The Island - Spinalonga Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Have you read Victoria Hislop’s best selling novel The Island? Or in German Die Insel der Vergessenen?
Well, this is the place!
Spinalonga (officially: Caledonia) is a small island at the entrance of Elounda bay.
In antiquity there was a fortress built there by the inhabitants of the town of Olous, the most powerful city-state near Lato. Olous gave its name to the modern town of Elounda, altered a bit from mouth to mouth.
In 1579 the Venetians built there a strong fortress, which was also used by the Ottomans after they occupied Crete in 1669.
In 1903 the autonomous Cretan State decided to use the island as a leper colony. It kept being a home for the lepers also after Crete became part of Greece in 1913. The leper colony closed in 1957, as the disease could eventually be cured with some new medicines. Since then Spinalonga has been uninhabited. During these 54 years hundreds of people from all over Greece lived here isolated, far from their families, struggling against a torturous disease. Their tough life stigmatized the island making it a synonym of a place of torment.
To get to the island of Spinalonga you need to take a boat from Agios Nikolaos or Elounda or Plaka. The site on the island is open from the beginning of April until the end of October from 9 am to 6 pm and there is an entrance ticket of €8. In wintertime, November to March, it is open at weekends from 9 am to 3 pm.
The cache is hidden on the highest point of the island.Good shoes are recommended, as the rocks can be slippery. It’s a small plastic container and it contains a pencil, the geocaching note, a logbook and some small goodies to trade.
Please, take special care of the muggles around and hide it well again.
And why not upload your photos with your logs? There are great views on the island.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va gur fgbar jnyy. Ybbx ng gur fcbvyre cubgbf!
Treasures
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