Three familiar beaches

 One thing that is bothering people here are flies. There seems loads of them and with them various theories on why so many and now. My theory is they are working on the rubbish tip, and have exposed lots of waste the fly maggots are feasting on. In my room, I have had several who seem to be finding their way in, despite the doors and windows being closed most of the time.

As today looked nice I fancied a visit to Vagia, one of my favourite beaches. I go to the far end and lie on rocks which is more comfortable than you might imagine. In the winter there is a stream on the path to the beach, which runs into a pond on the actual beach itself. The pond dries up in the summer of course. It wasn’t very hot when I got there, but it soon did, I listened to a Greek course developed by the Language Transfer people. It’s quite good. There was no one on the beach at all. 

After a few hours, I got up and did a bit of litter picking but there wasn’t much as I did it October last year, apart from a broken umbrella and one plastic water bottle. I then drove to the next beach, I normally visit that’s Ganema. This is another beautiful beach, and the cars park on the verge and this area is usually really bad for litter. But the clover is hiding a lot of it, but again I was here last year, so I don’t think there is much there. I had bought some sturdy black  plastic bags, and I did  a litter sweep to the far end and back, which left the bag full and heavy. You get lots of odd things, most come from boats, who just chuck things overboard, including a toilet seat and a bit of an old rope ladder with wooden rungs! Here and Koutalous there was several apples and lemons on the beach.

Up above on the mountain, I could hear and see building work going on. A friend who lives on the island told me this entire coastline was free of building when she first got here years ago. I think the road is a recent addition. The next beach is Koutalous, the final beach in this huge bay. Here I was met by a clutch of cats, looking hungry. The cat food that the local government hands out to the volunteers is not so plentiful this year unfortunately. In this little hamlet, there hasn’t been much building and the houses on the beach look like they are owned by locals, the taverna I went to when I was here in October is closed. There was a discarded single mattress on the beach. I filled up half a sack. I had a good look at this huge metal barrel I have no idea what it was used for. The pretty flower below  is a new one to me, it’s been added to my Serifos flower album. One house was occupied, an old couple said hello to me in Greek.

After finishing up I drove c back to Livadi. My plan was to have an early dinner at the Captains bar, as it closes early during the week. I know they do good burgers. After sitting down and ordering, two Swiss friends of mine dropped by, they were going back on the ferry today. Typical for them, given how the weather is now, after the wet spell! The Dog Palace lady, lives very close to them, and was coming down to see them go. My chicken burger arrived and the ladies pinched a few of my chips, which they thought was quite funny. It so turns out the Dog Palace owner used to run this place, as a Tavena many years ago.