Aussie street in Lovely Limnos

Our departure time from Bozcaada Island in Turkey was 6am – very early for us but entirely necessary in order to arrive at Limnos Island in Greece before the Customs and Port Authority closed down for the night – and possibly for the weekend.

After an excellent sail/motor we anchored in the pretty little outer harbour in Limnos early in the afternoon and before long our buddy boat Catabella had arrived and was tied up at the town wall.

The two skippers went into the Customs/Port Police at about 4 pm and were back on board in less than an hour. “That was quick” I thought as Jonathan came whizzing up to Sunday on the dinghy.

The Customs officer had been very helpful but she told the skippers that the Port Police weren’t actually there and would only be back at 7pm. So we had to wait on board until then.

When they went back at 7pm the passports were all stamped but we still hadn’t completed the clearance process. The skippers had to go back again at 9pm when customs reopened! The good news was that we were all allowed off our boats to have dinner.

It was so great to be on Greek soil once again and have such a choice of tavernas – even in this small village.

As the sun set we enjoyed watching the parade of people walking along the pretty sea front. The food was delicious and plentiful, the wine was so much cheaper than in Turkey and we all got served more or less at the same time (unlike at our disastrous last night meal in Turkey).

At 9 pm the skippers went back to the Customs office a final time – but the whole process took forever to complete! Jonathan was out by 10.45pm but poor John was there until 11.15pm! It was exhausting for the skippers but we were finally in Greece and all cleared in.

It was such a pleasure waking up the next day to this beautiful location. One of the things I just love about cruising is waking up to a new view every few days. This one was particularly special – a sweet village, a castle on the hill behind and the blue domed white-washed church perched on a cliff- picture perfect and all set off by the most unbelievably crystal clear water!

We had a very pleasant recovery day – just strolling through the narrow laneways, past the (closed) archeological museum, peaking into the tiny chapel in the centre of the village, looking at the old mansion houses, finding a waterside taverna for a rest and a carafe of white wine. Wonderful!

We climbed over the hill back to the small quay where we’d left our dinghy amongst the small colourfully painted fishing boats and had dinner on board Sunday.

We had hoped to be on our way over to the Northern Sporades – especially as Sue and John’s guests had a limited time on board before they had to move off the boat and get to Santorini where they had a villa booked.

Annoyingly the weather prediction was for high winds and big seas so it was decided to wait an extra day when the predictions were for less wind and a calmer sea.

The time wasn’t wasted though – we made water, did some washing and generally caught up on some chores before climbing up to the Byzantine castle that overlooks the town, in the afternoon.

Built on a peninsula between two natural harbours, the fortress is the largest of its kind in the Aegean. Construction of the castle began in 1186 AD under the Byzantine emperor Andronicus Komnenos, on the site of an earlier ancient fortification. Construction continued under the Venetians in the 13th century when they conquered the island.

The views from the top of the fortress were quite breathtaking and it was fascinating to see the outline of different sections such as the barracks, guard posts, the entrance gates etc. but we were disappointed not to see even a trace of the Platoni deer herd that lives there.

The following day the weather still wasn’t great so we decided to stay a further extra day and hire a car to have a look around the island.

We had a wonderful day exploring and saw some absolutely glorious wild flowers, some pretty windmills, visited a winery and had a wine tasting (and bought some wine).

We paid our respects at an Australian War Cemetery (Limnos had played an important part in the Gallipoli campaign), found a road called Anzac Street near the cemetery, and ate a fabulous lunch at a restaurant by the sea,

After lunch we discovered the ancient site of Hephaestia (the original capital of Limnos), tried to go round the ancient church in Moudros (which was closed) and ended up on the most northern tip of the island being turned around by two soldiers standing guard at the entrance to an army base.

Our varied and interesting day finished up with a really good meal at a taverna called Agnati situated almost opposite Catabella’s mooring. Delicious food and a great welcome from the proprietor Thanus. And so ended our short stay on lovely Lemnos.