2-6 August
Leros and Archangelos
Hello everyone. It's Naomi here and I will be your 'guest' blogger for the next week or so. Sorry for the delay in getting this latest piece on the blog but we've just been having too much fun. Nerida and Glenn picked me up on the island of Leros and I will be spending the next 2 weeks with them. It was so exciting to see them and finally get to step aboard their pride and joy, Southern Comfort II. She is a beautiful boat and very well cared for. N and G have her all decked out perfectly and you all would not be surprised to find out that everything is very well organised on board! After an evening in Leros to settle in we headed to Archangelos so I could experience the perfection that is its crystal clear, aqua blue bay and my first swim off the back of SCII. It was magnificent and worth the 24 hours or so of flying from the other side of the world to get here. Then we headed up to the taverna for a delicious lunch of fresh fish (see Photo above) and of course Greek salad and maybe a glass or two of the local white wine.

Kalymnos
After our night at Archangelos we headed across to the island of Kalymnos and into the town harbour. This was a lively place with many cafes and restaurants and lots of scooters zooming past. Families and couples promenaded past into the evening enjoying the sea breeze. Great people watching. We enjoyed a fabulous meal at a very busy restaurant that included our culinary highlight so far, a filo parcel that oozed melted feta and was covered in toasted sesame seeds and a generous drizzle of local honey....yum! Back on the boat we were serenaded by live Greek music playing by a local band at restaurant just near us. Very relaxing and a perfect accompaniment to our Ouzo nightcap.

Kos
Up early (well for me anyway!) and we were off to Kos. On the way we stopped for lunch at and a swim at a perfect little cove on the island Pserimos. We swam to the little deserted beach and back for a bit of exercise before lunch, then another swim before we made the rest of the journey to Kos and the marina at Kos town.

Once moored we headed off to explore the Old Town and many archaeological sites including the Plane tree under which Hippocrates is said to have taught his pupils (see Gallery). Travel is just as much about the people as the places and this night we met one of the people that makes travel everything you want it to be. We went back to a restaurant off the main busy strip that N and G had dined at last year with N's cousin Caroline and her husband Darren (Caroline had done some research to find somewhere for dinner). Here we were greeted like long-lost friends by the host and owner. We thought we might have been special until we noticed he greeted everyone like this. The restaurant quickly filled up and the atmosphere was warm and friendly. The food was fantastic and we enjoyed some local red wine while being constantly checked on by our host to ensure that everything was as it should be. When we asked for our bill, we were hoping that we might be offered the complementary glasses of Ouzo that appeared to be going to other tables around us but instead another half-litre of red wine appeared on our table instead. Well of course we couldn't offend our host so we stayed on to partake in the generous offering. Just as we finally finished this half litre of wine, we obviously didn't stand up to leave quick enough and another half-litre of red wine appeared on our table. Oh my goodness, we couldn't be rude and leave now so we had to drink this before we could bid farewell with double kisses and hand shakes to our generous host. I think it was a slightly zig-zagging walk back to the marina where we safely negotiated the plank and made it back onto the boat. We all slept very well that night. In the morning we will head to volcano island of Nisyros.