The southern coast of Milos provides some protection from the prevailing Northerly winds and was a great choice for the commencement of our counter/anticlockwise journey around Milos...we put in at Psathi a small cove and headed east...the cliffs are white and chalky, the land windswept and fairly barren - n'ary a wandering goat to be seen nor the sweet fragrances of thyme and oregano to be inhaled (yes I am missing my Grecian homeland of Creta - can you tell? The water is undeniably stunningly clear, azurean blue with those cobalt blue visions beneath though sadly lacking in much sealife at all... not a cloud in the sky as our armada of mango and red kayaks set forth...
"Remember...Keep Milos on your left and you won't get lost" - I announce from my position of sweeper.I am always full of such wise words of wisdom this early in the morning!!
We stop for lunch in Provatas - a place with a geothermal spring in a cave somewhere (though we were unable to find it) in fact Milos was known for it's sulphur mines until the mines closed in 1958 as the price dropped dramatically.and we definitely can smell that familiar( I'm from geothermically active Middle Earth NZ) "salt of the earth" kind of smell of sulphur as we paddle along the cliffs here. We explore caves and weave amongst the rock gardens - Milos is an island of caves, known for some caves that pirates even hid in back in the days when pirates more openly roamed the seas...the geology is as diverse as Crete - volcanic conglomorate rock, some limestone, chalk which all give it a blend of "solid fragility" - where the pounding seas have carved their way inland creating these caves ...
A night spent in Paleachora, a beachside retreat...with hot springs just off shore and the restaurant "Sirroco" that we dined at - slow cooked it's meals buried in the hot sand(hangi style) Temperature 50degrees C just beneath it's balcony...
To end our first full day of kayaking...and to reward some tired muscles I offered a moonlit massage beneath the skies canopy of stars...
Kali nikta,
Wendy
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