There’s something for everyone this summer

THE Greek islands were where I first fell in love — twice. First with my travel companion, and second with the land we were travelling through.

We were island-hopping on ferries, mopeds and bicycles, and I was searching for ancient history and fabulous myths and legends.

Now, 30 years later, in the epic journey of a lifetime, I’ve gone back across the Aegean. I’ve travelled more than 2,700km by boat, through storms and earthquakes, with the company of dolphins (good) and killer bees (bad), on my own modern Odyssey.

We’re told that around 3,000 years ago the legendary Greek warrior, Odysseus, travelled by boat from the site of the Trojan War to his home island of Ithaca, having all kinds of adventures on the way.

So I decided to pack a film crew and follow the hero’s course. The adventures certainly came thick and fast.

An earthquake rocked the converted olive oil warehouse we were staying in on Ithaca, and a sea storm saw us caught in 6m waves for seven hours in the middle of the Icarian Sea.

There was nothing the Greek hero loved more than a hot bath and an oil rub. On Lesbos I was invited to sit in volcanic jacuzzis with jolly local Lesbians, and on Mykonos (after clinging on through that white-knuckle storm) I was given a good rub down with oil infused with St John’s Wort — a remedy for aches and pains used ever since the ancient Olympics.

Say ‘Greek island’ and the stereotype of blue skies, blue seas and blue-domed churches springs to mind. We found all that and more.

A GREEK Odyssey with Bettany Hughes (pictured) airs on Fridays at 9pm on Channel 5.