Ikaria

As follows, we are now here on an island named Ikaria, (from the legend of Icarus) off the coast of Turkey.  We left Greece mainland on Monday night - got on the ferry from the port of Piraeus, close to Athens, and arrived around 4. a.m. on Tuesday morning.  We  found the hotel by asking around the locals  who were up  to meet the influx of people coming off the ferry.  This is a holiday island for Greeks, as it looks like no one else uses the place.  There are no other Australians, Americans or Poms here, which is great.  Two of us is quite enough.

 After sleeping till around 10 in the morning, we went to check out this village.of Evdilos and this is what it looks like on a typical summer morning.. sun, sun sun, and lots of blue skies.  It has a round inner harbour lined with lots of cafe's ...no shortage of them, and a mountain range all around.

For all of it's history Ikaria has been raided, plundered and taken over by all and sundry...pirates looted and pillaged for hundreds, probably thousands, of years, the Greeks, Romans, Turks, you name it, all had a go.  The locals are a hardy bunch of people who are happy just to spend their lives taking things pretty easy. and socialize in their evenings to the late hours in the cafe's ...and that's the whole community.   Apparently when a couple have a wedding, everyone in the village is invited.  There is a really pleasant community feeling here.

 Not much industry, not much business going on, (tourism is about it) but that's why the population has one of the longest life expectancies in the world.  The languid days and balmy nights are deceptive though.  There is a situation here now that has long term and calamitous consequences for the whole Mediterranean region...there are no fish.  The seas are almost devoid of life.  There are no sea birds either.  I haven't seen a gull in all the time I've been here, and the only birds that seem to thrive are pigeons.  They are everywhere in the cities and live in the buildings' roofs.  I have one photo that a bird appeared in though, so there are some here.

The lack of fish is due to - long term - the fact that there are so many countries drawing from the same ocean, and for here,  the local fishermen using modern techniques like satellite navigation to fish out the shoals, probably using long line nets, and exporting the fish.  Instead of just getting whatever they needed to feed the local community they have fished out the lot for short term gain.  Consequently, the fishermen now sit in the cafe's drinking cold coffees, retsinas, etc. to pass the time, or staring away at nothing, like one of them that had his boat out and relining the hull.  Perhaps he's hoping that the fish will miraculously return in a couple of seasons.  It's hard to say.   It is still a great looking place....perhaps it will improve when the governments of the area get together and ban overfishing to let the stocks recover.

Like I said, it's a lovely place.

I don't want to turn this into a travel catalogue, so will shift to the activities we have gotten up to since that first day.....we hired a car and explored the island over the past two days and this island is pretty big, rugged and full of interesting places.  Some hairy bends in the roads and goat track climbs over the spine of mountains that runs down the middle of the island.  Here are some of the views.

There goes the ferry.  We catch it tonight at 4 a.m.