One of the many little churches on the island of Tilos.

Tilos is a small mountainous island south of Kos. We spent 5 days here tucked into the very small, protected harbour that only fits about nine yachts, so it pays to arrive before lunch if you want a spot. Once again we made good use of our bikes and rode the steep gradient out of town to get to the other side of the island. We explored an abandoned village built into the side of a mountain above Livadia. The walls of many of the houses were still intact, but minus the roofs. Apparently when the all villagers moved down to the port town they took their roofs with them! The island has about 200 churches of various sizes but the majority are quite small and are built by families on their property. Often there is a small cemetry attached where the family members are buried. In days gone by,Tilos was home to the small European elephant. There is a museum and caves to explore alongside each other, but we were disapponted to find both tourist sites closed even though the signs clearly indicated they should be open. Perhaps the declining economy in Greece means tourist sites can no longer be manned!
While in the harbour we met up with a friendly group of Russians. They were on a large charter yacht moored out in the bay and experiencing difficulties with their anchor windlass. They lacked the confidence or boat skills to manouvre their boat in the a small inner harbour. So Bern was asked if he would skipper them in, which he gladly did - his skills being enthusiastcially applauded by the grateful crew as they tied up. We were then invited for 'thankyou' drinks onboard at sunset and treated to a feast of Calamari, smoked salmon, and other goodies washed down by Greek champagne! They had little English but we somehow managed to communicate and spent a very enjoyable few hours with them. They also gave us a small tin of special Russian caviar-we just have to work out what to eat it with!
From Tilos we set sail to the island of Simi, 20nm to the north east.