Diros Caves August 16/09

Osmos Dirou August 16/09

We motored to Diros and anchored off the entrance to caves.

First we had a swim, got cleaned and dressed and then dinghied to shore
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We walked quite a distance to buy tickets to go through the cave. 12 euros each.

Once inside it was nice and cool. The cave system that we were boated through is 1500 metres long with many huge caverns off to the sides that are not yet explorable. The known length of the cave is 14 kilometres. We were in a flat bottomed boat which was navigated by a competent oarsman. Sometimes we missed a formation by only centimetres. Sadly, he shoved off many stalagmites and stalactites while we were wended our way through.

The caves are lighted all the way through so it helped in taking pictures (once I remembered to put my flash on!) and we saw so many incredible formations. A truly memorable place.

After getting off the boat we still walked another 800 metres through more cave before coming out into the heat of the day. What a contrast.

We motored the boat up to the little town of Limeni, thinking it would have more facilities – it didn't.

Jim and I walked to a hotel where I could be on the internet for an hour (3 euros – or 5 Cdn.). We had a frappe and then walked back to a beach side taverna to have a light supper.

There are Maniot tower houses around here too, interesting but not charming. They are built in grey stone and not decorated at all.