40:0.34N 24:18.16E

Thursday 15 July

We motored down the western edge of the Akti Peninsular – keeping the required 500m offshore because we had a woman on board. 

For over 1,000 years the Akti Peninsular has been isolated from the rest of the world.  There are no roads or electricity and few phones. 17 monasteries perch, sometimes precariously, at various heights on the craggy mountains.  Most are vast and reminiscent of what we have seen in Tibet and Bhutan.    In addition there are small communities and hermitages dotted between. 

Following some apparently scandalous behaviour between the monks and shepherdesses in the 11^th Century it was decreed that no females, human or animal would be allowed on the peninsular except for cats (to keep the rat population down).  Passing boats must keep more than 500 m away and we were visited by the Greek coastguard in a fast boat to make sure that we knew this.  Men can visit and trek between the monasteries but must apply for a permit first.  They can stay in the monasteries and will be fed and accommodated for nothing.  Recently the rule that all men must be bearded has been waived but there is no sign that they have got over the mischievous shepherdesses as yet.

It was extraordinary and difficult to take photographs that do any justice to the scale of it all.  You can see this monastery two thirds of the way up the left hand side.

Notice the Russian look of this one with copper roof and onion shaped domes.  This was largely built in the mid 1800’s as part of Tsarist Russia’s campaign for eminence on the mountain.  The bell over the refectory is apparently the second largest in the world.

The peninsular is mountainous but then rises sharply at the end to the perfect point of Mount Athos at a height of 2,030 metres.

We dropped Michael and Roland off at Porto Carras Marina (back on the middle peninsular) where we had a rendezvous with our new mattress which, after a lot of planning was indeed delivered on time and waiting for us in the office.  We now sleep in comfort without rolling into each other and overheating on the foam base that was originally fitted and way past it’s useful life.

Some random photographs.  Carol and Mike enjoying someone else sailing the boat and doing all the work.......

It is getting very hot now; even the wind is more like a fan heater.  Two methods for keeping cool – a large electric fan in one hand and a large glass of chilled white in the other.