Caving on Iraklia

We picked a random little island that looked interesting. Iraklia. It's in the chain called the small cyclades. Unlike Apollon, it was easy to get a room here even though it is relatively deserted. In the summer, it probably has its share of tourists, but there are maybe a total of six here now. And the number of residents on the island is currently somewhere around sixty, and everyone knows everyone. I don't think anyone locks doors. You can count the number of children on the island: eight I think. And there are six cars, one "island truck", a few scooters and four dogs. Plenty of stray cats though. Families of goats roam the island, and whenever they are needed, I imagine a herder goes out and scrounges one up. The cars and scooters are used to get between the port town and the inland town, though it's in walkable distance. There is only one open restaurant now, and it seems to be the local hang out. Locals lounge on the veranda and play backgammon drinking coffee. The other town, Panagia, has the bakery, which is also the shop and taverna and post office.

There seems to be a church here for every five people.

















There is a huge cave system on Iraklia, and the main entrance is a hike to the far other side of the island. We went there yesterday, and I think I hiked more than I ever have in my life in one day. On top of exploring the cave, we explored almost the entire island on foot, starting in the morning and arriving back at the hotel a little after sunset.
















The cave entrance is small; you have to crawl through.

















Here is the main chamber. Every year, there is a festival held here. There are the remains of lots of tea lights here. I wish we had bought a bag. I imagine the look of the cave lit by many little candles would be awesome and spooky.















There are many interesting formations in the cave.






























I had a spool of string, one end tied to a tree outside. As we descended deeper, more string was let out from my backpack. I'm pretty sure we would have gotten lost and disoriented without this.




















There are many chambers in the cave. Sometimes you can see a hole between the rocks and make out a chamber below, though there is not always an easy way down. The deepest chambers have no oxygen, so we turned around after we had enough.