Khalki (or Halki or Chalki)
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Tue 23 Sep 2008 18:58
36:13.366N
27:36.80E
When we left Ag Nik
we decided we were all Crete'd out for the time being, so bypassed Sitia and
made straight for Khalki, a small island off the coast of Rhodes. This was
at the suggestion of a friend from work, Hatty, who had met her husband there
many years ago. Rhodes didn't appear to offer much in the way of
anchorages or marinas, so we took up Hatty's suggestion and went to
Khalki. This meant an overnight passage, so we left Ag Nik around
lunchtime and arrived at Khalki mid-morning. The pilot book said that a
pontoon is put in the harbour during Summer time for visiting yachts, but that
it was not always in place, so we weren't sure what we'd
find.
What we found was a
lovely harbour with a visitor's pontoon where we were soon tied
up.
Hatty had given us
the name and address of friends who live here, and we set off to make
contact. Unfortunately their house was all shut up and on enquiring with
the locals we discovered that they were not on the island at the moment.
However, the locals are very friendly and we were made to feel very
welcome.
We walked up to the
old town, high up in the hills and now deserted. Apparently it was common
on the islands in the time of pirates to have the main town hidden away in the
hills, but once they were no more, people moved down to the
coast. The view from the top was stunning and no photograph could
ever do it justice.
After a long hot
walk up and back down the hill, we stopped at the beach for a swim and
lunch. Back in the harbour, we were joined by a tanker delivering the
island's water. Apparently in the summer it arrives three times a week, as
the island has no water of its own. It was quite amazing to see the tanker
slowly rise up as the water was gradually pumped out.
The water tanker
on arrival - note the
waterline...
and as it was leaving.
Steve had been
chatting to the owner of a small fishing boat moored near us in the harbour, and
he had invited us to join him and some friends for dinner that evening. We
had a superb dinner of meze dishes, together with the dorade and tuna that Simon
and Howard had caught that day. In conversation over dinner, it turned out
that one of the group, Bob, was Steve's friend Luke's bosun in Gibraltar back in
the '80's. It's a small world. After dinner we were invited to join
them as they all went back to Bob's house in the town - Bob now lives in Khalki
- and we finished the evening dancing and drinking Metaxa in Bob's
kitchen!
