Gokkaya Limani and Back to Greece

On Sunday we motored up from Kale Koy to Gokkaya Limani, a series of little coves sheltered by two small islands, where we found a little cove all to ourselves.

We took the dinghy round one of the islands to explore a cave

Lin did not want to go in, but we had no choice as a tripper boat was coming into the cave right behind us

On Monday morning we set off early to go to Castelorizo, the Eastern outpost of Greece, and passed a fisherman out early.

We arrived in Castelorizo for lunchtime. Although we liked Turkey, arriving in Castelorizo was like coming home.

In the afternoon we went round the corner to Mandraki

for a swim

Next morning Simon went for an early walk, up the stairs to the top of the cliffs,

with a great view over the town

past the derelict 18th century monastry of St George

to paleocastro

In the evening Grigori arrived from Athens. On Wednesday morning Simon and Gregory went to the museums and up to the castle.

We went for lunch with Ruth and Mark, whom we had met last year in Agathonisi, in their newly restored house.

On Thursday morning we motored round the island

to see the Blue Grotto. It took us a bit of time to find it, because it is a cave with a very small entrance, and when we did it was raining with heavy cloud, so there was not much point in going in. But at the southern tip of the island Simon and Grigori took the dinghy into two larger caves,

where there was beautiful electric blue light now that the sun had come out (I forgot to take the camera!).

On Thursday the Blue Star ferry called, almost completely filling the little harbour.

Grigori was due to fly back to Rhodes and Athens on the evening flight, but just after he left for the airport we heard that the flight was cancelled because there was too much wind (there was only a little blow for about halkf an hour, butwith only five people booked on the flight it was a good opportunity for Olympic to cancel). The bus left before he had managed to rearrange his ticket, so he had to walk back from the airport. He was offered no compensation, had to pay to change his ticket from Rhodes to Athens and was only waitlisted for the morning flight, soi he had to leave for the airport at 6am to get on the plane, which fortunately he did.

On Friday morning we left at 7, again with no wind, to motor up to Patara to meet Nilly and Kate and Jake, who arrived there on Thursday.