Still on holidays...

...I wish. Mind you, work was cancelled yesterday, and when it's cancelled at short notice we still get paid. I was just about to sign in when I heard my phone beep, so I promptly headed home again.
These photos are all from the south of the island. I've included a rare one of me. The biggest problem with the dirt-bike (for me - having to to kickstart it all the time was getting to C after a few days) was that there was no storage space, so I had to carry a backpack all the time. Next time I'll remember to pack a bungee cord or two.
The first two photos are both of Marathonissi Island - also known as Turtle Island, for obvious reasons. It is, actually, also one of the beaches that the loggerhead turtles nest on. The following two pictures are another turtle-nesting beach, Gerakas, at the southern end of the island. It has amazing rock structures, clay and red rock. The turtle beaches are lovely beaches to visit - they are all in a National Marine Park area. Because of the nests, people have to stay within 3 metres of the sea, and also any known nests which are marked with little wooden cages. There are also no water sports - beyond pedalos and little canoes - and people have to leave by sun-down. This was our favourite of all the 12 beaches/swimming sites we visited. Even though it was at the end of a pretty windy road with a LOT of hairpin bends over gorges (dry now, but rivers in winter) we went three times.





This is Agios Sostis - no turtles here. The sand was rock hard, the sea stayed shallow for as far as I swam out, and was so warm it was like swimming in a tepid bath. There was a little islet off it which had been formed in an earthquake in the 17th century. But since there was a €4 admission charge to see it, including a *free* drink in one of the two bars, we passed up on the experience. And having seen it from the far side on the morning we hired a motorboat, I don't think we missed a lot. We could see the clay formation in this picture as soon as we came over the crest of the hill above the port.
The next photo is Limni Keri port and village, seen from a headland above it. There is a large marshland area behind it, where there are some natural bitumen ponds. It's so overgrown with rushes and long grasses that we couldn't see them, but my goodness, we could most certainly smell them. And the last photo is nothing special, it was taken at Keri headland, and I've only stuck it in because I am in it :D. The whole headland was lovely, heavily wooded with some type of light-green pine, and smelling just heavenly.