Month: July 2025

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The Sunny Sporades – day 5

Dilemma

To plan, or not to plan, that is the dilemma we have faced. Earlier in the week, we sketched out a rough plan of what we would do each day whilst here on Alonnisos, but on Monday we were hungry and didn’t want to wait for the evening bus to the Chora, so we changed that plan. On Wednesday, we loved our day on the local town beach, so changed plans again and went back there today.

Its good to have some idea of what you are going to do on your travels, but those plans don’t need to be set in stone. Its only taken a couple of days and we are already operating on “Greek time” – taking things slow, and letting the world wash over you, like the clear, refreshing Aegean sea.

Lunch was simple: bread, breadsticks, fruit and veg picked up fresh that morning, the day was spent reading, swimming or just staring into the vast blue yonder. What plan could better that?

And this evening we did make it back up to the Chora, and enjoyed a wonderful meal, in a lovely – yet not twee – taverna with magnificent sweeping views out to sea. With the vibrant hues of a the setting sun providing the canvas as we awaited the bus for the ten-minute trip back down the hill, it was the perfect and picturesque end to an unplanned day.

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The Sunny Sporades – day 4

Engineering

Over the years, we’ve come to learn that shade is a vital commodity on the beach and would typically buy a beach umbrella when we first arrived in country, use it for our holidays, before leaving it behind in our accommodation, hoping that the next occupants may use it.

For our last few trips, however, we have taken our umbrella with us, packed in the bag along with my rucksack for the flight (although this does mean it needs to go in oversize luggage with the added risk it doesn’t make it smoothly to your destination as happened on our flight here ) Today, loaded up like a pack horse with normal beach stuff, plus the umbrella, and a couple of chairs, we headed of to the town beach for the day.

It is a beach that has captured my heart …

but was a stoney beach and, with a bit of a breeze, some serious engineering was needed to secure the umbrella. A couple of years ago, we bought a “screw in anchor” for the umbrella pole – great for sandy beaches, less so for stone, so some excavation to place to bury this as far as possible (not far!) and then build a base of rocks up around it. But my real achievement came three weeks ago one Sunday morning back in England. Thinking ahead, I used jubilee clips and plastic tie wraps to create a couple of loops on the poles – we took a reel of ribbon with us on holiday and were able to create guy ropes for the umbrella, secured by a couple of big rocks. As the wind got up, the umbrella fluttered in the breeze but stayed anchored in spot all day. I must say, I was rather pleased with (and rather enjoyed) my civil engineering first thing in the morning!

Chuffed with my efforts, I went for a swim in the clear waters. Whilst I explored the bay, Becky built a tower of stones …

Having been bitten by the engineering bug, I thought I, too, could build my own tower, so I did …

With gyros on the beach for a (late) lunch, it was a lovely chilled day on the beach

before ambling back through town – stopping for coffee and ice cream – on our way back to the apartment. A shower later, we headed back into town for a meal and as we returned to our room for the final time we (well, I) took the opportunity to get up close and personal with a Seajets ferry docked up overnight.

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The Sunny Sporades – day 3

Chora, and back

This morning we took the bus from the port/harbour (Patitiri) up to the old town, or Chora, (or Hora depending on how you want to turn your Greek into English. My Greek remains limited to a few very basic works, but I am starting to make an effort to at least look at words written in Greek and think how they might be written in the English alphabet, but I digress.)

A ten minute, and 1.80 euro each, bus ride from “town” delivered us to the Chora to be rewarded with magnificent sea views and a charming village of old buildings and cobbled streets tumbling through the town. We spotted a swallows nest, with youngsters big enough soon to fly the nest – perhaps an apt metaphor as we find out tomorrow what our youngest has scored in his final exams and his degree classification.

For all its charm an beauty, the Chora has been touched by tragedy. In 1965 it was hit by an earthquake, with many inhabitants forced to live in tents for two years before being made to move down to the port of Patitri. Life – and residents – have returned to the Chora, but we saw more than one dilapidated building for sale, and one begins to dream ….

More poignantly, we encountered a memorial to 9 citizens of Alonnisos that were put to death in the second world war, an important reminder of man’s inhumanity to man, and must not be forgotten.

The busses to and from the Chora are not frequent, so we walked back to Patitiri down the old donkey path, a wide cobbled path that wound its way down through the countryside. It was a pleasant “amble”, if somewhat hot, and after about 30 mins we stumbled back into town and rewarded ourselves with our first gyros of the trip.

And then we found a new swimming spot. Not the easiest to access, and all surrounded by rock, but there was a ladder to allow you to get into and out of the water. (Although, of course, I found an alternative way into the water …)

Swimming in the infinity of the deep blue sea, surrounded by pine clad cliffs, I was in heaven.