Some people ask me if I ever become fed up with just cruising around on a yacht for months at a time. I understand their thinking as I had similar thoughts myself before we embarked on this life afloat but so far there has been no time to get bored at all. Admittedly lots of sunbathing and swimming takes place and the pace is usually leisurely but there is always plenty to occupy us. Life is so busy it is difficult to find time to write my blog which is the reason they are always behind schedule! I aim to write my blog regularly to keep you all up to date but this objective is like most of New Year’s Resolutions that are made; difficult to keep and lapses very quickly!
Anyway, excuses over and on to telling you more about our adventures. We choose Amorgos for our next destination and we were very impressive and delighted with this little island. The film the film, Le Grand Bleu by Luc Besson was shot here in several locations along the coast. We moored up in the harbour of Katapola, quite a busy place and were able to plug into mains electricity so such excitement for me; I was able to do tons of washing! After a day of catching up with chores that can only be done in a harbour we decided to hire a scooter and explore the island. (See photo) It was marvellous fun and a perfect way to keep cool as we motored up these winding rough roads through the mountains of this rather barren island. Along the way we passed areas of burnt barren rock and small areas of cultivated land in the valleys. My high spot of the day was passing large numbers of goats along the way, they were well camouflaged in the rocky crevasses and often we had almost passed them before spotting them. We could not imagine what they could find to eat here, the land appears so barren but they seem contented enough so the dry looking herbs and shrubs must suffice.
Our next stop was Levitha, an almost desolate island inhabited only by two families and a lighthouse keeper and powered by wind and solar. Were we took a buoy in the sheltered bay where the two families reside nearby. One of the families run a small taverna from their farmhouse and later that evening we took a walk up the hill from the bay to eat there. As we stepped from our dinghy there was no sign of any dwellings but we had been informed to walk up the right hand path that was rough but not rocky. All went well and as we walked we saw many sheep leisurely grazing as we have seen so often on these islands. They looked up at us in a disinterested way and soon got back to the job in hand. As we progressed uphill we spied a donkey grazing which brought forth” Ah, look a donkey” from me. However this soon changed to, “Paul, I don’t like it!” This donkey looked up and saw us and quickly made his way towards us and was soon stood in our path “Hawing” in a very loud fashion; with his lips curled back revealing his large teeth. Paul was a tiny bit bothered by this but had to keep face so approached the donkey and patted him hesitantly and then held led me pass the donkey in a gallant manner so we could continue our way to the taverna. The remainder of our walk was an awful lot quicker and we soon arrived at the taverna. We had a lovely meal among good company and soon we were making our way back to the dinghy via torchlight. We did not meet the donkey again that night but as we lowered ourselves into the dinghy a loud “Hawing” filled the night air followed by screams from the French family who had also dined at the taverna that evening. I think the donkey either livens up his life on this quiet island by frightening the visitors or he just wants to be friendly. I prefer to choose the latter.