Gavdos - Solitude at the Edge of Europe

Modern Greek state in its short history, which begins with the liberation of the southern regions of this country from the Ottoman conqueror, has faced and continues to face a series of specific difficulties and phenomena - partial liberation of northern territories, large migrations after the loss of Asia Minor, kingdoms that have alternated, dictatorships, occupations, and financial difficulties.

Throughout all the turbulent periods, Greece has also faced a constant challenge, and that is its territorial complexity because in addition to the mountains and plains of the mainland, Greece gathers more than six thousand islands, over two hundred of which are inhabited. Such complexity of small land enclaves in the Aegean and Ionian waters poses a headache for Greek administration because even infrastructure projects such as providing electricity and drinking water are particularly complicated. In addition, maintaining constant, often unprofitable communication links, from telephones and the internet to maritime and air routes with the mainland, is not only logistically demanding but also dependent on unpredictable weather conditions.

This practically means that many smaller and sparsely populated islands often rely on their own resources in many aspects of modern life - local production of electricity from renewable sources, satellite internet, mountain and spring water, but also the lack of municipal, administrative, and healthcare services. Despite that, life thrives in such places, and inhabitants are proud of their difficulties, often emphasizing that they would never trade them for the comfort and speed of city life.

One such island is Gavdos, which we present to you today.

Gavdos is not only extremely remote from the Greek mainland but also the southernmost point of this country (which spans almost 1000 kilometers in the north-south axis), as well as the entire European continent. It is located south of Crete, deep in the expanses of the Libyan Sea, surrounded by the blue of the Mediterranean and archaic myths - Gavdos is the island of Odysseus and Calypso, who, according to Homer's tradition, captured and imprisoned him here for seven years. Gavdos has changed hands among conquerors since the Minoan civilization; during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as during the rule of the pirates of Friedrich Barbarossa, Constantinople during the Byzantine period, and the Ottoman occupation, this isolated island represented an exceptionally suitable place for the isolation of undesirable citizens, exile, forced settlement, and imprisonment. They were always accompanied by voluntary exiles - refugees from civilization, individuals, or small communities who were given the opportunity here to devote themselves to their ideology or faith without fear or hindrance.

The strategic position of Gavdos was evident in the past when the island was on all maps crisscrossing the southern Mediterranean; not only as a refuge from the malignant climate and dangerous winds, this island represented a trading, political, and religious center, despite its small surface area. That's why archaeological sites today are rich and numerous - from the remains of a spacious villa from the Bronze Age to iron mines from Roman times, but also evidence that Gavdos, with its 8,000 souls, had its bishop, an active export port, a road system, and developed infrastructure. That port, Lavrakas, is now located three meters below sea level and, with many shipwrecks from various periods of the past, is a favorite destination for adventurous divers.

Gavdos, during the period of Roman rule and due to active iron production, lost most of its trees because they were indiscriminately cut down for fueling the high furnaces for ore processing. Due to frequent and harsh pirate attacks, many centuries later the Venetians abandoned the construction of fortifications, which would have given the island essential significance and placed it in a medieval European context. That's why Gavdos, with its rich testimonies of the past, entered the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as a small terra ferma where the utopian life of micro-communities is possible and tolerated. Today, Gavdos is home to 152 permanent residents, mostly elderly people.

Getting to Gavdos is a complicated combination of airplane, four-wheeler, and boat, as it is far from Athens both in terms of distance and infrastructure and itinerary. It is necessary to fly to a larger city on the northern coast of Crete, from where ground transportation must be arranged to the southern coast and the town of Sfakia. This is by no means an easy task, as the central Cretan mountain ranges are exhausting and dictate slow and lengthy travel.

Only in the port of Sfakia can passengers board a ferry which, after visiting the coastal towns of Loutra and Ag. Roumeli, which can also be reached only by sea, can set sail for Gavdos. Since 1986, the ferry has been continuously operated by the same captain - Stratos Bournazos, from whom one can learn that this maritime connection is the only contact between the island and Crete, but that during winter, due to hurricane winds, there are periods of up to seven, ten days, or even two weeks without departures to the island. However, such a life, reminiscent in many ways of voluntary exile, suits most of the inhabitants of Gavdos and numerous tourists.

One would assume that such a remote island is doomed to demographic and natural disaster, that social life and the future are limited to the lives of current residents, and that after them, Gavdos would become one of the uninhabited Greek islands. But the reality is quite different - Gavdos, due to its specific location, which implies administrative distance and a high degree of independence, attracts new residents from Greece and abroad. The possibility of a radical life change, which some certainly regret, creates the subtle magnetism of this island, the hope that alternative social worlds are possible, communities that are beyond the reach of contemporary plagues and where opportunities for growth and development are as good as, if not better than, in densely populated urban areas. For example, the school on Gavdos currently has two primary school students, two female students, as one of them recently moved there from Thessaloniki.

The island receives numerous tourists, considering that the tourist infrastructure is weak and undeveloped. However, that is precisely the main reason why adventurers, naturists, spiritualists, and lovers of untouched landscapes of various kinds visit this island and stay on it, whether for a short time, long term, or a lifetime. One of the local mascots, Martin Frank, came to Greece, to its southernmost point, in 1981 and after being a property owner in Crete, since 1986, he has been a specialized hiking tour guide. But it's not only enthusiastic individuals who come to Gavdos and stay. There is a well-known religious community on the island, locally called the Russians because they mostly speak Russian among themselves, but they also include immigrants from Switzerland and other Western countries. The Russians, many of whom are scientists, have formed an unusual and self-sufficient community in which they develop an esoteric school for the study of human evolution and the path of humanity towards the future. Although they have complex relationships with the local community and the Church, the Russians are an integral part of life on Gavdos today, and their influence is most visible in the geographical south of the island, where they have marked the end of the European continent with a giant steel chair.

Anyone who visits Gavdos will find themselves in deep introspection and self-reflection in relation to the world and the passage of time, rather than enjoying the ready-made tourist charms of the island, which are significantly fewer here than in other places in Greece. The journey to such a remote place already involves a challenging path but offers much - the feeling that we gaze farthest when we don't have much in front of us. When it's time for a break from contemplation, Sarakiniko, Agiannis, Lavrakas, Korfos, Potamos, Pirgos beaches, as well as sun loungers and beach bars furnished in a hippie style, provide a more than pleasant atmosphere for relaxation.

Suggested movie: The Immortals at the Southern Point of Europe

Suggested reading: Homer - Odyssey

Suggested listening: Nikos Xylouris - Itane mia fora