Folegandros

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Hi all,

Well the last two months have just flown by and I cannot believe I am in countdown to return home, am looking forward to it though, cold weather and all.

I am currently on Folegandros, a small island in the Cyclades group about 105 miles from Athens. Got here by fast catamaran during a storm and there were people being sea sick all over the place. Mel and I remained steadfast in our resolve not to join them and succeeded.

Now how do I describe Folegandros, well, and this may help young Max with a little project I have set him, the place has 625 permanent residence and 74 churches. Why so many you may ask. It comes from a time when the Turks and the Ottoman Empire were in charge of the place. They imposed a high tax on farmland rather than the produce that was grown.

In the true spirit of tax avoidance, the locals found out that under Ottoman law, land with holy places, ie churches were exempt from the tax, they then built small chapels in the furthest corner of their land and applied for exemptions, all got it.

The island is 13 kilometres long and 4 ks at widest point, 1.1 k at narrowest. It has views to the other islands and to Crete. Although the land is nothing like I have seen, the closest I can come to describing it is - take a chunk of the central plateau, place it in the middle of two seas (Agean and Ionian) and batter it for a million years with wind and sea.

Although this was meant to be the rest period before returning home, I have found this place so interesting, I have walked most of it and am about to head out to do the western area which is all that remains unexplored. The reward is not only the stunning scenery and photos, but the crystal clear water at the beaches, clearer than Croatia even.

I walked to the highest point on the first day to get my bearings and the wind was amazing, similar to walking down Lambton Quay in a full Wellington gale. But the communities are sheltered by land and walls, so you don't really know it is windy until you get moving outside those areas.

The locals are very friendly and helpful, despite being over run (12,000 tourists expected in August alone) for the season. 95% of people here are employed in Tourism. Meet a man at the equivalent of a dairy on one of my walks. He asked where I was from and when I said NZ his eyes lit up. He had worked on merchant ships from Europe to Melbourne and Wellington and Auckland between 1968 and 1973 - he said he almost stayed in Wellington with a local Greek girl he met there, but her father changed the course of his life.

Tending to get up earlier than some of the other tourists, about 7am, I have had coffee with the locals who sit and watch us all day. This morning the local restaurant I have adopted had my first coffee waiting for me. The lovely ladies cooked me bacon and eggs and they came shaped as a smiley face with tomato as the lips, bacon as the nose and smile and eggs as the eyes. I then ordered a cappacino to wash it down with and that came out with the words Good Boy written in cinnimom on top.

Will make this my last blog for the trip, unless anything else exciting happens. When I intend to do is rewrite these blogs as more user friendly information for other travellers with photos from the various areas.

Thanks for the comments you have made and hope you have felt part of the journey.

Paul

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