Photos to add when wi-fi connection found

We did go hire the quad bike, and spent Friday roaring (well, in a 50cc sort of way) across Ios - checking out the beaches.  Most were deserted.  We ended up choosing one of the eastern coast stretches for an afternoons sea and sun.

Riding the quad bike was fun.  Max 50 kph (and that’s downhill with a tail wind), but you always felt like you were flying.  Many of the beach roads in Ios are not tarmac. On the map they say either ‘dirt’ or ‘poor dirt’.  We only got onto the first category and found them hairy enough as they wind down and up the hilly coastline over a mixture of craggy bedrock and red dirt.

Also decided not to spend another 3 days on Ios, so we slid over to Milos some 35 miles westward on the Saturday.

Hung at anchor off the village of Pollonia on the N tip of Milos, and devoted some time to boat maintenance in crystal waters under sunny skies.

The island of Milos is where they found the marble statue called Venus de Milos in the late 19^th century.  It’s funny, but I’ve always pronounced it before as Venus de ‘Mylow’ , but now knowing they pronounce the island as ‘Meelos’,  I’ve been practising the correct name for the statue.

The statue was found by a farmer when clearing his fields of old Grecian carved stones to build up his field walls.  He removed the top half (its made up of two bits of marble) and negotiated to sell it to the French consul who took it to his residence for safekeeping.  The French ship sent to collect it arrived to find it had been forcibly removed by the Sultans Governor (Milos was still then under Turkish control), and moved onto a ship bound for Istanbul. 

The French captain decided to reclaim the statue and landed an armed party which, after a brief skirmish, managed to get it back on board the French ship.  It was said that it was during this skirmish that the Venus de Milos lost her arms, which were spirited away by a local.  Despite various rumours over the years that the arms have re-appeared, the Venus still has not got them back, so she remains (I believe in the Louvre) as we all know her.

Sailed back to Ios Monday midday, and secured another safe berth on the town quay.  This time did not avoid the Port Police so had to pay for our three nights whilst we shoot over by fast ferry to Santorini on Tuesday.  Cost of fast ferry (30 mins) is 16.50 euros per person.  All returning on slow ferry (90 mins) on Wednesday at 6.40 euros per person.  Must be cattle class.

Current weather over Ios looks sad.  Started to rain heavily Monday night with winds gusty winds from the east, still same today.  Not best start to Jude and Vivs mini cruise with us, but at least the forecast does say it will clear through inside 48 hours.

Cheers

JOHN and SUE