the following day.