BS: Postcard from 'Dendros' 2026

Subject: BS: Postcard from 'Dendros' 2026
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 12 Jul 26 - 05:42 AM

Postcard from ‘Dendros’ 2026

Sharp eyed among you will have noticed there was no report from ‘Dendros’ last year as illness forced us to cancel at the last moment. So this year was our 21st visit to the island I call Dendros in 31 years, 15 of them at the same accommodation. We had a smooth journey out now we have stopped driving in the early hours and parking and waiting for shuttle bus, we now used our local ‘Afghan Taxis’ to take us with their usual reliable service.

Our plane boarded on time but took off half an hour late. We were prewarned of ferry problems so had booked online for 2 sailings dependent on our arrival time. We could have caught the earlier foot ferry if we had not stopped for lunch but were in good time for the next which didn’t arrive as it had broken down. We got a refund and booked for the car ferry, just another hour and a half to wait, but cheaper and slower. Our long-suffering landlord met us as usual (after a barrage of calls updating him of our arrival time.

He had a Dutch could in the larger apartment who had been there for a month and we had agreed to stay in the smaller one until they left 3 days later. We hadn’t stayed in the smaller apartment for years and had forgotten how inconvenient the bathroom was. You had to stand with one foot in the shower to open the door. The best thing about the larger one is the larger balcony with (as we always say) the best view in Greece- based on staying on 45 other islands since 1982.

The usual generous welcome pack awaited us: wine, savoury and sweet snacks, water, jam, honey. We had the usual warm welcome at our favourite taverna, news and photos of a recent wedding. During the week we met several old friends: local, ex-pat and returning holidaymakers. The local cockerel still crows at strange hours, had lost his tail and developed a limp!

Although locals are very welcoming of visitors, the Demos (council) and mayor seem on a mission to reduce numbers. Last year the oft-contested mooring buoys provided by tavernas for visiting yachts had to be removed. In windy conditions the boats are at risk of dragging their anchors so they now go to a more sheltered bay further from the village. The number of boats in the bay used to be 12 to 20 any night. This year it was more like 6-10. Over the last few years some of the tavernas have encroached on the beach with chairs and tables, decking and fixed thatched umbrellas as well as sun lungers. This year licences were revoked on several beaches including this one. No problem for locals who bring their own, or for us as our landlord had provided new beach chairs and beds, we just had to carry them back and forth each day. Some taverna owner with a pile of unusable loungers arranged to ‘sell’ one or two to visitors (with receipt) and buy them back at the end of their stay. Certainly, visitors coming in un the few unreliable buses and trip boats were down on previous years. We prefer the quieter village but it isn’t good for the businesses.

We had a dry thundery day and several days so windy the ferries were cancelled (luckily not when we were due to leave). We spent most days on the beach or on our balcony but we did do a couple of local walks, one flat one round the bay and one steeper one round the headland on the still uncompleted road.

One day we took the bus into the very busy and noisy capital. Herself wanted to stock with incense for her church and also some ceramic crosses which she gives to new curates and lay ministers. We also took the time to visit the Maritime and Folk Museum which I don’t think we’d been to since our first visit in 1995. The keen curator insisted on giving us a personal tour and put on a video on sponge fishing for a visiting group and kept stopping it to add more information. As we were familiar with the history we crept away and took a taxi back. The sponge shop where we bought the crosses gave us a free pendant and the church shop a free saints day (Orthodox) calendar.

Our landlord’s family obviously thought we needed feeding up as the son brought us a box of eclairs when he came up to tend the plants and on another occasion a car-wheel sized hoe cooked tiropita (cheese pie) which served us for 2 lunches. On our last day Herself was given a scarf and I got a bottle of wine to take home. Our usual taverna gave Herself a necklace, more incense and I got a bottle of 5* Metaxa.

As usual there were impromptu singalongs in the taverna most evenings from our host and visiting musicians with their own or his stash of guitars. One German yachts crew leader had a repertoire including Drunken Sailor, banana boat song and Hava Nagila. He also played kazoo so we compared instruments: both equally battered! Lacking my usual backing (or leading) group of the Musician and the Author, who were unable to come this year, I restricted myself to a couple of renditions of House of the Rising Sun and Goodnight Irene and joining in with choruses.

We were surprised one night on the way back to our apartment along the beach to see a hedgehog on the shingle, probably taking snails off an old stone pesoula wall. One day a large moth adopted our balcony, we identified it later as a Striped Hawkmoth. (Hyles lirveata livornica) or kandilavestis in Greek. A cormorant was often fishing below our balcony in the mornings, a lone gull patrolled the beach and the usual goats tried to reach ‘our’ flowers over the fence.

One morning 3 of the Demos workers, the with tools and one with hi-vis jacket and a work order hammered 2 notices by the gate from our apartment to the beach. One had the falling rocks sign, the other in Greek and English said ‘Beware Landslide’. Apart from the odd pebble dislodged by the goats we have never seen a problem there. The local families who used the spot for their afternoon swim took no notice. Our landlord’s son came and said ‘wrong place’, uprooted the and moved them further round to where there had been a fall in the winter. The locals still went there!

On the Feast Day of John the Baptist the local youths jump over fires. This used to take place on the jetty with much macho diving into the sea and somersaults. Now there aren’t enough idle young men in the village so the young mothers put on a smaller version on the beach for the children, even carrying babies over the fires.

The Demos was evident on a further occasion. One of the businesses was involved in some property transfer so 3 car loads of civil servants arrived to measure and photograph and compare with the plans they held. Two archaeologists came as well, though as the property was the furthest in the village from the three neglected sites, they had nothing to contribute, just sat on the beach wall, smoking. One site is a neolithic ‘castle’. This is a cave with a defensive wall constructed of Cyclopean blocks and a natural rock tower with steps cut it to serve as a look-out. This is unmarked, unfenced and regularly used as a goat shelter. The second, also unfenced and unmarked, is described by guide books as a mausoleum. Locals dispute its antiquity and say it is an old barn and is also used as a goat shed. The third, which is fenced and marked is the Early Christian Baths. This is a few stone walls barely visible in an overgrown field. The fence is broken, the field full of rubbish and, as it is near the fishermen’s harbour, has dead boats and netting and ropes cluttering it up.

Our return journey wasn’t too bad. Taxi to the port, boat was repaired and running on time. We went straight to the airport and had to wait for bag drop to open. 20 minutes in the bag drop queue, breezed through security then spotted the long passport control queue so joined it before eating. 40 minutes later we were through to the gate so we grabbed a snack to eat on the plane. Plane on time, usual walk of miles at Gatwick to get to passport control, baggage was waiting, taxi on time, someone else to cope with rush hour M25 jams.

Herself is already saying we should book early for 2027 to ensure we get the bigger apartment and she would like to celebrate her 80th birthday there in June 2028. I’ll be nearly 85 then so…one year at a time. As I get older the journey with all the threats of airport and ferry problems, followed by dragging our luggage along 100 metres of shingle beach and then up 24 steps to the apartment takes me a day to recover. In September we hope to be off to Syros (island 46) at the moment there is nothing else on our increasingly picky bucket list. Will there be a Postcard (or is this a blog or podcast, I’m not sure!) in 2027?

RtS

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Paragraph breaks added for readability. Roger, please hit enter (carriage return!) a second time at the end of each paragraph and it won't be an alphabet wall on the screen. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: BS: Postcard from 'Dendros' 2026
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 26 - 12:45 PM

I'll read this more closely later, but it sounds like a lovely trip. How long did you stay there?

Subject: RE: BS: Postcard from 'Dendros' 2026
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 12 Jul 26 - 01:16 PM

SRS, Just 2 weeks as usual.
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Postcard from 'Dendros' 2026
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 19 Jul 26 - 04:16 AM

Refresh for one time only.
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Postcard from 'Dendros' 2026
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Jul 26 - 10:08 AM

Finding a good seat is something I can empathize with.

Subject: RE: BS: Postcard from 'Dendros' 2026
From: DaveRo
Date: 19 Jul 26 - 12:04 PM

Roger the Skiffler wrote: Last year the oft-contested mooring buoys provided by tavernas for visiting yachts had to be removed. In windy conditions the boats are at risk of dragging their anchors so they now go to a more sheltered bay further from the village.

More sheltered, yes, but the holding is bad there too. In windy conditions there's nothing like being moored to a concrete-filled fridge!