Alan: Another new island and one we have been moving towards with high anticipation. We have committed to a 10-day stay on Amorgos so we can unpack everything and stop worrying about ferries for a while! It is a particularly beautiful island, very mountainous and yet with several really attractive beaches. We landed from Naxos on the Skopelitis ferry at Katapola, the busier southern port and were transferred by a mini-bus to our accommodation where we are staying in Aigialis. The journey was amazing; the road climbs from the port to high on the mountainside and retains that height for much of the half hour journey. Aigialis is a port in its own right and is visited by some ferries. Before the road was built in 2008 the only connection between the two ports was by boat. When we arrived we at first thought we were facing 10 days in a single taverna, but having walked back into the port proper we found a good selection of shops, bars and restaurants so that element of our time will (literally) be well catered for.

The island presents similar challenges to Andros, it is apparent there is a lot to see, but how best to access it? There are buses but they tend to leave you for hours before a return is possible. Car hire is available and there certainly isn't much traffic so that will feature. A number of walks are possible though, despite the weather still not being reliable, it is rather hot to contemplate anything too significant. As the accommodation details promised we have a beautiful beach a mere 100 metres away as long as you don’t mind marching through the market garden fields opposite. Thankfully, following a more conventional route it still only takes about 5 minutes. I have made contact with the dive centre (next door to our accommodation) so a couple more dives are planned.

Deb: the ferry journey from Naxos was, in itself, a delight. We stopped at three smaller Cyclades islands but also passed through the "lesser Cyclades" – much smaller islands. What a beautiful journey – sunny really clear waters – a joy. Four hours of peace and beauty – very uplifting! It’s now Tuesday and we have been here five days – mixed weather – unbelievably we had rain – according to the lady in the dive centre “it never rains in Greece in summer” – hm. Also dark clouds but we have mainly had lovely sunny weather. The main feature here is the wind – I’ve never been anywhere like it – it is windy every single day and almost all day – veering to a gentle warm breeze to almost a gale! It’s very chilly every evening, which I am not used to as it is usually warm in June in the evenings. Did a fantastic snorkel today while Alan went diving – just went in off the sandy beach – saw a barracuda about 10 yards from me and about 50 yards off shore! Wow! Also saw lovely puffer fish and a beautiful wrasse (all the colours of the rainbow on a tiny fish). Who needs to scuba! There are quite a few rocks just off the sandy shore, so it is like a mini – “reef” – great. We had a “meal” in tonight – I cobbled a few things together in the room- but it was lovely. Especially as it is unbelievably windy outside – a great choice to stay in! Have hired a car for tomorrow – but there are some very stormy clouds out there so hoping the weather improves as it looks like there is a lot to see.

Deb: Wednesday, hired a car. Weather was again disappointing. It was really cloudy and humid. We went to Katapola and did quite a climb to the site of the Minoan city, but it was disappointing. Although it was in a lovely, high, scenic spot, the Greeks – being “the Greeks” had taken down all the information boards, so we could not really make any sense out of the site – it just seemed to be piles of rubble! When we got back to the harbour we had a very good frappe whilst watching the boats/ferries coming and going which was very relaxing! We then went to the Monastery near Hora (the capital). We did go to Hora first, which again was a bit disappointing. Quite scenic but it was hard to find our way around it (yet more narrow, swirling cycladian streets, with whitewashed houses that all look the same). Lovely, but hard to navigate around! The monastery was fantastic. Built into a cliff, very high up (yet more steps to climb – about 400 cut into the rock) We were ushered into the “living room” where the abbot was sitting with one other visitor. We were given Raki and a sweet (a kind of Greek, Turkish delight). The abbot was very engaging and amusing, even though he didn’t speak English! Anyway, we then went upstairs to see the view from the balcony outside the church – wow. Amazing. They had some really old icons in the church (going back 800 + years) and literally priceless. I asked if we could take photos – out of courtesy – but was told they didn’t like it. So obviously, out of respect, we didn’t take any. It didn’t stop others though. You have to marvel at their sheer ignorance. Why go to the trouble of visiting a place like that (not an “easy” climb and quite out of the way) if you have no interest or respect. I don’t know......had a nice meal in Langarda with the people from Alan’s scuba trip. Quite a lot of alcohol was consumed!

Thursday and Friday the weather is again not good, very cloudy, dark and humid, never known anything like it in Greece in mid-June. Did manage a couple of snorkels. There are quite a lot of rocks within a few metres off the sandy beach so it is like a mini house reef! Excellent views of fish. So that has been good. Hoping for a nice sunny day tomorrow as is our last one on Amorgos and as we only have a day or two on Santorini – with no sandy beaches – that will be our last swim in the Cyclades. Hope it improves!

Alan: Well if I have to summarise Amorgos in one word, despite the mixed weather, I would go with “wow”. We have stayed 5 minutes from a beautiful beach, but there is much more to this island. The mountains are spectacular, as are the roads that run through them. There are serious walking routes and places of interest. We have visited many villages on this trip (both traditional and touristy), but the ones we have seen on Amorgos seem to manage to be traditional while still providing such as a top quality taverna serving traditional Greek dishes. The meal in Langarda included dishes we had never seen before (fennel pie and carrot dip) which were really good. It seems such dishes don’t appear on the menus of tavernas normally found by tourists; sadly the impression is that such tavernas, good as they are, present a fairly standard menu which they believe will be “acceptable”. Shame.

As mentioned I did a further dive on Amorgos around the island of Nikouria (actually by the adjacent islet of Kramvonisi). Another enjoyable dive with huge mussels to be seen along with an octopus and a number of octopuses gardens (yes, they really do exist and the Aussy on the dive with me was singing the Beatles song during the dive – we heard the noise but didn’t manage to “beat the intro”). Inevitably the trip did not go altogether smoothly. Part way to the island with four of us in a small RIB the engine died and refused to restart. A phone call to shore elicited the advice to “paddle”. This we did, making some progress towards the dive site until the wind changed when we looked more likely to arrive back on Naxos or at least meet the ferry. Despite our improvised sail (a towel) and well over an hour’s paddling we had made little progress when a boat stopped to see if we needed assistance. Typically, this was immediately followed by a jet-ski driven by the local (off-duty) policeman and the dive centre’s new dive boat, launched specially for the rescue. Once again we changed boats leaving our dive guide in the RIB to be towed round to the dive site by the jet-ski. All was working after our dive (apprently adding fuel helped), but then they couldn’t get the anchor up, requiring the owner to don mask, fins and BCD to go and retrieve it! I had recounted my Naxos diving story, so the general feeling was that I am the jinx and no one should go one any more boats with me – Deb be warned!