Day 22: Dropped Pin Beach

Trip

Greece 2022

Location

Milos 🇬🇷

Date

September 17, 2022

Public transport on small islands is underfunded. It makes sense that, given the small taxpayer base and the massive visitor influx during part of the year, setting up and funding a bus every fifteen minutes to popular island destinations would be challenging. Milos, for instance, operates a bus service every hour to some of its most popular destinations, but there are exceptions. The schedule is particularly irregular during the afternoon break, between approximately 14:30 and 16:30, with some variations. It doesn’t foster the desire to rely on them, but when the alternative is renting a car, one does what one needs.

Our day started with breakfast at Egoist. They are well-rated on Google, and the pictures of the food looked nice. The pancakes are something to behold, according to Karine, too. We used our breakfast to plan our day. The original plan was: bus to Plaka, visit the village, do a hike that loops to a fishing village and a couple of beaches, go back, bus to our hotel, and do laundry before dinner. The thing is, Smart&Fast Clean Laundry (actual name) closes at 17:00 on Saturday and is closed on Sunday. Since we’re unlikely to come back in time and really need to do laundry, we scrapped our plan for the day.

The thing is, on a small island, nothing is that far. For the specific hike we had in mind, leaving from our hotel or from Plaka is, actually, the same distance. After laundry and a delicious coffee at Aragosta Coffee Shop, one street over, we hung our clothes on a hot, dry line and went on a revised version of our hike.

We went to Papikinou beach, not far from the port. A beach bordered with trees is not that common in my experience, and it does give it charm. The commercial port in the background takes away some of it, however.

From there, we took a road across fields up on the spine of the island and down on back roads to Mandrakia, a charming village on a cove. Moving from the island’s caldera to its outer portion showcases the unique geology of the island—dark red rocks contrasting with the bone white slabs. We walked near Sarakiniko Beach with its white rocks jetting into the sea.

On our way back from Mandrakia, we stopped at what I initially thought was a marked beach on the map, but it turned out to be just a road leading to White Rocks on the blue sea. The two-meter sheer drop to the sea suggested it wasn't a beach. While the crystalline waters of the Aegean Sea made it clear we could plunge in without risk, nobody thought to provide a ladder to come out. Why nobody expected people to want to go for a swim in the middle of nowhere and provide a convenient ladder is beyond me. Also, I checked, and Google Maps was very specific about it being nowhere in particular. I resolved to use the name Google gave me for the place: “Dropped Pin”.

After leaving Dropped Pin beach, we headed back to our room. The twelve-kilometre walk in the sun was quite pleasant for people like us, seeking warmth and sunshine. Had we asked, we probably would have been called crazy to be walking in the sun at 28°C on a calm day, but we didn’t care and enjoyed ourselves.

Dinner was at Mikros Apoplous. A decent address for seafood. The fact that our ceviche looked more like fish soup wasn’t a big deal. It was a delicious and spicy soup.

Tomorrow we’ll be renting a car to go to the beach. Public transport being what it is, it might not be the most economical solution, but it’s pretty much the only one unless we want to swim in the port.