We were wanting to explore the island a little more, and H had found a beach with picturesque cliffs down by the lighthouse that she wanted to check out, so I jumped at the chance to put my feet in the sand and the Mediterranean, and we headed down to the southern end of the island.
We pulled into the parking lot and the place was, as you might expect, completely empty. Well, almost completely empty — as we parked the car and got out, we heard … meowing?
Coming from the tree we had just parked under.
A little investigation revealed a young kitty peeking out from the branches, looking maybe a little stuck, but definitely wanting some attention. I felt it was unlikely I was going to be able to help it out if it was indeed stuck, so rather than risk a couple bites and scratches, we turned around to get our bearings and take some pictures — and found our little feline friend plopping up behind us, trying to get in pictures and overall be friendly.
She followed us down to the stairs, where H was more interested in taking her picture rather than the surroundings. She followed us down the stairs, across the beach, and when we sat down to enjoy the lapping waters, she climbed in H’s lap, then mine, then on my shoulder like a parrot, then back into H’s lap where she snuggled up contentedly.
We named her Olive.
The beach is pretty stunning. I took a good amount of video, including some fun drone shots, which I’ll piece into a video and put in this post at a later date.
The beach is also not sandy in any way, shape, or form — it’s all pebbles, rocks, then smaller pebbles, even when you get up to the water. H later said that she read it was recommended to rent or buy some water shoes for these beaches, so she knew all along this was going to be painful on my poor tender feet.
I still put my feet in the water a little. Cool but not cold. Definitely could have had a little swim.
Olive followed us back to the stairs, back up to the car, and I really thought I was going to have a tough time convincing H that we couldn’t bring her back to the cottage. Olive, thankfully, escorted us to the car and then found something else to occupy her, letting us leave without any tearful goodbyes.
I do hope, however, if we go back down there, we get another little snuggle.
Grabbed some souvlaki from our local joint in town on the way back to the cottage, and found more melomakaronas in the bakery, so another dozen made their way back with us.