After the relatively peaceful, albeit damp, experience in Leros, we headed to the bright lights of Kalymnos. A small island serviced by two ferries a day from Kos, it still has a a low key feel despite the main street of restaurants and bars – certainly no sign or sound of the all night clubs and music we had encountered in Kos harbour!

The sail across to Kalymnos was a gentle two hours, and despite the sunshine the fab wind in the sails meant that the three Stevenage mermaids had to don sweatshirts for the chill and hats for the shade!!

A few weeks on (yes I’m very late catching up!) it is really strange to look back at us with jackets and long trousers – today in Turkey it is 34 degrees and the evenings are just about bearable heading out in shorts and T shirts!

Kalymnos is definitely one of my favourite places – it is not as picturesque as Santorini or a hidden gem like Folegandros but it is lively and the back streets are full of quaint family run restaurants.

I had spotted this restaurant the previous time we were in Kalymnos, and took this picture on our way to have a pre dinner cocktail. It struck me as very quirky, and with no sign of tourists so we thought this might be an option for dinner.

As we approached on our return, we could see that the restaurant tables were all full and the delightful sounds of traditional Greek music were being played. Two men were seated in the tiny space inside the restaurant building playing some familiar and not so familiar tunes on Bouzoukis and we listened whilst waiting for a table.

Ouzo and white wine were served with some small meze dishes and then some more meze dishes and then you realise there is no real menu to speak of they just bring you what they have! It was wonderful! We have had this kind of experience a two or three times before and I love the fact that you get to try food that possibly would never make it to your plate normally. The food, music, ambience and the very busy waitress were all fantastic.

The following day we hired a car and took Claire and Hayley on the tour of Kalymnos. The ground covered was not vast but the two other main coastal areas of Vathy and Emporio we were pleased to see again and show our guests the quieter side of the island.

After an incredibly tasty and very filling lunch we headed back to the boat and spent the evening on board, people watching, chatting and enjoying the calm of the evening. We were all feeling very mellow so you can imagine how we all jumped out of our skins when the most incredible noise ricocheted around the harbour reverberating off of the mountains surrounding us! I knew it was not an Earthquake (you may remember we had one on our last visit here!) and it seemed too loud to be gun fire (although this region is known for boar hunting). Looking around there was no indication of where the noises were coming from. We were absolutely baffled. And then another explosive sound quickly followed by a third and just when we all had our blood pressure and heart rate back to normal it happened again another four times!

I knew that there were still post Easter celebrations taking place but could not fathom how these explosive noises were relevant to it! Claire spoke to the lady on the next boat and found out that yes they were part of Easter celebrations and in fact, if we looked up to the top of the mountain, where the old cannons were placed, we would see actual people lighting and then throwing actual sticks of dynamite!! WTF!!!!

And so, the following day it was time to say an emotional ‘Goodbye’ to our friends, seeing them off on the ferry to Kos to catch their flight back to the UK.

We then had just a few days before the arrival of our next visiting friends, Bun and Falco who would be turning up in Kos. What we had not foreseen was the crashing waves, rain and wind that would greet them! Getting on the boat for the first time in these conditions was like something out of ‘It’s A Knockout’! We all felt a little seasick without even going anywhere!!

More on this next time!

Sail safe and be kind.

Love Tracey xxx