Skíros (Part 2)

The island of Skíros is in 2 parts, ‘the Rock and the Forest’, which may at one stage have been 2 separate islands. Astride our little scooter we were able to explore some of the remote and beautifully wild areas of ‘the Rock’ bit of the island.

Robert Brooke’s tomb

Almost hidden in an olive grove is the tomb of the poet Robert Brooke. Serving as a naval officer in the fleet bound for Gallipoli he died on 23 April 1915 of blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite and was buried on the nearest land at the time. Known for his idealistic war sonnets we instantly recognised the “If I should die, think only this of me: that there’s in some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England…” poem on his gravestone, even if previously we would not have been able to have put a name to the author from memory.

Suitably enlightened from our visit to Brooke’s grave, to the call of “Saddle up and ride!” we hit the road again travelling further to the southeast to try to find one of the strangest things George had told us about.

Some of the Skíros rock ‘sculptures’

On either side of the remote piece of road that leads to the southeast corner of the island are lots of rock ‘sculptures’. Some are just rough rock pillars but others are clearly animals. At one place rocks have ben laid out to represent a man lying on the ground. They really are most bizarre but, for us, very reminiscent of the pink granite rocks of North Brittany where we also found that the harder you looked at the rocks, the more clearly animal shapes appeared in them. We could find no reference to them in our guidebook nor on the Web but George seemed to think that they had been put in place by one (or more?) of the road builders. Presumably he had an eye for seeing animal shapes in some of the rocks transported up to be the foundations of the road and set them aside.

Our training to be extras in any future remake of the film ‘Easy Rider’ continued but with regular stops to enjoy the scenery (and to allow some blood supply back into our delicate derrières). We left the southern part of the island behind us and headed back towards Skíros town with its chóra and castle on the prominent pinnacle. We stopped at a supermarket to get a few essentials just as it opened up at 6pm and then went to the only functioning petrol station on the island. Our afternoon’s drive around, including all of the steep hill climbs, had used just 1.7 litres of fuel. It hindsight it was a little embarrasing to top up with so little fuel but the gauge was showing half, we didn’t know how much fuel that meant, and at least we knew the tank was full, ready for our drive around the northern part of the island the next day.

The ‘chapel in the rock’

We were so close that it seemed silly not to head a little further out along the beach road and to the end of the peninsula we’d see from the castle earlier in the morning. Here we found what George had described as the ‘chapel in the rock’.

 It was all very picturesque in the early evening light, with great views back towards the chóra.

View from our beachside restaurant

We enjoyed the view so much that we couldn’t resist stopping at a beachside restaurant where we initially enjoyed a cool beer and some calamari. As the evening light turned even more golden we decided to stay there for dinner as well, eating a Skíros specialty of lobster with spaghetti.

Skíros, Greece