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There are no motor vehicles on Idhra, except for a few lorries to cart away rubble and rubbish, and no surfaced roads away from the port; the island is mountainous and its interior accessible only by foot or hoof. The net result is that most tourists don't venture beyond the town, so by a little walking you can find yourself in a dramatically different kind of island. The pines devastated by forest fires in 1985 are fortunately now growing back. Following the streets of the town upwards and inland behind the Angelica you reach a path which winds up the mountain for about an hour's walk to the monastery of Profitis Ilias and the convent of Ayia Efpraxia . Both are beautifully situated; the nuns at the convent (the lower of the two) offer hand-woven fabrics for sale. A path continues behind Profitis Ilias to a saddle overlooking the south coast and a steeply descending kalderimi onwards to scattered houses and chapels near the sea. From the saddle, a faint path climbs to the right for twenty minutes to the 588-metre summit of Mount Eros, the Argo-Saronic islands' highest viewpoint. To the east of Profitis Ilias are four more monasteries, the nearest to town being Ayia Triadha , occupied by a few monks (no women admitted). From here a path continues east for two more hours to the cloister of Zourvas in the extreme east of the island. A dirt road continues west of Vlyhos, past a busy boat-repair yard, to Episkopi , a high plateau planted with olives and vineyards and dotted by a scattering of homes (no facilities), and then climbs above Molos Bay, the property of an Athenian hospital owner, and closed to the public. From Episkopi itself, vague tracks lead to the southwestern extreme of the island, on either side of which the bays of Bisti and Ayios Nikolaos offer solitude and good swimming. Bisti has a pebble beach with rocks for swimming off at one side; Ayios Nikolaos has a small sand beach. The best cove of the many on the south coast is Limnioniza (beyond Ayia Triadha), with a pebble beach and pine trees; the overland access path is long (1 hr 15 min from town) and rough, though well-marked and obvious. Points on the coast can be reached much more easily by water taxis , which will drop you off and then pick you up again at any time you arrange.
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