Last 36 Hours on Kastellórizo
By Helen Grubner. Filed in Uncategorized |
Thursday 23 May-Friday 24 May 2024
Thursday, my last full day on Kastellórizo and just two more adventures I had to do. In the morning, I headed down to Remezzo Cafe to take a ride with Geórgios to the Blue Cave… cost E15. I shared the boat ride with a family of 3 from Perth. They were already on board when Geórgios picked me up around 0830 hours, so I scored a seat on the bow. It was a very bumpy and uncomfortable ride. We arrived at the Cave only to find the sea was too high for the boat to enter. The only way was to jump in and swim. I’m not much of a swimmer, and I need to know my feet can touch the bottom. No way could I jump into water 6-7m deep. Disappointingly, I didn’t get to see inside the Blue Cave.
I had asked Geórgios if he could drop me off on St George Island and come back to pick me up later in the day. No problem, here’s my card, just phone when you are ready. St George Island is tiny and quite close to Kastellórizo. There’s a small church, a Taverna, and sunbeds you can hire for E6. The wind was slowly picking up so after 3-4 hours, I thought it best that I get myself back to Kastellórizo.
I hadn’t realized credit was low on my phone, and I couldn’t top up as there was no Internet Connection. I spoke to a couple from Turkey and asked if they wouldn’t mind making the call for me. No answer. I spoke to a man there with his son, also Turkish. He tried calling. Still no answer. Fortunately, I got back with the latter two people, sharing their water taxi, operated by Stavros. I explained my dilemma to Stavros and offered payment, but he wouldn’t accept anything. Thank you, Stavros.
Friday morning, I said goodbye to the island of Kastellórizo. I left my room in plenty of time to have breakfast at Meltemi Cafe, and then, walking to the Port, I met up with Joél and Liz, who had come to bid me farewell. It was such a nice surprise. Because of weather conditions in the Kastellórizon Sea, the departure of Blue Star PATMOS had been brought forward to 1130 hours. In itself, that wasn’t a problem. However, it meant sitting and waiting on board at Rhodes for 3+ hours and extending the journey by 2+ hours, almost 10 hours in total. That’s a lot of time to be twiddling your thumbs. Eventually, we left Rhodes… first stop Symi, next stop Tilos – hooray!
I had arranged with Despoina, my host, to pick me up from the Port and drive me to Marina Beach. I first visited Tilos in 2022 and got to see a lot of things at that time. This trip, I decided to stay a little out from the main town of Livadia to have peace and quiet, total R and R. Maximum exertion is going to be walking to the little beach nearby to swim and work on my tan or to the nearest Taverna to eat.
