Ios – Population: Me!
Apr 24th, 2007 by Ian
After nearly missing Ios altogether, I was tickled just to arrive at the Farout Beach Club and get my room. After staying at Kamari on Santorini and seeing what low season looks like, I was quite happy to find that there were other people staying at Farout and that there were some restaurants and bars open. Farout has an amazing resort feel to it – palm trees, kidney bean shaped pool, beach bar – especially after having spent the past two weeks staying in lower budget accomodation.
After checking out the beach scene and the area surrounding the hostel I decided to rent an ATV to explore the rest of the island. The shop keeper warned me that the ATVs are not all that stable and are prone to toppling over sideways and that I should be careful. The ATV actually came with a helmet, bonus!
Ios is quite a small island and you can easily explore all the large ticket items in a single day. My plan was to hit each site and subsequently find a spot to have a drink or something to eat. First stop the – supposed – tomb of Homer of Iliad and Odyssey fame.
I say ‘supposed’ because there is a lot of controversy over whether Homer was real. Many of the Greek Islands claim themselves as his birth place, and the tomb isn’t a specific location – it is claimed his tomb is somewhere near the spot they have built into a tourist area. After checking out the spot and views, and getting my ATV to start – it was a little fussy – I decided to take a dirt road and check out the closest beach – I did have an ATV after all – what’s the point if I don’t take any dirt roads. The beach ended up being quite small with rough water and large banks of seaweed.
Instead of backtracking to the tomb and getting back onto the paved road I decided to take another dirt road which I remembered connected back up with the main road. The first dirt road had been a piece of cake. 20 minutes into the new dirt road I finished off my bottle of water – it was quite hot and the island is very arid – and the road was getting difficult. At one point I had to stand and lean to one side in order to climb the washed out incline of the dirt road without toppling the ATV.
20 minutes more and I was a little worried that the dirt road hadn’t connected up to the main road. I had plenty of gas but I wasn’t looking forward to turning around and navigating the same road downhill. The road consisted of a lot of switchbacks and the terrain was quite hilly which prevented getting any sense of whether I was really going in the right direction. In addition to the issue of direction I was afraid if I shut off the ATV it wouldn’t start and I’d have to walk out. If it came to walking out, I’d first have to make it to the paved road and at that point I’d likely have a couple hours to wait before someone came along. None of the roads on Ios are really named or marked, only the towns have names, and signage is rare.
With all these concerns pressing on me I continued on. At one point the incline was steep enough that thumb to the lever I was maxing the atv out at 7 (seven!) km/h. After tourism, beekeeping must be the next biggest income source for the residents of Ios, and littered thoughout the dirt road switchbacks were bee boxes. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to have a bee hit you in the forehead at 82km/h (60km for the bike, and 22km for the bee) I recommend renting an ATV or scooter on Ios. 15 minutes later the dirt road connected back up with the paved road. I hadn’t noticed the 10.6 km marking on the map next to the dirt road – so much for a short cut. Oh well at least I got to use my snowmobile training to help me keep the ATV from toppling.
I stuck to the paved roads for the rest of my trip around the island. Unfortunately everything I visited was deserted which was fantasic for photos but not so good for finding a nice place to take a break from driving or finding food or water.