Come join Thor and me as we pursue our obsession with the luminous, sapphire-blue Aegean Sea, its siren song calling us to dive ever deeper.
NOTE: Since our trip last fall to Greece to research more settings for my novel-in-progress, THE ARIADNE DISCONNECT, Thor and I knew we had to return to this magical region. My first entry in this new blog series posted here on Saturday, 10/20/2018. It gives an overview of our rambles from Athens to seven islands in the Dodecanese and Cyclades groups, ending our ferry-hopping pilgrimage on the anciently sacred island of Delos.
From the depths of winter, as I fondly recall our latest Greece trip, it’s the rocky coves and pebble beaches that call me to return for more swims in the sunshine. So here’s a tour of our favorite literal waterholes from our last two trips to Rhodos. This time, we first plunged in at Charaki Beach, where we had a charming room overlooking the cove.
As I mentioned earlier, Charaki is a lovely, quiet village with a modest strip of lodgings and a few tavernas along the waterfront. When we checked into our room, our host Petros told us that we’d like it here if we liked goats and cats, the first to greet us as we parked. Definitely a good match for us!
Then it was off to revisit the beautiful ancient and Medieval site of Lindos (see last week’s post), where our explorations under the hot sun prepared us for the cool sea beckoning below the acropolis:
There are sheltered coves on either side of the rocky outcrop, the north side with a tourist beach that was much too crowded for our taste:
So we hiked along the rocky headland to find a more secluded cove.
We found the blue magic:
Thor had our masks and snorkels in his knapsack, to we slipped into the sea to explore the enchanting watery realm. Schools of small, bright-blue fish shimmered around us like jewels as we swam and dived down around sunken boulders, peering into crevices in hopes of spotting an octopus. We didn’t see one, but we did find an undercut cliff with a partially-flooded cave. We swam into the grotto, where we floated in the hush of wavering shadows and ancient mysteries. Could this be the cave beneath the acropolis where an unnamed goddess lived before the Greeks arrived?
Another outing took us to the former spa of Kallithea, where the beach is now open to the public. The decor features the traditional choklakia mosaics of black-and-white sea pebbles.
The beach offers shaded rental loungers along one shore, with a created waterfall above the beach for rinsing off the salt after a swim. Many of the Greek beaches with even minimal facilities offer a freshwater outdoor shower, much appreciated.
The Kallithea pavilion now hosts occasional music performances or wedding ceremonies.
Just south of Kallithea is laid-back Tassos Beach, in yet another rocky cove with a pebble beach and access to deeper swimming and diving over mysterious sunken boulders that looked like sleeping giants.
For a small fee, you can rent a pair of loungers with umbrella, and between swims enjoy beer and lunch from the beachside taverna. After swimming out across the cove and back, we loved floating with our masks and snorkels in the shallows, where the sunlight shimmered over the polished marble pebbles in all colors. We couldn’t resist adding more to our collection. Also irresistible was the resident cat Tassos, who very much owned the beach and felt entitled to climb up on the loungers for cuddles with anyone who’d pet him.
Though it’s difficult to choose among the many options, Thor and I decided that our favorite beach was Ostria, a nearly-empty long stretch of pebble beach just north of Charaki. No facilities here, which was fine with us, as the seclusion and quiet were priceless. The water seemed even a deeper, clear blue here, like diving into a sapphire, and it kept calling us out farther from shore to see if we could still see the bottom — which we could, as far as we swam. Again, it was a treat to let the swells drift us into the shallows to admire the colored marble pebbles.
After our cool swims, we gave each other our own spa treatments with sun-heated pebbles. Thalossotherapy!
Ah, for a Star Trek transporter beam to take me back to those magical beaches! Chairete! Rejoice!
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Cafe is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. It’s a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?” The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara has recently returned from another research trip in Greece and is back at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
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