Sea journey Karpathos – Rhodes – Halki – Tilos – Nisyros
By Helen Grubner. Filed in Uncategorized |
Rhodes Harbour Sunrise
By the time I arrived at Taverna Kyma, Markello and the freshly caught cooked fish and cold beer were awaiting me. Ate as much as I could, however, in the company of Greeks it doesn’t seem to matter how much I eat, it is never enough in their minds. I enjoyed very much every mouthful. With the ferry boat late in arriving, we had a little more time and after telephoning his wife Athanasia in Athens and us both speaking with her, I eventually said my farewell, leaving with a contact and a name of Rooms to Rent on the island of Kalymnos which for me is only a couple of island hops away. Also, strict instructions that when I return to Athens, probably in October, I am to contact Markello with an invitation to stay with he and Athanasia in their home. I want to take the opportunity to boast about my grasp of the Greek language. Although Markello speaks and understands a reasonable level of English, we communicated mainly in the Greek language. It was not until he asked me last evening just exactly where I was born, that he came to realise I was not born in Greece to Greek parents.
Ferry boat Preveli finally departed around 2235 hours bound for Rhodos. Nothing very much to do to pass the time and so I mainly tried to make myself as comfortable as I could in the lounge chairs to enable me to catch a few winks. Just prior to our arrival at Rhodes, one of the crew commenced his duty of vacuuming the lounge area – took me all my time to control my laughter, partly I guess due to silly tiredness, however, I have never seen anyone use a vacuum cleaner in quite the same way – he would have to be a strong contender for a Mr Bean impersonator.
0300 hours and the ferry boat docked at Rhodes harbour. I could not see any sign of a terminal or somewhere suitable to sit out my 6 hours wait and so I began to walk into town. 5-10 minutes along the road, someone from behind asked me where I was from – it was Judy, born in New Zealand, however, when she has not been travelling the world, which she seems to have done a great deal of, Judy has lived most of her life in Australia. She had a 5 hour wait for the boat to Turkey and so it was that we took the road together into the old part of town. Found somewhere to sit out 2-3 hours and passed the time in conversation in which I have to say, Judy contributed 95% of. Although there are two harbours in Rhodes, someone had told Judy her boat would leave from the same harbour we had arrived at earlier in the morning and I therefore assumed the same would apply to me. So it was that we set off around 0600 hours to walk back to where we had come from, only to find very little sign of life. When a taxi arrived to pick up a passenger, I approached and asked the driver where our vessels would be leaving from – to be told it was from the other harbour and would you believe, we had been sitting very near there and had walked all the way back for nothing.
With the sun risen and the temperature rising we began our walk back yet again along the road we had just come, on the understanding if we found a taxi, we would go halves in the cost of transporting us and our luggage to the harbour. Taxi found, 5 Euro later and I farewelled Judy by her boat bound for Turkey, before I was dropped off by the catamaran Express Dodekanisos, bound for Nisyros at 0900 hours – still a 2 hour wait. Watched how others live partaking of their breakfast on the Super Yachts moored nearby. Departed on time at 0900 hours – first stop the island of Halki. I had tossed up in my mind about stopping off there – I have to say it looked amazing, I may have to put Halki on my itinerary for another occasion. Next stop the island of Tilos then on to Nisyros my destination, arriving on time at 1145 hours.
Having made a reservation on the Internet, I could see my accomodation Hotel Romantzo from the sea and in the searing midday sun headed straight there for a shower, change of clothes and general settling into my room for a planned one week’s stay. A family run business and an older establishment than what I have generally become used to, however, my needs are adequately met and at 20 Euro per night I am not complaining.
For the second time I find I am somewhere which does not exist on my travel map. The first being Leonidio and now the island of Nisyros – I guess that says something for the obscurity of this place and I look forward to writing more as I discover the island over the next few days.