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!!
|