We settled into one of the dozens of jaw dropping bays on Antipaxos and sent up the drone for a very hasty reconnaissance mission to check out the cave and hiking trail we saw as we sailed in.
They peaked our interest so off we went in our yellow dingy to go explore the little cave then to the beach to hike the trail Keith Williams was eager to conquer.
Antipaxos has a labyrinth of rock walls that serve as property fences, the locals use the space between as a footpath to get around the island. Although for visitors willing to attempt to use this perplexing highway system, it’s more like those giant American Halloween hay mazes—but without the assurance that someone will help you out if you get lost. We meandered for hours, sometimes completely lost and other times totally under a spell, memorized by the infinite array of pathways we encountered.
At one point we stumbled upon a local man who was getting into his boat and he offered us a ride to another magnificent beach on the island. He must have had great faith that we would sort out the puzzle of paths to find our way back home. The beach he took us to was jaw-dropping and so was the snarl of overgrown routes we took to find our way home.
After a half dozen u-turns we got passed by a local on an extremely narrow lane. Unfortunately he couldn’t solve our directional conundrum because he didn’t speak the slightest bit of English. We finally found the path leading back back down to our cove. You can spot the beach trail in the first video.
All who wander are not lost—but we proved that some wanders, well, they definitely are.
Eventually all five of us found our way back and made a friend—so just like life, all the wandering and all the searching often ends up rewarding us anyway—but usually, it’s only after a fair bit of complaining has happened.
Eventually we made it back to the boat.
