Wild goose chase

Sunday we went on a wild goose chase looking for some random isolated beach. We could see the beach in question from the comfort of our patio, but Andrea has been itching to walk there for a couple of years.



There are no roads to these beaches, and to reach them you either arrive by boat, or you slide down a ravine through fiercely thorny plants. We do not have a boat, so we walk. I was skeptical from the start. I hike often in California, so just by looking I figure it is a good five miles. The terrain is mountainous, lots of switchbacks on the paved road.



So we start out walking from about where the white buildings start on the left side of the photo. We go down the mountain, around peaceful Livadi bay and start going up the other side of the mountain. We take a trail to a nearby beach, but it is not the one Andrea is dreaming of. We then decide to take a shortcut by not backtracking but just walking straight up the hill instead. We need to use a rusted goat fence for support, because the grade is so steep and the wind is blowing at gale force. Oh, I'm carrying my camera bag with about 10 lbs. of assorted stuff.



We finally reach the paved road and continue to walk higher and higher into the mountains. The road ends at a T stop and then becomes dirt, so we take the left fork, toward the sea. We keep walking and all I see are mountains, the water has vanished. There are tons of bee boxes, as the island is famous for honey.



Suddenly a nice Greek man with a map walks up and tells us that we will reach the beach if we walk 2.3 kilometers more!



I vote no, as we have little water and no food.



When we describe where we walked to locals they laugh and tell us we must be crazy.



You can see I took this shot in the middle of nowhere and still have to walk back to the white buildings far in the distance. Aahhh!



More soon.