We visited the ancient Temple of Dimitra, just about in the middle of the island.
Mind you, almost every road on Naxos is a newly paved asphalt, and despite the fact that you won't find a straight stretch long enough to unwind a superbike, it is quite sufficient for a middleweight sportsbike, or even a heavyweight (read: our... GS!) provided it's ridden sensibly. Alas, you don't want to land to... New Zealand in case you fall down on a deep hillside, do you?! Truly, however the ideal bike for this island would be a middleweight dual purpose bike, capable of doing some decent dirt road too (where's my old F650?!). I think it's sufficient enough to say that the big Bimmer was almost entirely left in 3rd geat for the complete island tour!
Upon arrival at the port, we saw this lovely brand "new" Fiat! See? They don't.... rust anymore!!!!!!
This is the kind of roads you will see all around the island. And the sight of small churches, oh well, they are everywhere!
This is Filoti, the biggest village in the middle of the island, and a cross point for the roads crossing the island.
Wildlife abounds. Especially on southbound roads, where the island is more deserted than the north, where it's more populated.
See what we meant about the little churches? This one is just opposite Filoti, about 3 km from it, but... you need some good hiking boots to walk the trail leading to it. The obvious question arises: How were these little churches built on tops of rocks, in the middle of nowhere? The answer is quite simple, here. Locals used donkeys to carry the stuff needed, like cement and sand, and usually they used locally found rocks to build them. In fact on the road from Filoti to Danakos (see one of the next pages) we saw some guys walking the trail up a rocky hill with donkeys full of cement sacks. On the top were some other guys building the little church. Amazing!
This one is built right on the roadside, on a pass at about 900m height. Well, okay you guys who have conquered the Col De La Bonette (I did too, in the summer of 2000, see the story here) remember we are talking of a 20km wide and 35km high island! This is the road that leads to Himaros tower, south of Filoti.
And this is the Himaros tower, just at the end of the asphalt road. If you wish to travel south, it's about 10-12 more km's of easy dirt road, to the beach of Kalandos. We didn't try it, because the Bridgestones of the Bimmer are not in the best of shapes. Maybe next time!
This tower is reported to be made around the 6th century BC and it's been saved in quite a good shape till now. Right now, there is a work of restoration taking place.
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