We paid our sixth visit to Thassos on September 10th (the second time this year) and stayed for a week at the Aloe in Skala Potamia.

Having been brave enough to travel independently of the tour operators in May, we decided to repeat the exercise. We flew with MyTravel from Gatwick, landing at Kavala at 11:10 am. As soon as we retrieved our bag we went to look for a taxi and were lucky enough to negotiate a share with two very nice ladies. The taxi driver pulled out all the stops and we made the midday ferry. Consequently we were on the island by 12:45, and supping a Mythos in Megas Alexandros by 1:30.

Now, for anyone who read my previous note, it's important to note that the ferry now comes into the port and not the town, so the bus stop is not nearby. It's about a 15 minute walk into the town from the port. However, there are taxis at the port. We were met by some friends of ours who had hired a jeep, so we spent our first 3 days touring the mountains to places we had not previously visited. The monastary of St Panteleimon is fascinating and well worth a visit. It's not difficult to find as all the roads in the mountains are signposted. We drove to the top of Ipsarion in May, so this time we went to the top of Prophitis Ilias, the second highest peak on the island. It was a bit hazy, but the views across the island and to the mainland were still stunning.

We were only really bothered by wasps once. That was when we visited Vathi beach. This is the beach that the lazy day cruise stops at for the barbeque. There were a lot of them and they were very persistent, but not agressive.

Once again everyone (Haris and Maria from the Aloe, Alex and Dimitri from the Megas Alexandros, Smarro and Vasislis from the Votsalo and Manolis from the Akrogiali) made us very welcome. So much so that I have already started to look for flights to Thassos for next May.

If you do want to travel independently and can't get on a package flight, it is possible to get flights to Kavala on various airlines via stopovers in various Eurpean cities eg Munich, or Amsterdam, or Milan, or Vienna depending on the airline. The cheapest flight I found cost about £195, but due to the stopover the journey time is longer than the package flights. Failing this you can fly to Athens (I found Easyjet to be the cheapest) and there are two flights to Kavala every day costing about 60 Euros. I found all this information on the internet at eBookers and the Easyjet and Olympic Airways sites.