sySpringDawn

Exploring a little more of the mainland coast, we moved just a few miles from the rural idyll of Padelimon to the little town of Astakos which means 'lobster'. There's a sizeable fishing fleet here and the town boasts several fishmongers but we didn't actually see any lobsters for sale!

Astakos is a small town in a rural area mainly given over to agriculture but which manages to give a small nod to local tourism with a couple of hotels, a handful of tavernas and a small pebbly beach – I would imagine the tourists are Greeks rather than foreign tourists. There's a small town quay where we moored, which is lined with a few tavernas. As soon as we tied up, one of the taverna owners came out and greeted us, proferring a hosepipe and asking if we wanted to top up with water – for free, which we gratefully accepted.

A quick walk around the small town revealed some lovely little shops, good butchers, bakers and not exactly a candle-stick makers but a good hardware store for sure where you could buy boaty bits and bobs or a new bell for your goat amongst a host of other things! A noticeable difference from some of the islands that we've visited recently, was that there are old buildings here which obviously survived the devastation of the 1953 earthquake.

It seemed sensible to eat ashore and enjoy some nice fresh fish – dorada and calamari for us – along with some tangy deep fried feta cheese and aubergine salad (not really a salad, more of a aubergine mash but yummy all the same). As you can see, whilst eating supper we were able to keep a close eye on Springy – not far to stumble home!