The needle was turning almost in favour of Rhodes as preferred holidays... But I'm afraid there is no chance for that!
Last night we did spend a lot of time editing the videos and admiring what I succeeded to catch on camera. It was about midnight when we decided to go to bed.
We discovered that my 'friend' is classified as the most venomous fish in the Mediterranean sea – trachinus draco or the greater weever! He has tiny spines on his back which are venomous. It is said that if you are stung by those, the pain is excruciating. I don't see how it can happen to us humans, because the speed with which he moves is so high that it is difficult to see even on camera. But Simon made me promise that from now on I'll go exploring the bottom of the sea wearing special shoes which we already have; we bought them in the idea to be able to walk on pebbles and rocks on rocky beaches.
Unfortunately neither of us was able to sleep well last night. Simon was again stung by mosquitoes – it looks as if these little buggers developed immunity to the repellents, because we have two of those here too! Plus the nets!
Early in the morning we heard shots that went on at even intervals until late. It seems that not far from here there is a military training base and they do this training every week. I can't say it was very noisy but perhaps we weren't too relaxed, so it affected us.
Today it was cloudy, as I saw on the weather forecast. Initially we planed to go to the beach in the morning and then to visit the town Rhodes and explore a bit the island. And on our way there to stop somewhere to eat. But because we didn't feel so well we decided to go on with our trip.
So: now we are on the east side of the island, somewhere in the middle. From here we crossed Rhodes and reached the west coast near the airport. From there we went to visit the town. We didn't spend too much time there, it is nothing so interesting, only if one is keen on buildings, which we are not. From here we came back to Haraki, following the coast. Like that we can say we saw more than half of the island because some of the south-west coast doesn't look inhabited, there are no roads.
The only thing that comes to my mind to describe my impression is that during the last hundred of years the humans tried everything here and abandoned everything... Every piece of land we crossed had rubbish, or ruins of a building started and abandoned, or a road same started and abandoned, or a pipe or something else... It is really heartbreaking to see what they did with the island! All the time I had the impression that I'm surrounded by a feeling of sadness, hurt, angriness emanated by the island...
They say that the citadel of Rhodes, built by the Hospitalliers, is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe. I knew that Rhodes has been famous since antiquity as the site of Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We wanted to see if it is something left that reminds of it. So Simon searched on internet and marked on the smartphone the place. Unfortunately what we found had nothing to do with the reality. At the marked location we found the aquarium! Simon asked some English people about colossus; they were sitting on a bench in a park near the sea and seemed as if they were at home. They explained to us that in fact the ruins are somewhere in the port, just a few stones.... No comment.
Returning to our host we wanted to stop at a restaurant in Faliraki that we liked. The 'taverna' was closed! We ended up eating in Haraki, at our restaurant.
After lunch we went to our room and Simon fought to fill the forms for me and for him that we need to have when we will return, but not earlier than 48 hours! They said it is compulsory to have them! Then we decided to go to Aghati beach even though it still wasn't sunny. We were feeling better. Simon went for a swim but I just enjoyed sitting in the chair. We had a chat, the sound of the sea very calming. About 6.30 we decided to leave the beach, it was dusk already.
As I said before, coming here we go around that little mountain that has on top the ruins of an old castle – Phelakos. Initially it seems that they tried to do something to be able to visit it, they made some stairs from stones, but then they abandoned the idea... Does it sound familiar? But I wanted to go and explore, at least a bit. So Simon parked the car nearby and we went for a walk. Between the rocks, somewhere below the castle, it is a tunnel. Simon says it is made by humans, it is not natural, created by nature. We went in, but getting dark we weren't able to see anything. Then I went up those stone stairs, close to the top. Simon followed me. I realised it would take some time to climb further and it was getting dark, so I abandoned the idea. The view from up was beautiful.
We arrived home but Simon fancied to go shopping, something to eat. We laughed saying that climbing made us hungry! So off we went again, we bought something and then we enjoyed eating ice-cream and Greek yogurt in our room!
After I'll finish writing in my diary we will continue editing the little videos of my snorkelling.
9th October 2020
Today was the last day of our holiday. Tomorrow we have to leave early, about ten, because it takes about an hour to get to the place where we rented the car from and from there another fifteen minutes to get to the airport and the flight is at one o'clock.
We slept OK, but we woke up with head-aches. It was a pleasant day, not so hot, temperatures more close to a normal October, about 26-27 Celsius degrees. And a bit cloudy, even more pleasant!
We went to the beach earlier than the other days. I went on doing snorkelling and Simon floating. He loves floating, it relaxes him very much! I was very successful with my videos, I took some very nice ones. Close to lunch we came back to our room to change and go to our restaurant for lunch. After, we said goodbye to the nice waiters, telling them it was our last day here.
Since yesterday when we stopped near the castle I was going on about the tunnel, very curious to see what was all about. So we went to a little shop to ask for a lantern or a torch. To try to make us understood by the Greek guy that was there, I put my hands over my face, mimicking that I don't see, to the amusement of Simon! But the Greek understood me immediately and gave us a lantern. It was the last one and unfortunately when he tried it it didn't work. Simon insisted to buy it saying he can repair it. In the end the Greek asked for it 4 euros, including 3 batteries!
When we came back to our room Simon started to fiddle with the lantern and of course that he managed to repair it: it has one horizontal light and a vertical tube inside with very small bulbs (this was not working), very nice and quite a strong light. We thought it is good for home as well, lately having power cuts quite often. After that we prepared to go to Aghati beach and explore the tunnel. Simon was making fun of me saying that we must do this to take it out of my mind, even if it is nothing there. I didn't expect much, it was indeed just the curiosity!
The tunnel was what we thought. Nothing mysterious! It went along one side of the little mountain, having a few openings and in the end returning to the place we started. But we saw a snake, long of about one metre or a bit under, a very bright green-turquoise colour, beautiful. It ran very quickly out of our sight but we managed to see it well enough! This was our adventure today!
After we went to the beach and we watched how the sun was going down at the horizon! We did feel good!
Returning to our room we looked at the latest videos I took, then I read a bit, Simon on the computer a bit. We decided to go to bed early.
We have to admit that overall it wasn't bad this holiday in Rhodes, in Haraki! The accommodation was very nice! The food was very good, also the sun bathing and the swimming.
I don't know why we didn't feel as relaxed as we generally feel when we are in Cyprus....
By the way, nobody bothered to check the forms we had to fill to come back to UK!!! What a surprise!
