Have scooter...will travel!

The scooter and I shoot out onto the road…the right hand side of the road I keep having to tell myself. This is the first time I have my own transport…ok...it’s not my bike…but I can’t wipe the smile off my face….errr…until the cold bites through my jacket and I have to pull up and insert the rain liner to keep from freezing to death. It’s seven degrees but it feels like zero on the go. The island circuit is 127km and the scooter and I reach top speed (60km) within 30 seconds J - it’s going to be a long but enjoyable ride.

Giorgos had given me the run down on what to expect on the roads…small villages with a laid back attitude and animals that will come and go…bees, because it is now Spring and therefore I need a helmet with a visor to prevent a bee collision that could end up being not so pretty, rocks on the road and the cold - it had snowed two days before I got here. The locals ride with no helmets and generally no safety wear, so I feel a complete fake getting all kitted out and then stepping onto a 50cc moped. However the visor protects me from my first bee within 5 minutes and even through I look like a giant marshmellow in all the gear, I'm warm (expect for my hands as I only wore the summer gloves)

 

Scooter - check
Bee protector - check
Marshmellow look - check

The road is brilliant to ride. It twists and turns with blue waters on one side and tall mountains of the other. There is very little traffic, cars are courteous and all drive at a relaxed pace. Perhaps it is different when the summer season kicks in but for now it’s perfect. Hills with old olive trees terraced with sandstone, give way to a forest where needles and cones decorate the side of the road and the smell of pine makes it past the bee protector . When I stop (which is often) to see what delight the next fold of the earth has gifted, I hear only the gentle whistling of the trees and the tinkling of bells on unseen goats - I feel like I’m in Bavaria, not a Greek Island! 

Small bays hidden in rocky Olive tree hills

Soaring mountains make their way
down to little coastal villages

Spot the goats

What the bee protector is needed for
- colourful beehives on a hill

With frozen fingers, I reach the Monastery that’s perched on the side of a cliff - a sheer drop into the blue waters below. A sign out the front says that we are to respect this as a holy place and are not allowed to take photos. Bummer. As a women I am also required to wear a skirt so the lady at the front gate (the skirt nazi) kindly gives me one on entry which I just fits over my marshmellow outfit. There is a service going on for Easter Friday and this is broadcast through the Monastery on speakers…female voices (this monastery is only for nuns) recite text and sing.

A small number of visitors purchase a candle, light it and go into the ceremony. I purchase a candle and not being Catholic…just do what I think needs to be done which is light it and place it in the shrine. I’m immediately engulfed in the delicious scent of burning beeswax and the warmth the other candles produce…so I linger here feeling the heat and taking deep breaths of the scents. The monastery’s set within lime washed walls and secret alcoves and has ancient olive trees growing out of large terracotta pots that are buried in the earth. The new section has slate tilled roofs where the non kamikaze honey bees are basking in the sun between the lichen. The roof and walls twist in curves so voluptuous that the seem a little naughty in this setting. I fill my bottle from a stone tap (yes a real stone that I had to turn) and feel like Moses (???) , hitting the rock wall…let there be water and there is…all over myself as the stone tap does gush!

The Monestary looks out over the sea to another island with a snow capped mountain. This, Giorgos, tells me, is where the male only monastery are and the land is deemed to be a separate country to Greece (something like the Vatican). I wonder if in past years they have sailed between the islands, just to say hello and whether it was awkward. You know, like one of thoes all girls and boys school dances except with nuns and priests nervously looking at each other across the room wondering who is going to ask the other to pray first. 

Doing my best 'Di' impression outside the Monastery

Hazy photo of the snow capped mountains on the 'other' island

I had been trying not to get too dehydrated so two cups of green tea is a morning staple - just to kick the day off. Unfortunately that means a stop about 1 hour into where ever I’m going. Luckily the monastery had clean FREE (Yippee) toilets. Everywhere in Greece has angry looking toilet signs saying don’t put the toilet paper in the toilet but it is hard to break a lifetimes habit and just as I let go, I remembered. For a very (very) brief moment I considered fishing it out but a quick check….greed, gluttony, sloth etc….and I felt that ‘inappropriate disposal of toilet paper’ didn’t make it onto the top mortal sins list and flushed away.

Could give me problems at the pearly gates

The Island is a dirt bike riders fantasy, with numerous paths leading away from the road. Unfortunately all the paths end up going up…I mean really up and with 50cc of motor and a morbid fear of coming down steep slippery rocky roads…I chicken out and play on the tar. Still I can’t wipe the smile of my face and think that maybe I need to change my plans and just ride around Greece on a moped…something the guys in the bar last night would at least approve of. Whenever I tell people what I am going to do they always let me know their concerns. They ask what I will be riding and when I say an old Honda Dominator..they translate for the other people listening…all I hear is words I can’t understand followed by DOM..IN..ATOR, like Arnold saying TERMINATOR…I wish I had a bike with a better name, but most people seem to know it and don’t laugh too loudly.

After 3 hours I have covered 83kms (what a world record!!) and I stop for lunch in the Island’s capital Limenas. Again the laid back attitude is evident, no-one walks quickly and conversations between older men sitting beside the sea are unhurried. I hunt out the restaurant suggested by Nick and order fresh calamari with a walnut and olive salad. This is my second real meal on the island and again, my legs (which must only be attractive to animals) are rubbed by numerous cats who plead with me to share some of my food.

Fast pace of life in the capital

Food, Map, cat free legs - good to go

I get semi lost in the little lane ways as I make my way in the general direction back onto the road and then hit the high 60’s again as this side of the Island is flat. Taking a route into an inland village, the roads gently glides through Spring forests their trees with new bright green leaves and gentle streams frequented by Mountain Goats. I spy a small paddock with sheep and as I’m taking a photo a man is walking down the road singing loudly. He stops at the gate to the property and lets me know he will let the sheep out - I hoped they were his sheep, but they do come when he calls them and they spill out onto the road. He runs after a baby and brings it over to me to take a photo - which I do. He then says something I can’t understand in Greek - hopefully not, “you want to buy this sheep” - I think he is saying isn’t it cute and say “yes…yes!!!”..and proceed to leave - no doubt he is saying “Bloody Tourists they always say they are going to buy the sheep and they never do!!”

Spring has sprung

Entrance to the church

I love getting lost in some of the
pathways around the villages

The sheep are freed

You want to buy a sheep?

Mountain goats drinking from a spring

The forests give way to low scrub and the wind is biting so it’s not long before I’m home - island circumnavigation complete. To celebrate I take the thick slice of bread left over from lunch and smother it with what I think it thick Greek yogurt (because I don’t have any butter) and some of the island’s thick rich honey. While it tastes good, I think that the ‘yogurt’ is actually sour cream - but hey it’s all good, I have the Easter ceremonies to look forward to tonight…..

Kilometres travelled on some form of bike (finally): 127
Bee collisions - 6 (Visor: 6 Bees:0)
Times I placed toilet paper in toilet when I shouldn’t: 3
Animals who have humped my legs while on the island: 4
Reneging on sheep sale: 1
Laughing at myself for bring swimmers to a northern Greek island in April expecting to use them: 10