The church bells chimed out at some ungodly hour like 6:30 am so no one slept too late. Also could not swim in the harbour of course so the plan was to head to the beach for the day. Unfortunately yesterday’s attempts at hiring cars, quad bikes or anything else proved fruitless so we took the bus to town, since taxis were getting expensive. Astrid Charlie & I climbed out in Hora to find a vehicle while the rest continued to the beach at Melos bay.
We had to wait a while until a back street bike company called Expo Vagios opened at 13:00. The heat was intense and while waiting we resorted to iced coffees to rebuild our wilted spirits. Astrid felt sorry for a black street vendor selling a variety of odds and ends, just like they do in Cape Town. Turned out he was from Zimbabwe so he scored double there. His view on Africa was: “ it’s a great country but just has bad leaders”. Spot on.
After concluding our car hire, island style with instant paperwork and a cash payment, we headed out. I think we got the wife’s car because 20 minutes later she phoned to say she had left both her mobile phones in the car!
Joining the others on Molos beach was a most relaxing afternoon. With sun umbrellas and loungers provided (normal around the Med, just support the local restaurant or bar) I was able to read, doze swim and totally relax. Wonderful afternoon. Astrid however felt pressured to sort out a work problem so she and the teenagers headed back to the boat for a couple of hours. The rest of us migrated to the “Windmill” restaurant for sundowners overlooking a beautiful small boat harbour.
Then came the call – our boat (10 kms away at Linaria) had to be re-located as the ferry was arriving at 10:pm. How they never knew this yesterday when we paid for our 3 night berth, we can only surmise. That meant when Astrid and the girls arrived at the restaurant for dinner, I had to take the (only) vehicle and drive back again to sort it out. Another 1 hour round trip. Between Charlie and I we had the boat relocated and tied up stern-to with power connected all the space of about 10 minutes. Impressive.
Nice meal, although Greek salad and Tzatziki were starting to get a bit monotonous. Much wine got consumed though, and fortunately Christian had been off alcohol all year so he had to make the two round trips and ferry everyone back to the boat. We got tho know that route quite well! The good news was that our friendly car hire man was able to provide another small Citroen the next morning, maybe his neighbours wife’s car?
Yet another late night on deck. Life never stops around here, and the teenagers wanted to hang about the harbour until all hours. They were most upset with me when I got them back by 1:30 am. It’s not that kind of harbour though. The harbour, village, shops and restaurants are all integrated. Life erupts once or twice a day for about 30 minutes when the ferry arrives, then it’s back to the locals and tourists.