Original subtitles

- My travels around Greece

as part of this Odyssey have taken me

from the heart of the nation, Athens

and throughout several of major island groups.

We've cruised around the coast of the Peloponnese

and traveled amongst the Ionian Islands.

Then we made our way across to the Northern Aegean

before spending time exploring the hidden gems

of the Western Cyclades.

And man, was it beautiful?

This series sees us steering meters away

further East way and into the Dodecanese.

In this episode, I've arrived in Fournoi.

And I know what you're thinking,

where in the Mediterranean is that?

Well, it's a gorgeous slice of Greece

hidden between Ikaria to the West

and Samos on the Northeast.

My plan is to take in the sites

from the mountain tops to the sea floor.

I'll be showing you that this is one of those destinations,

where if you wanna get the most out of the place,

you have to not only get your hands a little dirty,

but be prepared to pop on a wetsuit and take the plunge.

Fournoi is quite unique in this region,

an archipelago of tiny islands and rocky reefs.

Form rugged coastlines, full of inlets,

it's a place not known to the average traveler,

seemingly lost in amongst its more popular neighbors.

Traveling along the many alcoves and islets of Fournoi,

you come to the main town of Fournoi and you see

this beautiful pathway, marble-lined

and these Mulberry trees.

It's absolutely magnificent.

And you can tell that there is a deep past to Fournoi,

because up there is the old town, there is an Acropolis,

there is an ancient town and then this is modern town

and I'm looking forward to discovering the whole place.

Pretty much every Greek Island

has a slice of the old in amongst the gloss of the new,

but this place, despite all the research we did

had so much more to see and do

than I could find in any books,

not even talking to fellow Greeks revealed much about it.

Most of them hadn't even heard of Fournoi,

yet the thing is it's full of awesome stuff to experience.

There are stunning beaches,

some of the best honey in the country and marble quarries,

unearthing stone that's so white

it has an almost icy blue hue.

The food is delicious, the scenery is spectacular.

And recently they made

one of the most significant archeological discoveries

of last century.

But my exploration started at the Acropolis,

not far from the main village.

Now, there isn't a resident archeologist on Fournoi

and to find this Acropolis,

we have to refer to text and our research

and couple of books and the locals.

And they said, "Go to Agios Georgios

"and you'll find the Acropolis."

Agios Georgios is over there but so far.

We haven't been on anything and I'll tell you what,

this is not a path.

I don't know how you get up here

but I think I'm headed the right way.

Lots of big stones, but have a look here.

There we go, have a look here.

This stone and that one there, they're obviously man cut.

These are part of a cyclopean wall

that is part of this whole Acropolis, 36 acres.

And you can see they've built these other fences here

in the last three or 400 years

for boundaries, for the guides to the animals.

And there's gotta be more of these further up.

And I could see Agios Georgios in the distance.

Let's head that way and have a look.

See if we can find more.

It's a common theme in Greece that the farm walls

are built atop the remnants of ancient structures

or used material from nearby ruins.

Here, kilometers of fortified cyclopean walls,

surrounded the ancient Acropolis.

And if you didn't know to look for them,

you'd be none the wiser

and simply think this was only

a relatively contemporary formation.

It's incredible what you can uncover

with a bit of research and some tenacity.

So as we get closer to the church,

there's more evidence of these big blocks

that were parts of this massive cyclopean wall

but you wonder, why did they build it up here

in the middle of nowhere?

Well, the evidence of that is just over the rise here.

Agios Georgios or the church of St. George

sits perched high above the main port.

Like I've said before,

it's not uncommon to find a place of worship

built on a mountain top, well away from town.

To get there, it's only a 10-minute drive

followed by a 15-minute hike.

And the effort is well worth the reward,

even if you're not one of the faithful.

And here's your answer, there's Thymena just opposite us,

but along with another 15 of the Fournoi islands,

it's the perfect sanctuary for Saracen parts.

The writers, they come here,

sit around and write whatever they can.

You had to be high up out of the way,

build these massive walls,

but sometimes it just didn't work.

But man, they had an awesome view.

Look at that.

For a lot of travelers and some Greeks, mind you,

there's a belief that all the islands of Greece

are much the same.

That between them, there's little difference

in the food, culture, people and history.

I've even heard some people say

that if you've seen one Greek Island,

you've seen them all.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

Every place I visit has its own personality.

There are little quirks and points of difference

to each and every one of the

over 200 inhabited Greek islands.

In some cases, you just need to scratch the surface

to find it.

In others, you need to dig a little deeper

to see the real character of the place.

In Fournoi, all you have to do is take a hike up here

and it will all unfold before your eyes.

Back down closer to sea level,

a drive along the coastal roads

provides for even more fantastic views.

It was a challenge not to stop every 500 meters for a photo.

During our little road trip,

the majority of people we came across were either

locals or second and third generation Greek Fournoians

from the mainland or United States.

In actual fact, there weren't any signs at all

that this was a tourist island,

no deck chairs and umbrellas on the sand,

no beach bars or people tryna sell you a watermelon

while you're sun bathing.

It was as though the place remained untouched by foreigners.

Look at this, unbelievable.

This is the beach of Lichada,

but there's Psili Ammos, there's Petrokopio,

another half a dozen beaches here in Fournoi.

And they're all awesome depending on the wind direction,

but have a look at it.

Aqua blue, green, it's just magnificent.

And I feel like taking my clothes off

and just jumping in right now,

but I can't, I've got too much to do.

It's hard to believe that Fournoi is only an hour by ferry

to the busy island of Samos.

I just wonder how much longer

it will remain the hidden gem that it is.

And I'm so grateful to have visited this tranquil island

before it gets discovered by the masses.

It didn't take long to get attached

to the beaches on Fournoi,

the peaceful surrounds, color, clarity

and crispness of the water made for an idyllic setting.

This particular stretch of sand also had a story to tell,

one that's over 2,000 years old.

Petrokopio beach, translated cut stone beach,

cut stone because there's all this marble.

This used to be a quarry in antiquity

as you can see from all these pieces.

Over here, you have a sarcophagus

that hasn't been hollowed out yet.

You've got column drums,

you've got a beautiful architrave here.

These are big pieces.

This would have been a massive mine.

It actually mined stone for Ephesus,

for Miletus all over this region.

But what's beautiful about this stone

is it's got no vein in it.

It's actually an icy blue quart.

I think it's better than Ephesus,

even though Ephesus quart has been mined continually

for two and a half thousand years,

this stuff is very special.

And it said it's no longer being mined,

but have a look at it, will you?

If we just get my trusty emery paper,

you can see that that pinky hue is actually just,

I don't know, oxidation or something.

But when you cut it back,

you can see that beautiful, icy blue.

And we just need a bit of water and we can do this here.

I've got two forms of emery paper.

Hang on a second.

Ah, look at color coming up.

Look, you see that icy blue coming through.

Now, you can see that rosy patina.

It's just a patina

but this is actually the color it used to be.

Have a look at that.

Look at that, that is absolutely wonderful, isn't it?

Anyway, this stuff was used in Ephesus on the library

and you can see why.

It's just a beautiful model.

Anyway, I might go and see where it came from,

the quarry at the top here.

It's incredible how many people will walk by

or even step over these magnificent relics

and have no idea or interest in the stories they tell us.

It's thousands of years of history

now lying silent on a beach.

Wow, just look at this place.

My quick calculations say there's probably about

100,000 tons of marble

that have been exploited from this cavenous mountain

and yet they still more

and I just wonder why they just didn't keep going.

There's probably some reason for it,

whether it's economics or region or whatever,

but it's said that they left it like this.

It's sort of like they just up and left.

Of all the mines and quarries we've seen across my journey

from Thassos and Serifos to Kimolos and Milos,

this place has now become my favorite.

Petrokopio might not be as well known

or have the same level of historical significance

but for me, it packs a big punch.

It's rare to see so much stone quarried, cut, and shipped

from an area the size of the football field.

At its peak, it would have been a hive of activity.

Hundreds of men would have been clamoring

over the paws of stone and scaling the cliffs.

When I think of the history and industry that once was,

my imagination runs wild.

Above the quarry and scattered along the hillside

are beehives.

It's a common scene on Greek islands,

but here, thanks to the mix of wild herbs

growing across the landscape,

the honey produced is particularly different

and unique in flavor.

To learn more about it, I met with Manoli,

who works for the local council

and is also a part time beekeeper.

- We're gonna smoke it out.

So we're smoking 'em out so that we can calm the bees down.

And this is full of bees now.

So these bees have been,

these bees have been munching on thyme for months

to create honey.

And this is the beehive where they live

and these are the bees, they're all over us right now,

That's a bit heavy.

Got nothing on his arms.

He's a...

Hold it, oh shit, what was that?

That's okay, it's okay.

I thought that was something there

but it was just a bit of one of these plants

that's tryna fool me.

Let's just get on with it, Manoli,

because I'm scared right now.

I'm just blowing smoke all over myself

because I'm in protection mode.

I mean, this is like being a policeman.

You're risking your life every day.

And you know what's amazing,

he's not allergic to bee stings

but he's allergic to red wasp stings,

he tells me, the big jabs.

You're saying that's all honey?

- 20 kilos of,

Once a year, 20 kilos of honey out of this thing

and he pulls two tons of honey out a year.

So, he's got about 200 of these beehives

that he gets about two tons of,

well, that doesn't sound right,

the math doesn't sound right,

but we're gonna run with that.

I think we've seen enough right now.

- Three kilos, oh no. - Yeah.

Whoa, that's heavy, hang on.

That's heavy, there's three kilos of honey in that.

That's heavy and it's sticky too, it's sticky.

So kids, you should go and see a beehive

but make sure you cover yourself

'cause there's one right here now.

Cover yourself so that you don't get stung.

This is where it all comes from, the honey.

Comes out there, pollinating the flowers.

Here, it's herbs that's why the Greek honey is so awesome.

Because they're getting the pollen from herbs,

from thyme, from all sorts of oregano,

oregano, I don't know, I doubt it but anyway.

Wow, look at that.

It's like a knife through butter.

Oh, that looks awesome.

Look at that beautiful honey.

Manoli, I know we're friends but listen,

I wanna get out of here as soon as possible.

You're laughing, he's laughing at me.

Okay, I think that's plenty of honey

and what's wrong about this

is we're taking the bees, there's a bee there, right?

We're taking their food.

They're going out there and they're getting the thyme

and they're pollinating and bringing back all this work

and we're taking, we're robbing honey from their food.

So I reckon they're a bit disappointed with us.

That's why I wanna get out of here.

Put it back in Manoli, let's go.

I'm running out of smoke here, gotta get out.

You've got two materials here.

You've got the bees wax,

which is this perfect hexagonal prism.

It's a chamber that holds the honey inside

and look at that honey, it's beautiful.

And the honey,

the honey, you eat.

You can do a lot of things, cook with it.

And the wax, the bees wax, they use it for candle.

Nothing gets thrown away, everything gets used.

It's absolutely awesome.

You're an absolute gentleman and you're always smiling.

I love you for that, mate.

Bees are under threat across the globe.

In some places, they're already completely wiped down.

This shouldn't be taken too lightly.

According to the Royal Geographic Society in London,

the bee is the most important living thing on earth.

And Einstein predicted that if bees become extinct,

four years later, humans would too.

The Fournoi archipelago is made up of

16 picturesque islands, but only two are inhabited,

including the Island of Thymena,

which you can see in the distance.

The other unpopulated land masses

have little more to offer the inquisitive traveler

than their majestic geography.

Other than sheltering yachts and fishing boats,

you'll come across very little in their pretty bays.

The feeling of isolation appeals to me.

Nothing's more enjoyable than swimming at a pristine beach

with only your thoughts to bother you.

One of the few things that does compare in enjoyment

is Kiriakos cooking.

He always insists we try to eat the freshest of produce

sourced from the island we're visiting.

In this instance, he was keen to cook something special

for my son, Irinius,

in fact, his favorite meal, honey glazed goat.

- We're on the island of Thymena,

which is part of the archipelago

of all the Fournoi islands, there's 16 islands.

This is the second biggest

and the second that is inhabited.

There's 130 people that live here,

but we've come here for a special reason.

It's not the sorta place that you come for tourism,

I gotta tell ya.

130 people, there's not much here.

Thyme, that herb, thyme is what this island is about

and it's actually called thyme.

Thymena means thymari, thymari is Greek for thyme.

And we've come here to collect herbs, herbs for cooking.

We got the key, we got the tools, let's go!

It's a treasure trove of herbs.

Look at all of this, the purple.

The purple is the thyme.

It's blossoming now

and it'll blossom for the next couple of weeks.

After that, it turns to green and brown colors

and you can't recognize it.

There's oregano behind me, there's mountain tea.

There's camomile, everything's here, it's awesome.

And it's for free or at least someone just landed

and they don't know we're here.

And what we do with this,

we'll hang it on the boat and let it dry out.

Once it's dried out,

Kiriako does something with it,

We're gonna put fresh stuff on the goat today, apparently.

This dries out to a beautiful herb.

Now I can't get out of here, what are we gonna do?

- I come to push you. - Okay.

- This is a very dangerous sport.

They're beautiful smells here.

Fantastic, let me have a look at it.

- So we've got sage here

and it smells beautiful.

So we have oregano here or as Americans say oregano.

Now, oregano is good for everything.

Whether it's on your salad, on your meat, it's awesome.

But what you gotta do,

like sage, you gotta let it dry out

in the sun for a while and we'll do that.

And then this fresh oregano, you know what?

My mother used to just keep it in a plastic bag,

dry it out and then what you do once it's dried out

on top of the food, she just do this

and they just sprinkle on top.

It's like a little shaker, like a pepper shaker.

Look at that, awesome.

I better not to get rid of it all.

My mother, God bless her soul,

introduced me to one of the nicest herbs this world has.

This is actually a great herb.

It's gotta be a Greek herb.

I reckon you're right.

What Kiriako was saying is that, here you get a massage,

you get scarified, your legs get scarified

from all the spiny stuff.

Let's keep going, I can see some rosemary over there.

All the effort of collecting the fresh herbs

meant we earned ourselves a feast

and of all days to reward our efforts with a hearty lunch,

I picked the best one.

Once the herbs were tied up on the rear deck to dry,

it was time to cook lunch.

For those of you at home,

you might wanna record this segment

because this is one of the best recipes you'll come across.

Despite its simplicity,

Kiriako's honey glazed goat is to die for.

All you need is the meat, a bit of salt,

one onion, some rosemary, two oranges and honey, that's it.

So we've got the leg of the goat.

Let's just have a look at this way.

Can you bring it up?

Look at that and we've got honey,

we've got oranges, we've got onion.

We've got salt from Kythira, awesome.

And we've got Rosemary

and all this goes together, it makes honey goat

and we're looking forward.

What do we do first, Kiriako?

What's the first thing we do?

So we put salt on 'em, first off,

plenty of Kythirian salt.

Irinius and I had this meal on Samothrace a year ago.

Since then, he's asked countless times

if we could have it again and in time,

it's now become a favorite dish of mine too.

This is the first phase.

200 degrees for about two hours.

- That's the first phase, let's throw it in.

- It's easy, it seems easy.

The kids should be doing this at home.

With the juice of a couple of oranges

and some of Manoli's local honey, the job's complete.

Look at that, man, look at that.

- Yeah.

So there's some juice that the fat has gone into

and it's mixing beautifully, it's fantastic.

Now, what are we to do?

Orange juice?

- There's the two oranges that we've juiced

and that goes on top, oh, wow.

And then there's honey.

A soup spoon of honey per leg.

And I've gotta tell you, have to look at that.

Just look at the glaze on that.

Well yeah, is that awesome?

Half an hour again closed

and then another half hour, open and it's ready to go.

It becomes crispy

and I use these guys here

because I can see something in the corner.

He said he's gonna bring the potatoes out,

look what he's done with these potatoes,

they're fantastic.

I better taste the other corner as well.

So, we'll see you about in the hour

with our beautiful honey goat.

You're looking forward to this?

- Can't wait.

- It's coming, it's coming, it's coming.

- It's around the corner.

- Wow, is this good or what? - My favorite dish.

Okay mate, dig in.

Here you go.

This one's for you, there you go.

Just weight, just the weight, there you go.

You're gonna have a few potatoes.

You know what, get into it.

Get into it son, get into it.

Oh man, look at that.

How is it, good?

- The best.

The best.

I love this stuff.

- We need Kiriako to come out here.

- What we need to do

is not take any clothes back to Australia with us

and put Kiriako in our bag.

What do you reckon? - Yeah.

- Cheers buddy. - Cheers.

- Stin ygeiá sas. - Stin ygeiá sas.

This is a typical seaside village in the island of Fournoi

or should I say the islands of Fournoi.

There's 16 islands around here, two of which are inhabited.

Thymena just over the road here and Fournoi itself.

And have a look at it.

A couple of Tavernas, a beach,

a little port for a couple of fishing boats.

It's absolutely awesome here.

This is just one of those islands

where everybody is just absolutely awesome.

Fournoi in Greek means ovens.

This place was burned to the ground many years ago

for the charcoal out of the trees,

but it's also called Corsiae, pirates in French or Greek

'cause the pirates used this archipelago

for hiding their ships and then going off

and doing their dirty deeds and coming back.

What's happened this century though,

is the biggest find of sunken wrecks

from antiquity all the way up to the 19th century,

58 of them.

And it happened only a couple of years ago.

It's a big find

and we're hoping to dive on one or two of those old vessels.

To explain what was found in these waters,

we got in touch with Dr. Georgios Koutsoflakis.

He's one of the most experienced underwater archeologists

in Greece.

In simple terms, between 2015 and 18,

he and his team discovered 58 shipwrecks

from the sixth century BC right through to modern times.

The scale of his find has shaken the scientific world.

- I suggest we have a cluster of shipwrecks

in the East side of the Island around this area here,

we have a good number of shipwrecks

there located in a short stretch of land,

a hundred, 150 meters long. - Fantastic.

- And the oldest wreck we're gonna visit

is a shipwreck of the sixth century BC

carrying a cargo of Samian amphoras.

- How long now, Georgios, will it take to go out there

and do each wreck one by one

and actually excavate the wrecks?

- It's gonna take a few generations more.

- Wow. - Yeah.

- So one wreck, how long is it gonna take to do one wreck?

- Well, if you have the finances

and you have one period every year,

it gonna take you at least five or six years

to finish one wreck.

- Wow, so what have we learned in that four years

of you scanning those 58 wrecks?

- So far, we learned that this Fournoi

was a pleasant gem,

very commonly visited.

It had a high navigational presence

and this presence was scattered, not just in one period,

but already from the Archaic to the 19th, 20th century AD.

So basically what we have here is

two and a half thousand years

of the navigation history of the place.

When we first came here in 2015,

we knew very little about this place.

It was a place never investigated before.

There was evidence, of course,

because we have all these reports from local fishermen,

from Cullenian sponge divers.

So I had an idea that there are things in the area,

but nobody from my team expected

these large number of shipwrecks.

And do you rely a lot on the locals,

on the sponge divers and the fishermen?

- Yeah, it's the most efficient information you can get.

- And normally, they may not be up and coming

with that information, but you're a Ikarian,

you're from Ikaria.

So you connect with these guys.

- Yeah, I knew how to gain their trust

and if you gain their trust, they're open books.

- When you paint the picture of an archeologist,

people think that they're people that

just go and excavate, but you're more than that.

There's a lot involved in it, isn't it?

- First of all, you need to study,

study in a library.

It's a part of the world that nobody knows very well.

That's, for one month of excavation,

you need to spend several months of studying the libraries.

It's not that you understand always immediately

what you have found.

George Bass, the great,

the world archaeologist says

the one, "The biggest discovers

"are not happening in the field,

"they are happening in the libraries."

- Listening to Georgios talking about

how this was such a busy merchant route in antiquity

explains why it was also a popular place for pirates.

The bounty would have been plentiful and lucrative

plus they were lots of tiny bays they could hide in.

The most apparent remains from the shipwrecks are in flora.

These large clay jars

were used to transport goods like oil, wine

grains and other produce.

They littered the sea floor and help me get an idea

of the scale of their work here.

That was the contents of a single vessel.

And in just one of our dives,

I saw six wrecks that spanned a thousand years of history,

all this in just 30 minutes under water.

Diving on ancient wrecks

isn't exactly like most people envisage.

You're not swimming through the holes

or the super structure of the ships.

In the case of wrecks 200 years or more in age,

all the timber and iron rots away

and there's nothing left the vessel itself,

only the non-biodegradable contents,

but from the material that remains,

researches are able to learn quite a lot.

For example, by studying these amphora

and the different markings on their sides,

they're able to identify its place and date of origin.

Using that information, they can then piece together

the exact route and time of the ill-faded voyage,

as well as the contents of the ship.

From this raw information,

they can get an understanding

of the economic cycles of different cities and countries.

Researchers are able to paint a picture

that explores the industrial

and agricultural capabilities of these places

and the widest, social and geopolitical fabric of society

at the time.

All of this can totally rewrite history.

What else's the intrigue of this site

is that this wreck from the sixth century

sits at 45 meters,

Beyond this are the murky depths yet to be explored.

Who knows?

Once my island hopping Odyssey is complete,

I might just take to search in Greece's sea floor

and find what lies beyond.

A lot of people ask me,

"Pete, what is your favorite Island?"

Yes, I've been to a hundred Greek islands,

but I'm no expert and it's a subjective thing

because it could be a club or it could be a beach

or it could be a historian, really different.

But me for me, Fournoi is right up there.

It's a quiet island.

The people are so welcoming.

I got to dive on one of the most historic wreck dives

this century.

I got to swim at some wonderful beaches

and I'm a builder, so I saw some nice marble as well.

But overall, the people, you can't go by the people

and these beautiful meadows, the contours of this island,

of these islands.

It's almost like it's naked and showing itself to you.

The colors, just check this out.

It's just so good,

but I don't necessarily want you to come here in drones

because I don't wanna ruin the place

'cause I wanna come back.

Occasionally I'll come across an island

that leaves me with a sense that

I could have hung around all summer

and read a few books while sitting on the beach.

Fournoi was one of those,

but our time there was limited

and my journey was headed West

to an island that's similarly quiet.

However, it's well known to Greeks

and those that study the human species alike.

I couldn't wait to get there

because I'd read more about this place

than any other on this trip.

This was gonna be my first time visiting

the Island of Ikaria.

And for someone who's been to

as many Greek islands as I have, that's quite a statement.

In 2012, it was labeled a Blue Zone,

which means it's one of a handful of places

where the people live for a very long time.

But that's just one of the things about Ikaria

that interests me.

We've just modeled into Ikaria.

This is Evdilos, one of the main ports.

Used to be the national capital,

but this is not typical of Ikaria.

Ikaria has like 52 villages

and a lot of smaller settlements.

And if you like Bob Marley,

well you're gonna love this place,

'cause there's a lot of Rastafarians here.

But more importantly,

there's a lot of people that live into their hundreds.

They say that this is the island where people forgot to die

because they live forever.

I don't know if it's the diet, the community, what they do,

but I'm gonna find out because already

I'm feeling good about this place.

I'm feeling younger.

This part of the island is the more civilized area.

Through the heart of Ikaria,

it's quite rugged and mountainous.

For the most part, despite its international fame

and rising popularity,

the place hasn't become overdeveloped

and filled with tourists.

The locals have remained true to their past,

which is perhaps one of the reasons for their long lives.

It's a sleepy port full of taverns and bars

with tables right on the water's edge.

but things move slowly here

so don't expect an early breakfast.

On the plus side, if you're a night owl

things stay open quite late here,

like most of Greece, just keep it down

because I'm early to bed.

Lots of hitchhikers in Ikaria, it's famous for it.

Hang on, hang on.

- Armenistis.

- Let's go.

I've never picked up hitchhikers in my life

but it's Ikaria and it's famous for it

so I'm picking you up. - Great.

- Now, Armenistis, it's not too far from here, is it?

- No, no, it's about five kilometers.

- What's your name?

- Eleney. - Agiliki.

- Agiliki, I'm Panalloti, let's go.

- Thank you very much. - Thank you very much.

- So tell me, do you hitchhike much?

Do you hitchhike a lot? - No, only here.

- Only here, I mean Ikaria.

- My first time.

- Your first time? - My first time too.

- Because Ikaria is famous,

that people hitchhike in Ikaria.

- Yes, over here, yeah.

- Where are you from?

- Athens. - Athens.

I tell you, your English is very good.

- Thanks, I'm an English teacher.

- Wow, we picked up hitchhikers

and she's an English teacher.

We're laughing, right.

- That's why I am with her.

- Well, that's fantastic.

- I always feel safe.

- But you know what?

I think in Ikaria you don't have to worry

about speaking English in Ikaria.

- Sure. - Yeah.

But why do you come to Ikaria?

What is it about Ikaria that brings you here?

I always wanted to come here.

This is a dream island.

That's everything.

- Really? - Sure.

Mountains, sea, the sea is wonderful.

The people are great, easygoing.

It's a great place to be

if you wanna relax a little bit.

It's a dream come true for me.

- Especially coming from Athens where

it's hot in summer, isn't it?

Aren't you scared doing this hitchhiking

with somebody you don't even know?

- I'm not afraid.

- You're not because you've done this before,

it happens in Ikaria.

- I just trust people too easily.

- Well, it's Ikaria

maybe you might not hitchhike in New York

or something like that, or London, but here,

what about the food in Ikaria?

Is it good?

- Yes. - Really?

- Homemade food.

- All homemade food. - Yes

- Great, really amazing.

- And you're Greek so if you're saying that it must be good.

- It is.

Go to Murayo, they have nice things.

- Where? - Murayo

- Murayo, well, we'll have to try.

We'll have to give it a shot.

After dropping the ladies at the beach,

I continued up a mountain road.

The higher I got, the cooler it became.

At sea level, it was 35 degrees Celsius.

But up here, it was a much more bearable 26.

If it wasn't so pleasant,

I probably wouldn't have been so keen to go hiking,

which was exactly the reason I was headed

for the town of Christos Rachon.

There I was meeting with a local

who was gonna take me on a walk

from one side of the island to the other.

It sounded like a daunting task,

but I was sure that I'd be able to handle it.

I'm here in Christos Rachon

and I'm meeting with one of the locals

who's gonna take me around.

Problem is, he's asked to meet at the bakery

and I don't think he realized how much I love bakeries.

We're gonna be stuck there for a while.

Smells good.

Every village in Greece has two businesses

that locals will visit on a daily basis.

There's the kafenio and the forno,

which in Greek means the bakery.

It's not hard to find the latter of the two.

You just need to follow your nose.

There, you'll find the staples

like fresh bread and cheese pies.

Some even make pastries and other sweets.

This particular bakery has a long tradition

and a great story too.

It also happens to be one of Lefteris' favorites.

Lefteris, I don't know if it's a good idea

that we met at the bakery again.

It's not good for this, mate

but listen, I hear there's a story behind this bakery,

what is it, mate?

- This bakery is the traditional bakery of Christos.

It tend to be a bit famous because

one of the previous persons that were operating the bakery,

he had a peculiar approach of the work.

Actually he had to do much more stuff.

So he was producing the bread in the morning

and he was leaving the bread without anybody

else inside the bakery, because he was also a farmer,

a fisherman, a winemaker.

So he had to keep working.

- He just left the bread out there?

- Yeah, and he was coming later in the midday

to collect the money and close the bakery.

- People would just leave the money on the counter?

- Yeah. - And that was it?

- Yeah, but it was not that he was not interested to work

or he was lazy,

he had to do the rest of the daily stuff.

- His work, it was a trust thing.

- Yeah, it was a matter of trust.

- Man, I don't know if that would work outside Ikaria,

I could tell you.

These Ikarians, they're very trustworthy people

but I'll tell you what, this tiropita is awesome.

We need the energy today.

Don't walk me too far.

Not too far, okay. - Not too far.

- Maximum 50 kilometers, maximum.

So Lefteri, what's significant about this Gorge?

- This is one of the natura zones of the Island,

which means that it's an important bio-diversity area.

And also it used to be the Holy garden of goddess Artemis

because she was the protector of the wildlife and nature.

And she was the only person who was allowed to hunt.

So this was a technique for the societies

in the prehistoric time,

they were dedicating important natural areas to gods

so as to keep them safe from human impact.

- Wow, so there was sustainability back then?

- Yeah, and this is the viewpoint.

Above the Raksounia waterfall

that we can see the main secondary river

of the Kalahari Gorge

and the main one which is coming from the Peso plateau.

- Have a look at it, man.

- Yeah. - Awesome.

Ikaria is a land of dramatic landscapes

and an equally theatrical mythology.

According to legend, the goddess Artemis

would come here with her nymphs

and hunt in the mountain forest.

Then there's the story of Icarus

who flew so close to the sun that his wings melted

and he plunged to his death in the sea nearby.

And of course, there's the myth of Dionysus.

So tell me the story of Dionysus.

What's the story there?

It's something that's a bit weird, isn't it?

- Ikaria is one of the islands

which are believed to be the spot where the god Dionysus

was given birth from the foot of god Zeus.

- But Dionysus was born out of wedlock, wasn't he?

- Yeah, it was an unofficial kid.

That's why he was sent here

to be safe from the wife of Zeus, goddess Hera.

- What do you mean safe from Hera, why?

- Why, because normally the kids,

the official and the unofficial kids of god Zeus

were about to fight for the throne

of Mountain of Olympus.

- I love mythology, it's awesome.

I wish it was real because Zeus,

he was a bit of a naughty boy.

He was almost as bad as Poseidon, wasn't he?

He had many concubines and it looks here.

I meet some of the locals and they're a bit like that too,

I think, I don't know what the story is.

That must be the Ikarian water.

I've got no idea, but anyway,

we should keep going, this is a long walk, man.

- Yeah. - Which way to go?

- We'll go back to the--

- Okay, let's head, man.

I reckon the guys that were writing mythology,

they're all deviates.

From verdant gorges to barren mountaintops,

the landscapes of Ikaria are as varied

as any other island in Greece.

It's full of character

and as the hike progressed, the scenery kept changing.

The common theme was that it was all beautiful

in its own way.

Mind you, it was far from an easy walk.

Well, this looks like a bit of a moonscape.

What's the story, there's boulders everywhere.

- We don't have any proper geological research

to share an actual answer,

but this is like an open museum of granite sculptures.

And it keeps the landscape like this

for many kilometers to the West.

- So Lefteri, this is the South part of the island?

- Yes, now we are facing Southwest.

- There's 52 villages separated all over the place.

What's the story?

Why are they so remote?

- There is a unique strategy on the way that the people here

decided to create their settlements.

There's a unique approach in the whole Mediterranean.

In most of the islands,

people used to have intense settlements

and then they had to build fortresses around

just to defend themselves.

The idea here, because the island is described as

Mediterranean jungle, people decided to take advantage

of the natural camouflage

being spread on the nature

and tried to be invisible from the coast.

Instead of paying attention on growing an army

or being stand by to fight,

they were taking care of their farms,

living in remote zones in the semi mountainous

area of the island.

- Now, listen, we've just walked three or four hours

from the other side of the island.

Do we have to walk three or four hours back now?

- Yeah, unfortunately, that's the way to go.

- Let's go, it's just too much for me.

The things I do.

In the next episode,

my time on Ikaria continues.

As I leave the mountaintops and explore the coastline,

I'm gonna delve into the story

of why the people here live so long

and I'll be catching up with an old friend to see

what life is like in an authentic village

then I'll be doing something a bit more youthful

and learning to surf.

Of course, there's gonna be

some more of Kiriakos' great cooking,

plus a bit of a history lesson

before we head on back and hit the Samos

and just so you know,

I only had to walk halfway back

because the cameraman was complaining about carrying

all the gear and called captain Yanni to pick us up.

I was happy to hive.