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Rhodes - Venturing into the Interior by Liz Canham


#30 - 17 - 5 - Rhodes - Venturing into the Interior by Liz Canham
[ 2008-03-20 10:58:03 ] - lizc

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When I visited Rhodes with my husband some years ago, we stayed in the small seaside resort of Pefkos. After a few days of lazing around we decided that we'd better see something of the island so we hired a car for three days and set off on day one for Rhodes town. There was so much to see and write about Rhodes town that that will be the subject of a separate article, so I'll move swiftly on to day two.
We set off via the pretty town of Lardos heading for Laérma by the mountain roads. The air was scented with pine trees and en route we frequently passed tiny white-painted shrines as well as, rather worryingly, even more frequent bunches of flowers laid by the roadside (presumably to mark the site of a fatal accident).

A detour took us to the minute Moní Tharri monastery, built between the 9th and 13th centuries and famed for its frescoes dating from 1000AD. We couldn't go in as the caretaker wasn't there but the gardens were attractive and worth a visit.

Sixteen kilometres of unmade road took us to Apollona where we stopped for a cold drink. It was a very slow drive as the car insurance didn't cover damage to the underside and the road was covered in very nasty sharp flinty stones but the rugged scenery and the distant view of Mount Attáviros made it worth while.

On we went, over more unmade roads through Salakos and Kalvarda to Kamiros on the Aegean coast, home of an ancient ruined city, probably founded by the Cretans and excavated by the Italians in 1929. Unfortunately the dig was interrupted by World War II leaving a larger city undisturbed beneath the surrounding hills.

It's a fair walk from the car park to the site entrance, up a winding but shady road, until suddenly the whole city is spread out in front of you, set into a hollow in the hillside. If you walk straight up the path to the ridge at the top, you can enjoy the vista of the whole city sloping down to the sea.

We are told that you are now standing on the remains of a covered walkway dating from the 3rd century BC, beneath which is a 6th century cistern which would have held 600 cubic metres of water. You can still see some of the pipes which have remained intact along with the sites of the religious and public buildings together with the residential area.

Further along the coast is the modern fishing port of Kámiros Skála where the road turns away from the sea back in towards the interior and the hilltop castle of Kritina.

Having detoured around the summit of Mount Attáviros, we reached Émbonas, surrounded by tobacco fields and vineyards and known for its women folk dancers who perform at many of the island's festivals. These same women while away the afternoons crocheting as they sit outside their front doors, interrupted only by tourists stopping to admire the woven blankets and rag rugs displayed for sale.

A visit to Émbonas is not complete without a tour of one of the wineries. We chose the Emery winery and enjoyed a free tasting of red, white and a champagne-type wine but mindful of airline baggage restrictions, we only bought one bottle of each.

The road twisted onwards to Ágios Issidorus where we turned again onto another unmade road back to Laéma and Pefkos, the whole jouney taking in 163 kilometres.

From Travellers' Tales
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