14 September 2017 (Thursday) - Boat Trip

I had something of a restless night, and a nose bleed too. Was it the gin and tonics yesterday evening, or was it the heat? Who knows?

We had rather good brekkie, and suitably replete we met up outside the hotel to await our coach. Last night we’d booked a three-island cruise for today. Our coach driver got us to the harbour in Kardemena with time to spare, and soon we were on what I can only describe as Captain Jack Sparrow’s very own pirate ship. Being first aboard we secured the prime seats in the bow, and soon we were off. We had a wonderful view of the beautiful scenery, and also of of two bikini-clad German ladies who seemed to be very friendly toward each other.

We sailed for about half an hour after which time we pulled into a beautiful lagoon. The gangplank was dropped and we had an hour on the beach doing whatever we liked. "er indoors TM" walked around the island and found a rather pretty little Greek Orthodox church. I spent the time snorkelling looking at the fish. I even found a couple of sea urchins too.
After an hour we were given a light lunch of a small Greek salad and some kebab. I really liked it.

From here we sailed to the island of Nisyros where we had a two-hour stopover. We all paid three euros apiece to take a coach trip. The entire island is one big volcano; the coach drove us up and up and up where we saw some spectacular views, and then down into the volcano. Whilst the rest of our party stayed in the taverna near to the coach park, "er indoors TM" and I took twenty minutes to walk down into the caldera. Oh it was hot and smelly, but how many people can say they’ve stomped about inside an active volcano? And as an added bonus the caldera was an Earthcache too. So without really trying we got our most southerly geocache, furthest geocache from home, and highest one as well all in one go.

We took the coach back to the harbour, and having wandered along the touristy high street we stopped in a little taverna for a pint.
We deserved it. As we drank it was interesting watching the locals. Some chap drove past on a moped (with no crash helmet) steering with one hand and carrying his dog with the other. The dog was clearly used to this. Yesterday we’d seen small children steering the mopeds driven by older people. Those people who blame excessive health and safety legislation onto the European Union are clearly wrong. Or the Greeks simply don’t care about it.

We got back on the boat and once Cheryl had emptied the sand from her knickers we sailed on to the third island. We didn’t land here; instead we moored up and those who wanted a swim got to swim from the boat in crystal-clear water.
After half an hour we sailed back to harbour. The wind was against us and we were half an hour later back than planned.

We took the short walk to the taxi rank and waited for a taxi. And waited. And waited. Eventually one showed up so we loaded up the girls and sent them on ahead. The blokes followed (much) later, but we arrived back at the hotel at the same time as the girls; their driver had gone for a cup of coffee.

We showered, had cocktails and then dinner. Everyone else had an early night; today had been tiring and "My Boy TM" was complaining about sea-sickness. But "er indoors TM" and I were still going strong. We walked up to the amphitheatre where there was a Hungarian magic comedy show. I’d never seen a Hungarian magic comedy show before, and (sadly) if I never see one again it would be no loss. It was one of those shows that was so awful that it was good.

A few more cocktails by the pool, and we staggered off to bed shortly before midnight, taking care not to disturb the kids (too much).

There were some good photos to be taken today; I’m told the temperature reached 36oC today… it was warm but I don’t think it felt quite that hot?


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