Fortune smiled on us, and the wind guided us straight to Paroika on
Paros. The wind died briefly when we said, 'Oh this is good, we're
pointing at Paros', but it filled in again shortly after.
The entrance to the port has some very large and obvious offlying rocks,
and some not so obvious below the water. In 2000 a ferry hit the large
obvious ones at night in a gale, which sunk the ferry and 500
passengers. The miraculous rescue of over 400 of the passengers was
entirely down to the local boat and fishing community. It is thought
that the ferry was on autopilot and didn't take account of the current.
This utter arrogance and incompetence, caused the loss of around 80
souls. When you see this huge rock in the daytime it beggars belief that
this accident happened so recently.
We anchored in the top of the bay, expecting 4 days of northerly gales.
We extracted the bikes from the forecabin, rowed them ashore in the
dinghy, assembled them in front of a taverna and set off to explore.
We'd been recommended a beautiful place, called 'The Butterfly Valley',
home to zillions of pretty butterflies. First we took wrong turn and
mounted an impossibly steep hill, which infuratingly only led to a
property development. The hill was so steep that it hurt to walk up, let
alone push a bike up it. Realising our error, we descended carefully and
slowly and continued along the main route, to find numerous signs
guiding us to Butterfly Valley. Up and over another steep long hill and
down into the valley, we found the entrance and the sign on the securely
locked gate in simple explanatory terms - End of Season - No
Butterflies! Shame they didn't put a sign on one of the 5 or 6 road
signs at the bottom of the hill!!! Grrr...
Anyway we had a great cycle offroad-downhill back to town. 2 hours up,
10 minutes down.
The town is a fascinating warren of arches and paved alleys, tavernas,
trinket shops, tourist tat, more than an average number of shoe shops,
and some stunning craft shops. Despite the tourists it is a lovely town
and some supplies are still delivered by donkey from the hills, and old
men sell their farm vegetables in the central square. After a walking
shoe and bikini upgrade in the end of season sales we packed the bikes
back into the boat, much to the entertainment of the tourists enjoying
sundowners at the taverna.
By morning the forecast had been downgraded to force 4-5 from the north
and the captain was twitchy to be on the move.
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