The Isle of Idra

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We spent two days in Athens and to be candid could not wait to leave the city. The weather did not help. It was 35°C. After spending the past two months hiking in the mountains, landing in a heavily congested city of 3 million souls during a heat wave was a bit of a culture shock.

We decided to go to one of the Greek islands. Without any preference, we did a little research and agreed to take a ferry to Idra. It is a three hour ferry ride south of Athens. The main reason for our decision is that motorised transport is banned on Idra. The was appealing after our experience in Athens.

Idra has been described as “paradise. The resident pop. is 2,000. Wikipedia informed me that there are 1,200 cats on the island! It is an island for the well-heeled with many people arriving in private yachts. The only mode of transport is shanks’ pony. Everything is imported on to the island and moved around by mules this gives it a real charm.

We are staying in an airbnb. In fact, we are the first guests and that provided us with a 20% discount. It has just been fully and I mean fully refurbished. Its a 2 bed apartment. So, had we organised ourselves we could have offered two friends FOC accommodation for a week. Next time perhaps.

We hiked up to the Prophet Elias Monestery. The Greek Orthodox monks were filing out of mass from the beautiful chapel as we arrived. There is a great view down to Port Idra from the Monastery. See below.

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This morning I decided to hike up to Mount Eros, the highest point on the island and about 30 minutes further on from the Monastery. Sheila decided not to join me, so, i set out by myself. It was a delightful 2 hour hike in the early morning. I started at 6.30am after day break and about 20 minutes before the sun rose above the mountains. When i got to the summit, i was rewarded by a spectacular 360° view of the island. I could see the mainland and a number of other islands and rocky outcrops. The memory of the climb and the views will stay with me.

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PS On the way down the mountain, I saw a man leading a mule with two fully grown goats in saddlebags being carried by the mule. Their heads and shoulders were poking out. A strange sight and one, I unfortunately, did not take a photo of.