It’s a Small World

4:30 am has become a preferred starting hour. We debate between 4am and 5am and compromise in between. We just have so much we want to see and a week is not long in Greece. Quite a bit shorter than in the USA in fact. Our destination today is the little island of Alimia and its WW2 history. Located just north of Rhodes, this island has two very sheltered harbors and was first an Italian and then a German submarine base during the war. The last German victory of the war was the Dodecanese Islands, and German soldiers remained on the island until the end of the war. You can explore the crumbling barracks and see graffiti on the wall from the soldiers. Some of it’s pretty epic!

The island also has the remains of a medieval castle on the hill that you can hike to and some houses and of course a church. While it’s always called “uninhabited” if you read about it, there were clearly a few people staying there. One of the houses had been fixed up beautifully with blooming plants in the courtyard, and several four wheelers were ripping around hauling things here and there. Some goats were hopping around, and it altogether looked liked a lovely place to call home. I may be sending an address change shortly.

The water is turquoise and clear and we had a blast swimming around and in general frolicking. The morning took a small turn for the worse when the seat Dalen was standing on broke sending him flying and he cut his head open on a window ledge. Luckily we have a nurse onboard and some bountiful First Aid kits, so she wrapped up his head good. This sadly prevented him from snorkeling around a sunken ship that’s there, but the rest of us had a good time exploring her.

We ditched our original plan of spending night in the harbor on Tilos and opted instead to head for Chalki. It’s a bit bigger island with a medical clinic on it. The cut looked like it could benefit from a few stitches.

Chalki town has a totally different look than the other islands we’ve been at so far. Instead of white houses with flat roofs, the houses are totally multicolored and have sloped tiled roofs. A fantastic dr called Nick cleaned Dalen’s wound, put four stitches in, prescribed an antibiotic and refused to accept a dime in pay. Super nice guy. While that was happening the rest of us explored the town, us girls mostly just staring into the clear harbor at all the different fish species lurking around. Lion fish, worms lounging on the bottom, garfish with their stick bodies, sea bream and ornate wrasse. We even saw some small squid swimming around with their half clear bodies and bulbous eyes. The town is literally built right down to the sea, with lots of houses having doors that open onto tiny concrete slabs right on the water. Ladders are affixed so you can climb back out of the water should you choose to leap in. Absolutely fantastic! I can’t imagine opening my kitchen door and leaping into the sea. It’s 10 meters deep right by the dock, so we’re talking some serious swimming right out the door.

We ate supper at a little outdoor joint called Gyro Time. It looked like we were pretty much the only tourists left on Chalki this time of year. The sailing season is pretty much over Nov 1 and things start shutting down. One other cat was there with a small crew so it was super peaceful.

We watched the ferry dock and soaked up the atmosphere of the Med. Locals sitting at outdoor tables, drinking and smoking, kids running in the street and always the Sea. The lifeblood of the islands. Fishing boats went out and we soon headed for bed. Seems we go to bed dreadfully early here. I often notice it’s only 8:30 when we’re in bed already. Pretty nice!