20. Greece: Chios - Volissos and Lithi

It takes about three and a half hours on the midday ferry from Mytilene, the capital of Lesvos to Chios, the capital of Chios.

We have 12 days in Chios over four locations - Volissos, Lithi, Emporeios and Kalvokoressi.

The historical town of Volissos is a hill town, so we stayed at Limnos, closer to the beach. If we turned right from our apartment we had the beach ....

If we turned left we had the pretty well deserted port.

We opted for the beach. It was pretty isolated by our standards- no shop, no petrol pumps but it redeemed itself by having umbrellas and sun beds and a taverna for drinks, toilets and dinner.

Our next stop was Lithi, on the west coast.  A beautiful (and rare) sandy beach and a hotel room right in front of the view.

At about 7pm the locals went home and only the four tourists remained.

Again, Lithi had no shop at which to purchase water or food and no petrol. While water is available from the restaurants and cafes we had to drive about 30km for fuel and some beer, fruit, cheese, biscuits etc.

Every single toilet we have visited in Greece, including on all of the ferries, has a "nothing at all in the toilet" policy. One must put one's used toilet paper in the bin provided. Needless to say, in the current heatwave, the bins that are not changed daily get a bit smelly. There have been some strange signs but this was the nicest.