Greece
Telendos
A single dark cliff in the strait, Christian ruins on its shoulder, climbers on its face.
The island is ten minutes by boat from Kalymnos, but the crossing feels longer — Telendos rises as a single dark cliff, its profile so steep it looks uninhabitable. Around fifty people live at the cliff's base, with a ruined Byzantine monastery and early basilica an easy walk above the village.
Telendos is a ten-minute caïque hop from Myrties on Kalymnos, and the waterfront is the town: tavernas, a strip of beach, paths leaving in both directions. Ruins of a Byzantine monastery and early basilicas stand above the village and beneath the nearby shallows — a great earthquake in the sixth century reshaped the strait and drowned part of the old shore. Climbers work the established sectors on the big face; everyone else works the west-facing tables at sunset.
Solo
Cross for a night in a waterfront room — the island empties with the last boat and the quiet is the point.
Friends
Climbers split the crags by grade while the rest hold a taverna table facing Kalymnos.
- The caïques shuttle from Myrties all day — the crossing is the commute.
- Basilica ruins sit both above the village and beneath the shallows offshore.
- The big face holds graded climbing sectors with the strait for a backdrop.
- No cars, one waterfront, west light at dinner.
Fresh fish and grilled octopus at the waterfront tavernas facing Kalymnos across the strait.
Octopus dries on lines by the tavernas before it meets the grill.
Jeffreys Bay
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Buchupureo
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A rural coast, small guesthouses and a clean point break reward staying past sunset.
Imsouane
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A mellow right peels beside blue fishing boats while Cathedral gathers the heavier swell.
Samaria Gorge
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Sixteen kilometres of vertical canyon walls narrow to four metres at the Iron Gates.
Mount Olympus
Greece
Home of the gods — clouds swirl around 2,918 metres of limestone and myth.
Sfakia
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Rebel gorges and fortress villages clinging to cliffs above the Libyan Sea — Crete's wildest coast.
Tzoumerka
Greece
Stone villages half-emptied on a mountain ridge, wind moving through open doorways.