Having cut the almost permanent ties with Tilos, we headed north to the volcanic island of Nisiros, an almost square island with an active volcano plum in the middle of it. To get there involved a long beat into the wind which had us almost on the shores of Turkey in order to avoid having the engine toiling directly into what was a bit of a blow. We arrived Saturday afternoon, having been warned that the harbour can get full. As it was Saturday afternoon, there were none of the Kos charter boats who presumably set off on a saturday afternoon. A very nice mooring was taken in front of a line of restaurants, all of whom offerred a shower for guests. Crew Dorothy and Alan very pleased about this as the boat shower we had been using for the last week or so, is, lets just say...compact. however, let us not downplay the boat shower, an absolute godsend. So, a shower and a meal in the taverna it was. I had the best octopus dish i have had...Dorothy looked on with disgust. the weather has turned a good deal more autumnal with temperatures dropping to the low 20s during the day which means the evenings are cool to the point where you have to retreat down below once the sun has disappeared. So, an early night, with the vague notion we might get to see the volcano centre on the Sunday. on Sunday morning we made the acquaintance of Stavros and his lovely family, Stavros said he could let us have a 300cc quad bike for the day for the princely sum of 35 euro. A brief discussion with Dorothy required, who was clearly not happy about these new fangled contraptions, having banned Fraser, Andrew and Gordon from going anywhere near them. I promised to drive along at a speed where we could employ a local chap to walk along in front with a red flag, a la early 1900 motoring. Assent given, off we tootled at a rare old speed, being overtaken by grannies on pushbikes and children on wee scooters. After a while, during which we had managed to negotiate a bend and not drive off the edge of the road, I was allowed to drive at the heady speed of 10kph. Having said all that, it was very pleasant motoring along at a speed which allowed you to enjoy the views and the countryside. A visit to the beautiful town of Mandraki, with streets you could barely squeeze 4 people abreast. Mandraki, we also noticed, being the main harbour, disgorged boatloads of tourists from Kos who were then herded onto buses and packed off to see the main attraction... the volcano. Ha ha..we thought...we will visit the volcano late in the afternoon, once the coast was clear , so to speak. Emporio is a village which overlooks the crater of the volcano from the very top of the rim, a spectacular view. Lunch was taken in a taverna with the most amazing view of the crater, the food was lovely too. A rare lunch for the crew who tend to breakfast and dinner ...with a lunch a sparrow could eat. Another experience Emporio had to offer was a cave set next to the road which presumably sits on top of one of the vents from the volcano. As you set foot in the cave, the heat is overpowering, almost knocking you off your feet. Amazing. From here, we headed to another village on the top of the crater, complete with volcano museum (shut Sunday). The village was beautiful, with a wonderfull village square and church. So, from here, it was time for the main event, the long and winding road into the crater itself. The journey to the crater floor was hairpin bend after another. Fortunately for us we did not meet any tourist buses as our plan to visit late in the afternoon had clearly been a good plan. Finally, we arrived at the car park for the volcano itself. Ourselves and one other car. As we took our crash helmets off, and made good to descend into the volcano, three buses hurtled up to the car park and chucked out a hoard of tourists. (like us) We hot footed (no pun intended) to the path which leads down into the volcano itself. The stench of sulphur as we descended was pretty acute and meant Dorothy doing the whole walk whilst pinching her nose. Of course this did not stop Dorothy chatting away, it just left me non-plussed as to what she was saying half the time. Nisiros is the only place on earth, I understand where you can actually stand inside an active volcano. You can feel the heat as you walk across. You can see steam raising from the floor. The odour of sulphur is indeed overpowering and made us both feel nautious. However, as we stood in the foot of crater, i cannot remember being in such awe of any other natural phenomena i have visited. Good news is that the volcano decided to remain peacefull for one more day and we headed back to the boat having thoroughly enjoyed our trip round Nisiros.
As opposed to Saturday, on our return Sunday found the harbour crammed full of boats. In the taverna opposite our boat, a group of Russians gave the local falling down water a good hiding to the point where they started singing, sadly , they only seemed to know one song...and even more sadly, they only knew one line of said song...so it was...167 renditions of "I love you baby"...until even they got bored and cleared off to their boat at the far side of the harbour...where could be heard more renditions of " I love you baby"...fortunately far enough away to be unobtrusive.