Original subtitles

(Greek music)

- In the first series, I began unravelling

the story of this spectacular and historic nation,

by travelling from Athens, around the Peloponnese,

and up to the Ionian Islands.

It took in parts of the country

that lots of tourists know well.

But in amongst the popular places were hidden gems,

undiscovered by the holidaying masses.

So far this series, I've been back

aboard my beautiful boat, Mia Zoi,

and travelled through a region of Greece

I haven't spent much time in.

We've skipped between the islands,

taking in the sights of the northern Aegean.

It's been a journey of discovery,

where I've dug deeper into the fabric

that makes Greece so unique,

and immersed myself in a centuries old culture,

unlike anywhere else on earth.

In this final episode of the series,

I'm in the south-western Cyclades,

finishing my journey on the islands of Kimolos and Milos.

If you caught the last episode,

you'd have seen me exploring the sights of Sifnos,

before we made our way briefly to the island of Polyaigos.

Well just across the water from there,

is the much more lively land mass of Kimolos.

On this occasion, it was active in more ways than one.

Apart from having a thriving town,

there was a stormy weather system closing in,

adding plenty of drama to the days ahead.

Now when I say Kimolos is lively,

I'm talking as an islander, not as a lad from the big smoke.

Throughout this part of Greece,

things are pretty quiet, especially over in Polyaigos,

where there's nothing but a flock of goats,

and one lonely shepherd.

Here though, there's a healthy population

that calls the island home.

Now, in any other circumstances, what you see down there

would be a turquoise blue.

But this weather is really bad, you can see the whitecaps.

And I've just had a call from the captain who's said

it's gonna get worse, so we have to move

and we're limited to only a day in Kimolos.

But we have to seek shelter and safety,

so I gotta get a move on.

I was probably the only person

on the entire island that was in a rush.

It's kind of contradictory to what life here is all about.

Kimolos is a sleepy place, where things have changed

little in the last half-century.

There's a certain authenticity to things here,

where the outside world has had minimal impact

on the traditional, simple way of life.

You come here to get way from the masses,

and experience a bit of downtime,

free from crowds and stress.

That said, I had more then a little bit of pressure on me.

With a massive storm fast approaching, and plenty to see,

there was no time to relax.

As small as a 36 square kilometre island might seem,

there's a lot squeezed into it.

Plus, finding some of the landmarks can be a challenge.

There's not exactly a tourism office handing out maps,

and good signage isn't something Greece is known for.

The bombing campaigns of World War II

devastated many European cities,

and Athens got more than it's fair share,

and in the 1950s, it was rebuilt

from the soft, wonderful stone here in Kimolos.

Thousands of tonnes were shipped from this very spot,

but that's not foreign for Kimolos.

Kimolos was a workhorse for Greece, for commerce.

There's mining that happens all along this coast,

so if you're a five start tourist that loves luxury,

this is probably not the place to come,

but I do see a lot of peculiar, adventurous type tourists

in their camper vans and hire cars,

wheeling around all over the place.

But unfortunately, I'm limited by time

and I wanna see as much as I can.

The whitecaps meant only one thing, building winds.

The sea was starting to churn, and it was clear

the weather was gonna get the better of me.

To put things into context, in seafaring

they use the Beaufort scale to measure water conditions,

relative to wind speeds.

Zero means calm, glassy seas.

If you're on land and sitting by a fire,

the smoke would rise straight up.

Six on the scale equates to a strong breeze,

up to 49 kilometres an hour,

and larger waves starting to form.

At the end of the measure is 12, and that's hurricane force.

This system was expected to reach that point,

and right now, we're only at about six.

The fishing boats were safely in the harbour,

and the ferries had been stopped.

But we were on a mission,

and considering a quick rush across to Milos.

However before that, I had some exploring to do.

You know what they say; a ship is safe in the harbour,

but that's not what ships were built for.

This made the captain a tad nervous.

If it were up to him, we'd have upped anchor,

untied the lines, and left port hours ago.

That's why he's the brains of our team.

Captain Yanni keeps me out of trouble.

Most of the time.

(acoustic Greek music)

One of the things I was keen to check out was the mines.

The island's name is actually derived

from the word kimolia, which means chalk,

in reference to both the white cliffs of the island,

and also the substance they've been

unearthing here for centuries.

Mining supports most of the local economy, with

agriculture and fishing being very minor sources of income.

It's pretty easy to see why.

The entire north-eastern side of the island

is rich in kimolia.

Apart from the obvious bleached earth of the open cut mines,

there's the shimmering white of the towering cliffs,

and long expanses of sandy pale beaches.

It's these stretches of coast

that draws many of the tourists here.

On a calm day, they're some the prettiest beaches

in the Aegean, and some of the quietest.

At the other side of Kimolos, is a very different landscape,

and yet another thing that you just have to look at

if you ever find your way here.

The hard part will be dragging yourself away

from these gorgeous beaches.

Behind me is the nudist beach of Ellinika.

But that's not what's important here

on the southwest coast of Kimolos.

This whole coast is dotted with tombs

from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th century B.C.

They haven't found the city yet,

but this is the way they discover the city,

the civilization that was here.

And we're gonna go and meet a fellow,

an archaeologist, a young guy, that's working on

his doctorate, here in Kimolos.

Hopefully by the time he's 70, he might find the city.

But, before I meet him, I might go down for a swim.

To the untrained eye, this looks like

a barren landscape, with little interest.

But to an archaeologist, the piles of rocks,

mounds of earth, and stony hillsides,

reveal all sorts of mysteries to explore.

It's a landscape that's rich in history.

Digging beneath the scrub and piles of rocks,

might reveal an ancient town or long-lost temple.

It takes immense patience, and years of work,

to hopefully find a few gems that answer questions,

and tell the story of an area.

And up next, I'm meeting someone

that's dedicating their life to it.

(Greek music)

(upbeat Greek music)

Carmelo is an archaeologist at

the Italian Archaeological School in Athens,

as well as a researcher at the

National and Kapodistrian University.

At 34, he's quite young, and could easily spend

the rest of his life digging around this site,

and still not find a thing.

Now how's that for dedication?

Carmelo, there's the ancient mines behind me,

and there are tombs all the way along the coast.

So there must be a civilization here.

- Yeah.

- I mean, all the other civilizations,

all the cities in the Greek islands have been discovered.

Do you think there's one here?

- Actually, we have a lot of data existing,

archaeological data, that prove that there was a huge

and important ancient city in Kimolos island.

They have discovered from the local Ephorate of Antiquities

a lot of tombs of several periods, from

the Geometric period, until the late Byzantine period maybe,

in the south-westernmost part of the island.

So we have archaeological material

proving that there was an ancient city.

- For me Carmelo, this is new, because I've met so many

archaeologists that have already discovered cities,

and exploited what's been discovered.

This is the first time I'm meeting someone,

and probably won't see it again here for a long time,

someone, and a group of people obviously,

many archaeologists from the Athens Ephorate as well,

that are looking for a city.

So this must be very exciting for you.

- Yeah, it is actually, it is very, very, exciting for me,

as for every young archaeologist, to have the opportunity

of collaborate with institutions

that you make a research on

a still undiscovered context, archaeological context.

- [Peter] So hopefully, you won't have

a grey beard by the time

it's discovered, and we'll be able to talk about you, and

all the archaeologists that have found some wonderful stuff.

- Actually it would be a honour for me,

considering also my love for Greece in general,

and for this island specifically.

And I will be able, first of all,

in next year, June next year, to finish to write

my post-doctoral thesis at the University of Athens,

and then who knows?

I mean, what kind of opportunities will open?

- I reckon it's a great opportunity mate,

and I reckon it's a great opportunity for all those

young kids out there that want to study archaeology,

and possibly come to Kimolos,

and work under people like this guy,

who are making a differrence.

I want one more question to you.

What do you expect to find?

What is it that you are looking to gain

out of finding a city here?

Because you talk about the Kimolian earth.

- Yeah. - What is that?

- Actually, Kimolian earth is

when we find written sources about Kimolos,

we don't find a lot of information,

almost no information about the city state.

But we find a lot of information about this Kimolian earth.

It is described always,

like a sort of white clay, particularly pure,

and used for production of soap since the classical period.

And the first mention of it is

dating to the late 5th century before Christ,

in "The Frogs" by Aristophanes, a famous comedographer.

- Wow, wow.

Well, I wish you the best of luck, mate.

You got a lot of surveying to do, and digging to do,

with all those archaeologists out there.

I wish you the best of luck, mate.

- It was nice to meet you.

- You're a legend buddy,

you're a legend. (laughing)

Carmelo could find the lost city next week, or next year.

On the other hand, he could be working here

for the rest of his life, and never find anything.

That's like me starting the construction of a building

that never finishes.

The work that he and other archaeologists are undertaking

is a thankless, but highly important task.

Their discoveries shape history.

It can change the way we look at entire civilizations,

and explain mysteries

that have baffled others for centuries.

Even if Carmelo doesn't unearth anything of great merit,

at least he's passionate about his work,

and attempting to do something of real importance.

And it's not a bad looking landscape to spend your days in.

As beautiful as the setting might be,

there was something quite sinister starting to stir.

The wind had been increasing throughout the day,

and the clouds began to mass.

With that came a churning sea,

that was only going to get worse.

This quiet cove was protected from the worst of it,

so you could be forgiven for thinking

it wasn't all that bad.

But the forecast was dire

With a weather event in the Mediterranean

more extreme then any other in living memory,

the conditions were only going to deteriorate further.

We got a couple of issues here.

It's the end of the season, we've got one island to go.

We've got Milos to go.

But the weather has been really bad,

and we've basically stayed in Kimolos

for a few more days than we should.

But we wanna make the run to Milos.

Problem is,

that's a cyclone that we're looking at,

that's coming over there.

It should be here in the next day or so.

Yanni, that's a big cyclone.

Have you ever seen anything like that before?

- I haven't seen anything like that in Greece.

- In Greece.

So we're coming up against something that

we've never seen before in Greece,

and we're a bit concerned.

But there's this narrow window for us to go,

in from where we are, in around to Milos,

to get there quickly.

It's gonna take us how long, Yanni?

- 40 minutes.

- 40 minutes, but we've still got big swells,

it's raining, my wife is scared, the guests are scared.

We'll see how we go, but I think we punch it out Yanni,

'cause we've got a short schedule, and in Greece,

the sun will always come out.

So I don't think this is gonna be for long.

How long do you think this'll be for, Yanni?

- Two days. - Two days.

Let's punch through it, let's get the crew onto it, okay?

Okay. - Let's go.

- Cross fingers.

(dramatic Greek music)

This is the reality of life at sea.

It's just part of the adventure,

and trying to pretend it's always sunshine and calm seas

just wouldn't show you the whole picture

of cruising the Mediterranean.

So thankfully, it's not too bad.

It's only about a metre swell.

Captain picked the right window to get through this storm.

I thought he picked the wrong window,

but he picked the right window.

The cyclone though is right behind us, and

we'll beat it because we got a fast boat.

They've even named the cyclone, what's it called?

- Xenophon.

- Xenophon, what a name, Xenophon.

I mean they could have given it a better name.

Xenophon, what is Xenophon?

Xenophon means foreigner. - Yeah.

- It means foreigner, it's a foreigner.

Yeah, it's a foreigner in the Mediterranean,

what's it doing here?

Send it back to the Bahamas, over there,

to northern Australia, those areas.

We don't want cyclones here.

This is global warming, man, this is global warming.

But before you know it, it'll be sunny.

This is what happens in Greece.

It'll be sunny like (clicks fingers), like that.

This is just a clean up, it's just a clean up.

(dramatic Greek music)

Punching through the waves and swirling winds,

we rocked and rolled our way from Kimolos,

to the safe harbour of Milos.

It was a bumpy 45 minutes

that felt more like a couple of hours.

But the reward was worth the effort.

By the time we had tied off at port,

the storm front had arrived.

It was a rough nights sleep,

and throughout the following day

the winds were howling, and the boat shaking.

But just as we were getting ready for dinner,

the sun was peeking through the clouds,

and the water was still.

See I told you the sun would be back.

Bad weather always passes quickly in Greece.

(dramatic Greek music)

(upbeat Greek music)

So that's it, we made it through the storm.

And it was more than a storm,

it was dancing around as a massive cyclone.

Dancing around that much they called it Cyclone Zorba.

The first in the Mediterranean.

But here we are, the sun's out.

Our final destination, Milos.

And it's been a long season, and you know what?

I need to relax and go for a swim.

There isn't a better place in Greece to do that,

than right here.

Check it out, eh?

Well as inviting as the water is,

the swim would have to wait for another time.

I was keen to visit the ancient city of Milos,

which is most evident in this impressive

2000 year old Roman theatre.

It's a stunning ruin that proves

that this was once a thriving settlement.

The restoration works have given it a new lease of life,

and provide a glimpse into

what it would have been like centuries ago.

One thing's for sure,

if the play you were watching was a bore,

at least the views across the water

more than made up for it.

When you come to Milos,

you've gotta come to the ancient city.

It started around about 800 B.C.,

and it survived for about 1,200 years.

Unfortunately, the actual city you can't see

because there's only walls,

and they haven't really excavated it yet.

But what you can see is this beautiful theatre

that the Romans built around about 100 A.D.

and I can just imagine what it was like 2,000 years ago,

sitting here, watching the actors, listening to the music.

You can actually do it today.

It's still being used 2,000 years later,

so you can experience that.

However, what this island is famous for is a statue,

that you know about.

You may know about.

And we're gonna go and check that out right now.

Before making tracks to find out where

a farmer found that special sculpture 200 years ago,

I spent a little more time exploring the theatre.

The contemporary restoration has turned

what had become a pile of rubble and buried ruins,

into a living, usable space that harks back to a bygone era.

You could imagine how the theatre

would have glistened in the sun,

providing a dramatic backdrop where performers

would entertain the masses.

Today it's a peaceful setting, but no doubt in it's prime

it would have been alive with activity.

I'm just so upset that I wasn't here

to listen to some music, or watch some real theatre.

(calming pipe music)

Didn't time it that well, did I?

You find similar theatres

across Greece and the Mediterranean.

They're a symbol of a time when the Roman Empire flourished,

and they exported their knowledge, craftsmanship,

and arts, around the world.

What often occurred in the centuries

after the collapse of their rule,

was sites like this were left to ruin,

or worse still, pilfered for materials.

The same goes for fortresses, abandoned towns,

and other locations, like religious sites,

that had little meaning

to the people that lived in those areas.

Today, the remnants are slowly being unearthed,

and in some cases restored.

We're at the east gate of the city, the ancient city.

And right down here, is where they found

one of the most famous statues around today.

A farmer dug it up right there.

Awesome stuff.

Just down the road from where it was discovered,

is the Cultural Museum that answers

some of the questions about this world-renowned find.

It houses other amazing works that once stood in

gardens, temples, and houses of the ancient Romans.

So this is her.

One of the most famous statues in the world, Venus de Milo.

And the translation is, Aphrodite of Milos,

the island of Milos.

She's from 120 B.C., the Hellenistic period.

She got perfect form.

Unfortunately, she's not the original.

The real girl, she's in the Louvre in Paris.

But I'm happy to see her here.

Just perfect form.

Now in the Louvre, you can't touch her.

The history of Milos dates back

much earlier than the Hellenistic period and Venus de Milo.

It goes right back many thousands of years.

What first put the island on the map

was a unique mineral called obsidian,

a natural glass that was carved from the cliffs,

and used in tools and weapons.

Three million years ago,

Milos literally rose out of the Aegean Sea,

as a result of volcanic activity.

Ten thousand years, they've been exploiting

the minerals from this beautiful island.

It's created a landscape that

I haven't seen anywhere else.

The colours, the sea, the aqua blue,

its absolutely magnificent,

and there's 90 awesome beaches here.

I'm gonna walk all the way down there,

in Kastana Beach, it's awesome.

(waves gently crashing)

Now it's a lot easier than I thought

getting across from one bay to another, in Kastanas,

but, wow, look at these colours.

I mean there's every colour of the rainbow here.

There's yellows from the sulphur.

There's oranges from god knows what,

but there's also purples, and whites, and greys.

There's all the colours of the rainbow here.

But what is even more special is that

every single one of my senses is being activated.

The sound of the water, the sound of the wind.

I'm getting a massage on my feet right now.

And, (sniffs) the smell of sulphur.

It's not that bad, man, it's all right, it's pretty cool.

Take it in.

The geology of this island is breathtakingly rugged.

Millennia ago, this whole region

was the volcanic centre of the Aegean,

and the results of that period are evident today

in the cliffs, rock formations, and sulfuric plumes.

The legend of the Lost City of Atlantis

is said to have had origins not far from here.

Only 40 miles south-west of Milos

is the island of the Santorini,

which is purported to be the origin of the sunken city.

Destroyed in a volcanic eruption,

maybe that same eruption is what gave birth to Milos.

The landscapes here vary greatly.

One moment you have red and orange cliffs,

gnarled and eroded into all sorts of shapes.

The next, you've got vast expanses of white hills,

that roll from the interior of the island

all the way to the coast.

The one constant is the vibrant blue water.

It too takes on different hues and personalities

as you cross landscape, and it's always inviting.

Perhaps the clearest evidence of Milos' volcanic past,

are these gas vents.

What you're looking at

is a vast field of hot sulfuric stones,

that act as an exhaust system for the planet.

Through cracks in the earth, gas spews into the atmosphere,

creating a pungent odour,

that at times makes your eyes water.

Beyond the overwhelming fragrance

there's the oppressive heat.

The super-heated gas comes from deep underground,

cooling as it rises to the surface.

Even when it emerges, it's extremely hot, baking the rocks

and evaporating any rainwater that lands nearby.

In some places, if you stand still for too long,

you'll melt the rubber on your shoes.

You'll find similar landscapes all around the world,

from Japan and New Zealand, to Iceland and North America.

Each of these places are considered young land masses,

formed by relatively recent tectonic activity.

This particular spot is tens of thousands of years old,

so while we might look at a Roman theatre,

or some castle ruins, and think they're ancient,

when put into context of geological timelines,

and gazing upon formations like this,

they're just babies.

(relaxing music)

(upbeat Greek music)

(waves gently crashing)

One of the main economic drivers on this island is mining.

It's hard to believe that a place that's only

160 square kilometres in size

would have such a large amount of this activity going on.

But it's been happening here

since the islands earliest known times of human habitation.

Even before there was a permanent settlement on Milos,

people were coming over and excavating the mineral wealth.

Ioannis, I understand this is

the biggest bentonite mine in the world.

Is that true?

- It is certainly, yes it is.

It's a bentonite mine that has been

the result of the unification of three mines,

Koufi, Aghia and Irini.

The length of this mine is more than 1,700 metres.

It's width is more than 600 metres,

and it's depth from the highest point to the lowest one

is more than 130 metres.

- Wow.

But tell me, bentonite is not the only thing

that Milos is famous for.

It has a long history of mining, even back to the Stone Age.

- Yeah, Milos is a lucky island, okay.

There is a geology here, there is history,

there is natural beauty, but the most important thing

is mineral geological wealth,

and when we say geological wealth, it really means

mining, exploitation of this mineral wealth.

So mining actually has started in Milos 10,000 years ago,

with the exploitation of obsidian,

where ancient people were making their tools,

they were making their weapons.

But we are now, we mine in Milos

mostly bentonite and pearlite.

Especially for this bentonite mine,

we mine about 1.3 million tonnes annually,

and we mine an additional 400,000 tonnes of pearlite.

- Wow.

So from the glassy rocky obsidian,

to the sulphur and the manganese and the pearlite,

and all this stuff that's being done here,

you must be abusing the island.

- No, no, on the contrary.

We contribute to the economic development of the island.

In fact we have created the infrastructure for the island

to accept whatever touristic activity.

But on top, okay, we respect environment through,

let's say, dust minimization from our operations.

We are well above industry standards in regards with

rehabilitation techniques that we use.

We are pioneers on that, okay?

We have our own nursery,

we produce all endemics plants in Milos,

and we use these replantations to make the land

as it was previously.

And you can see several examples in Milos island

where we have fully rehabilitated the area,

and you can not really understand

that this area has been in the past a mine.

But on top of that, okay, we are a step above on that,

we have developed what we call post-mining use.

We have created in certain depleted areas vineyards, and--

- [Peter] Vineyards? - Vineyards.

Vineyards, so you make wine?

- Yes, we make more then 1.5 tonnes of wine annually.

We produce our own wine in Milos.

- Tell me something, that.

I mean, I have a bit of a green finger, you know?

And I look at this.

How are you gonna rehabilitate this?

I can't understand how you.

What are you gonna do with this when you're finished?

- According to the EIA study,

the Environmental Impact Assessment,

we can create a lake, or we can bring back

the waste material that has been transported,

or we can even start back-filling of the mine,

as the mine is gonna be extended towards the south.

That means that the overburden is gonna be

transported back to the mine,

and deposited at the bottom of the mine.

- You know Ioannis, all my life

I've been playing with machines as a boy.

I'm still playing with machines on my building sites.

I wanna get down there, can we go?

- Let's go my friend, let's go, let's go.

- You know when I said green finger?

I actually meant green thumb,

but that's what happens when you focus on maths at school.

English was the only subject I ever failed.

Maybe I was just a bit too excited

seeing all these machines.

Mike, I've come down because I love machines.

I love these machines,

I've been playing with them all my life.

Big ones now, but you've got bigger ones than me.

Explain to me, is this place,

this mine, does it work all day?

- This period of time where we have our

mining and activation campaign, from the end of April

till the end of October, we're working all over the day.

- 24 hours? - 24 hours a day, yeah.

- Tell me a bit about this grey stuff.

What do you call it, bentonite?

What is it?

- This is a clay mineral.

- And what do you use it for?

- The application are thousands.

For example, oil industry, steel industry, car industry.

Pet litter also. - Wow.

- Thousands of uses, thousands of applications you know.

- One thing, Mike, that I noticed,

you've been doing this for 22 years.

Your boss Ioannis' been doing it for 30 years.

What is it about this that you guys love so much?

- We love ground, we love clay, we love mines.

We love the people, working for the mines.

That's very important for us, very special for us.

- So there's a lot of the population

working here from Milos?

- 99% is working for the company,

for the bentonite and pearlite mining, yeah.

The contractors, the people working

as a staff of our company.

We're occupying around 500 families,

directly or indirectly.

- That's fantastic.

Can I get a drive of one of the machines?

Can you let me drive one of the machines?

- If you have the licence, yeah.

- Oh mate, I can drive that machine, let me drive a machine.

I wanna drive one of those machines.

They look awesome.

Mining is an industry that has

not only kept the island alive, but in a large way

is what gave birth to it.

The mineral wealth of Milos put it on the map,

and today keeps many of those that live here employed.

And while I didn't get to drive one of the excavators,

I did get a chance to see the vineyard.

To be honest, I found it hard to believe

they could turn what's essentially a barren moonscape

into arable land.

But through hard work and good ethics,

they've reinvigorated what could easily have been

an ecological disaster.

The mining company gives back in more ways than just

restoration of the environment, and employment for locals.

They also invest in infrastructure for the community,

and create events that bring the people together.

It's a holistic approach to big industry,

and one that seems more sustainable than you find

in other parts of the world.

You can see the pearlite mines behind me,

and right here is a vineyard.

Don't look at the vines, they seem like they're a bit dry.

But that's only 'cause it's that part of the season.

They've already been picked.

They've built a brand new sewage plant.

They've provided fire-fighting equipment.

They've provided ambulances for the islands.

They even have rock concerts in those massive pits.

But they have to, 'cause they wanna be here

for the next 50 years.

This is awesome.

They currently send their grapes off-site for processing,

but plans are afoot to be able to crush, barrel,

age and bottle it right here on location.

And as more land is restored, the vineyard will only grow,

increasing production to a point where it will be

commercially viable business in it's own right.

So not only are they giving the land a new lease of life,

they're creating more jobs while doing it.

And by the way, it's quite a tasty drop.

We took a couple of bottles back with us

to enjoy over dinner that night.

Needless to say, I spent most of the evening

telling everyone how awesome the machines were.

Deep down, I'm still a big kid at heart.

(upbeat Greek music)

So we have many traditional days on Mia Zoi.

We have our Top Gun day.

That happened a lot actually, it happens like,

10 days a year, but anyway.

Today is our football day, it's the Grand Final,

and my team is in the Grand Final.

And Kyriakos always cooks us a Grand Final lunch.

We're having hamburgers Greek style, Greek style.

We're having French fries.

- He cooks the chips twice so they're crispy.

We got, look at this, lettuce,

mayonnaise, onions, tomato.

Mayonnaise, I'm not a fan of mayonnaise,

I have the tomato sauce.

But look at this, look at this!

Show me the buns.

He bakes his own buns.

Look at this.

This is fantastic.

Now this, I tell you what.

Me having a hamburger

on this day, on Grand Final day,

means there's a good chance my team will win,

'cause I'm more motivated now.

So look at this.

The meat, he doesn't fry the meat, he grills the meat.

Full Greek, you're a legend, Kyriakos, you're a legend.

- Ooh, and they're nice and warm, too.

Fantastic, Kyriakos.

- Peace.

Roosters, Roosters!

- Okay, I'll have mayonnaise, I'll have mayonaisse.

I'll have it anyway.

Anyway, games about to start.

Kyriakos had absolutely no idea what I was talking about

when I mentioned the Roosters.

But they are my local football team

that I've followed since I was a little boy.

And when I say football, I mean Rugby League.

In Australia, football can mean

one of several sports we play.

In Europe, it means only one thing, soccer.

More importantly though, how good do those burgers look?

I don't know how he managed to make such amazing food

in such a tiny kitchen.

Ooh, no!

In case you can't tell,

we're pretty passionate about our Roosters.

(both cheering)

Needless to say, we won.

I didn't doubt them for a single minute.

While we were inside watching the Grand Final,

outside, the passing scenery

was as pretty as anywhere in Greece.

Milos is famous for it's coast,

so a cruise around the island is a must.

It's a patchwork of towering cliffs,

rolling hills, and sandy beaches.

We're on the southwest tip of the island,

and it's the first time I've been here.

I gotta tell ya, I'm in absolute awe of this landscape.

There's so much that's set up there,

and you don't need to be a geologist to work it out.

If you look up there, it looks like the sea bed.

Well it once was.

That's the result of the volcanic eruption pushing

this landmass out of the sea, and up.

But what I don't understand, Yanni, is that

the prevailing weather is from the north, the Meltemi.

And this looks like it's getting smashed.

Is there any reason for that?

- The weather time, it's get smashed by big waves.

- By southerlies. - Yes.

- And waves, okay.

So the winter prevailing weather is a southerly.

Now this is called kleftiko.

Kleftiko, isn't it? - Kleftiko.

- And kleftiko is a Greek word, (speaks in foreign language)

which means thief, and my understanding is,

in the Middle Ages,

pirates used to hide in these caverns and caves.

Some of these caves you can take your tender through,

or you can swim through from here,

all the way over to there, wherever it may be.

But what's special is that

you just can't get here from land,

you need to come by water.

So it's been kept in this pristine condition.

The water is absolutely magnificent.

It's that turquoisey blue.

But you can still come here because

there are day trips that come here.

You don't need a super-yacht.

In about two hours, this will be packed with boats,

and sightseers, having a swim and enjoying themselves.

We're gonna just go through, and just have a look at

this landscape and enjoy it, and take it all in.

I might have a swim too, because there's nobody here.

I might even pull it all off.

But, I must tell you.

You wanna come here quickly,

because the soft rock is eroding away from that weather,

and, in a thousand years or so, it'll all be gone.

Get here quickly, you know, get here quickly.

Have a look at that.

You're lucky, you see this all the time, hey?

What a job.

So Yanni, how many times have you been here?

- Ooh, 50. - 50 times?

- At least.

- And you get paid to do this right?

- (laughing) Yes.

- What a job, man, what a job.

Now the cameraman's a bit concerned,

'cause we're going through a hole,

and I'd like to say he's shit-scared,

but I'm not allowed to say that on camera.

He's smiling now, he's out of it.

50 times.

So it's a very popular spot. - Yeah.

- So it's visited that much,

and it's still very clean and beautiful.

(downtempo rock music)

One thing I'll never grow tired of is the dramatic

and spectacular landscapes you'll find in Greece.

It's such a diverse place,

with everything from huge mountains and lush rainforests,

to volcanic terrain,

and some of the most stunning coastal environments

you'll find on the planet.

It's like threading a needle.

(speaks in foreign language) ballsy.

- [Yanni] Ballsy.

- I reckon we got the ballsiest captain--

- No no no, don't worry. - (screaming).

- Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.

- (screams)

Captain, there's a lot of low rocks here.

I see one just there.

Do you think we're gonna get through here?

- Yeah, I think we will get it.

Is easy.

- He takes some massive bets.

Not just with this one, with the big one as well.

I'm a bit worried, actually.

But it's worth it, isn't it?

It's worth it, it's so beautiful.

(relaxing rock music)

You can see why this is such a popular spot

for yachties and boat owners.

Throughout the area are

countless hidden coves and tiny bays,

where you can drop anchor, and have a piece of paradise,

almost entirely to yourself.

The awesome thing is, this entire coastline

is constantly evolving.

Mother Nature is continuously battering the soft stone

with wind, rain, and waves.

So every time you visit, things have changed.

Sometimes slightly, and on other occasions,

in a dramatic way.

Captain tells me that in his time,

some of the caves have become archways,

and where once stood towering columns,

there are piles of rubble.

I guess that's why even after having been here

50 times or more, Yanni still finds it

to be a special place.

(relaxing rock music)

(upbeat Greek music)

Milos is a geologists paradise,

and this mosaic at Paliorema

is typical of all the different minerals

that came out of Mother Earth, and landed right here.

If you look behind me, you'll see the old sulphur mines,

and sulphur was mined early in antiquity,

in 500 B.C., all the way up to the 1800s

when they extracted it industrially.

And in the early 1900s, it was left, no longer viable.

Today, it's just a playground for kids

while their parents are swimming on the beach.

Which reminds me, I better go and find Iranase,

he's up there somewhere.

(acoustic guitar music)

It's hard to believe that buildings like these

would simply be abandoned and left to decay.

You would think that maybe they could have

repurposed them for other uses.

I can only assume that anything of value would have been

stripped and sold off for scrap,

or used in structures elsewhere on the island.

It's actually quite interesting, walking around

and trying to work out how it all functioned.

(mellow rock music)

Although these relics of the past are essentially used

as a playground for kids,

the Greeks have, in their own way, listed them for their

historical significance.

It's essentially an open air museum,

freely accessible to everyone.

Mind you, I wouldn't go clamouring about the hillside

in amongst the ruins.

I can't imagine there's much keeping them from collapse.

(mellow rock music)

The scale of the development

suggests this was a big operation.

At it's prime, the mine would have employed a lot of people,

and brought plenty of wealth to the island.

Today, it's a monument to the past,

and a reminder of a different time.

Replacing the mine workers and machinery,

are tourists and boats.

One industry has made way for another,

and now it's a far more peaceful setting.

That said, the scenery can sometimes be

a little confronting.

(mellow rock music)

Back aboard Mia Zoi, we made our way further along the coast

where we came across a special little beach.

In the 19th century, following the War of Independence,

the Greeks started occupying the coastline,

and something that is common only to Milos and Kimolos

are these little garages, and what they are is

garages for the fishing boats.

They're called (speaks in foreign language),

and this beach is aptly named Syrmata.

Good time to go for a swim.

I love the (speaks in foreign language),

and their adaptive reuse over the decades.

Today they're no longer boat garages.

Instead the locals have turned them into beach houses,

and these days, some of them

are even being used as holiday rentals.

They're an ingenious bunch.

Milos is famous for the beaches.

At last count, 75, each with their own peculiarities.

Some are hidden away, only accessible by boat.

Others are covered in deckchairs and umbrellas,

with cafes and taverns nearby.

Then there's the white stretches of sand,

with some of the clearest water you'll ever see.

But the jewel in the crown of Milos' beaches,

has to be Sarakiniko.

It's on the north of the island, and you'll soon see why

it's the most photographed spot on Milos.

(mellow rock music)

This lunar-like landscape is actually

nothing like the moon's surface.

What's underneath me used to be full of living things.

Fossils, limestone, diatomite,

and don't ask me what diatomite is,

but there's layers of it down there.

But, wow.

Full of swimmers, jumping off the cliffs.

Over there there's kayakers,

and there's even a wreck over there

you can do a bit of snorkelling on.

Which reminds me, I might just go

and do some snorkelling on that wreck right now.

In my opinion, after Nammos Beach in Mykonos,

this has to be the second most Instagram beach in Greece,

and rightly so.

Everywhere you look there's a stunning view.

And what makes a photo of a pretty scene even better?

Someone sticking their head in front of it.

You can sit here all day long, watching the beautiful people

taking selfies, with their smiling faces

blocking the view behind.

I actually felt a little out of place,

like a whale amongst the swans.

At least my boat, Mia Zoi,

provides a little bit of grace for me.

(relaxing Greek music)

My last stop, Sounion, the southern most tip of Attica.

Behind me is a temple of Poseidon

from the golden era of Greece.

In Homer's "Odyssey" he writes that

King Menelaus of Sparta, what a name, eh?

Travelled around here and buried one of his heroes.

That was the end of his journey.

I've been travelling from the northern Aegean,

all the way down through the western Cycladic.

Three years of planning, two years of filming,

and I'm not even halfway through my journey.

But anyway, this is my last chance for a swim,

so I'm gonna jump in right now.

I couldn't think of a more fitting place

to finish my journey, and enjoy one final dip

in the warm waters of the Aegean.

The Temple of Poseidon towered overhead,

visible for miles around.

It's an iconic landmark, with a powerful presence,

and puts somewhat of a full stop

to this leg of my Greek odyssey.

My time here had passed much quicker than I'd have liked,

but that's always the case when you fill your days with

constant fun and activity.

It had been a whirlwind voyage in more ways than one.

The last couple of months were an adventure of contrasts,

and unique experiences.

I'd hiked, swum, cruised, and eaten my way

from island to island.

I met wonderful people,

shared countless laughs,

learnt fascinating things about Greece,

and a little bit about myself too.

And while this might be the end of series two of the show,

it's barely halfway through the journey

I've got planned for the years ahead.

So as the sun sets on the odyssey so far,

rest assured, you'll soon see me and Mia Zoi back on screen,

cruising the Mediterranean,

as I continue to share my passion for Greece.

(Greek music)