Rhodes in December

The 'elephant in the room', it seems, here on Rhodes right now is the awful murder of the young girl student from northern Greece, who was studying here on Rhodes. I don't want to go into the ins and outs of the case, except to say that it's a terrible tragedy that has shocked the island to the core. There is so much more behind the obvious in this case, which is one reason why it wouldn't be a good idea to talk about it here.

The awful thing, well, one of the awful things, is that the poor girl's body floated ashore in a beautiful little secluded bay to the south east of Pefkos, a bay about which I'd only just watched a brief YouTube video showing a rock that intrigued me, and so I'd wanted to go and have a look. The bay is popular with scuba diving excursions and hasn't got very much actual beach, but it does have crystal clear waters and, like I said, a fascinating rock which juts out into the sea, on which one can walk, with one or two almost circular holes in it, down through which you can see the waters lapping 15 feet below you. It can be quite dangerous, in that there is no barrier around the holes. You need to be very aware. I'm told by one or two locals that the villagers used to lower their cheeses down into these holes with ropes, in order to keep them cool.

So, without going into the details of the case that's of course ongoing in the media here, I'm going to show you some photos, which I was due to go and take well before the case made the news. We took a drive out on Thursday December 20th, the day before the shortest day of the year. Here are the photos I took during that excursion...

Firstly, Fokia Bay, Pefkos.

This was taken on the rock with the holes in it. The holes from here are behind me and to the left.

The rock with the holes in it is visible here, above and slightly to the left of centre.

You can see what I mean about being alert. You could walk right into this if you weren't watching where you were going.

Next, the Astronomy Café, on the headland south of Faliraki and north of Anthony Quinn Bay.

Owing to its location, quite a long way up a small road on the headland between Anthony Quinn and Faliraki, the Astronomy Café is closed off-season, but we wanted to do a reccy, since we hadn't yet ever been there. You can follow a path for about a fifteen minute walk down to Anthony Quinn Bay from here too.

As you can see, it has its own observatory for customers to stargaze while enjoying an evening drink.

This was taken just over the fence past the observatory. The far headland is the one at Anthony Quinn.

And, finally, Faliraki, perhaps as you'd never seen it before. I have to admit to being someone who avoids the place most of the time at all costs. Yet, the harbour to the south of the main beach is a delight, and we're definitely aiming to go and eat there one evening this coming summer...

Yes, Faliraki has its own little fleet of delightful traditional fishing boats, reminding one of the fact that, prior to mainstream tourism coming here, it was a tiny fishing village. It's nice to see that there are still a few locals carrying on the tradition.

Now I could see myself enjoying a nice meal here, could you?

This shot reminded me a little of Elounda, in Crete. And that surprised me, to say the least.

On the main road through Faliraki, is a café called the Mythos. Notwithstanding the fact that it's in Faliraki, it's full of locals at this time of the year and the prices are excellent. Thus we had a drink and a cheese pie there before moving on...

Inside the Mythos Café

If you're a regular in Greece, you'll know that it's nothing unusual for the local sparrow population to be quite brazen about going into supermarkets and bars to pick up any crumbs they can scavenge. But here in the Mythos, we found this lovely little pied wagtail getting in on the act.

Here's a short video of him hanging around waiting for some filo crumbs from our cheese pie...