Kalymnos to North West Kos to Nisyros to Tilos

Gaviota
Wed 9 Jun 2010 19:14
36:37.129N 27:10.235E
Wednesday, 9th June
Left Kalymnos Saturday, 5th in 20 knot plus winds and sailed a very fast broad reach over to North West Kos and went into a small fishing harbour called Limnionas and tucked in behind the harbour wall with the fishing boats.  Anchoring was a problem and strong winds in the night combined with seas crashing over the harbour wall lead to a sleepless night - for Syd!
Left early Sunday morning in high winds and beat to the end of the island then a good fast run down to Nisyros averaging 6-7 knots.  Arrived in Nisyros and had problems anchoring due to strong cross winds in Paloi harbour so dropped a second anchor and cycled over to the main port of Mandraki which is a beautiful little postcard pretty Greek town.  Monday morning we cycled over the mountains to the amazing volcanic crater and I walked on the brittle crust of the crater with the holes of bubbling magma which, although the volcano is officially extinct, made you feel quite vulnerable.  We cycled off road up an amazing track which skirted the volcano and went over the mountains back to Mandraki.  It was quite a hard off road cycle but well worth it for the stunning views and amazing downhill.  On the outskirts of Mandraki we visited the castle and biked around it's impressive restored volcanic rock walls. 
Tuesday morning we headed towards Tilos with a 20 knot wind directly behind and managed 6-7 knots with only the mainsail.  Arrived in Tilos's tiny harbour and got the last space.  Having read how Tilos had escaped tourism I was suprised when walking round the town to see all the signs in English and a pub advertising curry and quiz nights!  Wednesday morning we cycled (more hills!) over to the main town Megalo Chorio (which turned out to be smaller than the port of Livadia where we had left the boat) and cycled/climbed up to the ruins of the ancient Venetian castle which is perched on the top of a mountain overlooking the town, we then cycled back via the deserted town of Mikro Chorio which suprisingly is home to the islands nightspot (only open July and August from midnight to morning) - well at least there is no-one there to complain about the noise!!