Loving the Cyclades (Milos - Paros)

 

4th Sept 2020 (Paros)

Last time I wrote, we were en-route overnight to the island of Milos. What a little gem that turned out to be. Whitewashed Cycladic walls and the occasional blue dome of church. We anchored outside the town quay within rowing distance of the shore, and made a couple of trips over to explore. 

On one occasion we took the bus up to Plaka - a town in the hills, with a steep but rewarding climb to a ‘kastro’ at its peak. The kastro wasn’t particularly striking, but the 360 degree views of the island below made the walk worthwhile. We’d planned to bus up, and then walk back down (about 4km), but passing the bus stop on the way back down, the bus was there.. so we took advantage and hopped on. 

We needed to top up our diesel tank while we were in Milos, so made an appointment with ‘Nikos’ to bring his tanker to the dock. We tied up stern to, and after a short while (and 2 phone calls, and 2 sets of locals telling us we couldn’t moor there) Nikos arrived and topped us up. Saw lots of tourists in Milos - all milling around either coming from, or going to, the various charter boats and ferries that use the port, not many (but some) masks in site. Left Milos (no luck tracking down Venus’ elusive arms) and headed to the island of Polyaigos... which means either ‘many Saints’ or ‘many goats’ - saw none of the former, and only two of the latter, so still somewhat inconclusive. 

Our anchorage there was into some gorgeous sand in crystal clear water. I swam to shore to explore, and spent a few hours climbing the surrounding rocks. Took my phone on a second trip, swimming to shore with my arm out of the water to keep it dry. Got some great snaps, but somewhat stupidly had forgotten to take any water. This wouldn’t have been an issue, the boat was relatively close, but after clambering up a number of ever higher rocky outcrops, my shoe died. The stitching and glue holding the strap across my foot gave way. Not ideal. I spent an hour then very gingerly descending the little mountain I was on with one bare foot. Made it to the beach, to be offered some water by a nice Italian family - their dog had barked at me for half an hour as I’d lumbered my way slowly down towards them. Anyway - no harm done, shoes now re-glued and ready for more adventures! Left there and headed to Aliki on Paros where we caught up with George and Barb - a nice Scottish couple from the Orkneys, who were also residents in Ag Nik in Crete. Had sundowners on Serenity Now, then headed into town for a few beers and a nice meal with them at a good restaurant, where we were sadly one of only three tables taken - it’s such a shame, the season is tapering off now, and these businesses have had a terrible time of it. 

Dropped in to AntiParos town the next morning for some provisions. Another cute, very chic whitewashed little town, catering for the higher end of the tourist market (Tom Hanks, and Dutch royalty apparently have homes in town) we didn’t stop long (us being the lower end of the tourist market :), and headed on to our next overnight spot. Not much to report from there, other than me picking up a piece of driftwood that will suffice as a cricket bat - this pleased me, and got a despairing look from Chez as I sheepishly swam it back to the boat - I do tend to bring a lot of ‘treasure’ back from my frequent beach combing trips, and could possibly concede that some of it probably doesn’t need to be on the boat. Left there this morning, and made the short hop over to Paros town. Highlight of the trip being an angry sustained blast of the deep loud horn from the Blue Star Ferry as our insignificant little boat got in its way. 

We’ve got some biggish winds forecast, so will probably stay here for a few days. First impressions of the town are good - it has a couple of fascinating buildings: the first, a Frankish castle whose amazing walls are built from all the older temples that used to stand on the island. The second is a church called the church of 100 doors (didn’t check, but have no reason to doubt them) Chez explored slightly more than I did on that one, me being content to sit in the shady courtyard and admire the place while the cicadas buzzed and the birds sang. This evening, popped over to George and Barb’s for sundowners, then off to a local pizza restaurant on the quay for dinner - dinner was fine, and only notable as the guy on the table next to ours was constantly coughing and sneezing - we rapidly moved tables - strange times we live in.