The aim today was to visit a very famous beach called Paralia Egkremni which as the crow flies is about five miles from where we are staying but because of the mountains is a 20 mile excursion. According to Wikipedia “Since the creation of a sealed road during the mid-1990s, this remote beach has become one of the premier tourist destinations on the island, and in Europe as a whole.”
Sounds good to us so sandwiches were packed, cans of beer carefully wrapped in towels to keep them cool and off we went. - It was closed!
Looking through the holes in the fence we could see the pristine sealed road, beautiful stainless steel steps leading down to the perfect sandy beach but we were 1000 feet above sea level and there seemed no way down. It seems that a huge amount of money was spent creating the infrastructure to welcome tourists then in 2015 an earthquake struck covering part of the road in rocks. So the only way to get to the beach is by tour boat from the main resort, call me a cynic but I suspect the boat owners have made sure the earth is never cleared from the road so they have a monopoly on taking tourists to the beach!
The view of the beach is pictured, it is a long way down!
When I mentioned to a friend who knows Greece better than me that I was in Lefkada he said “Do they still have the pontoon crossing rather than a bridge” to which my answer was “yes”.
He tells me that this ensures that under EU regulations this makes Lefkada a proper island thereby qualifing for extra funding.
Here in Vasiliki they have been building a new marina for almost 10 years, it is still incomplete and some of the infrastructure is getting a bit shabby. Greece never seems to shake off it’s “third world” way of doing things, a great shame.
So instead we followed a signpost to a different beach which was beautiful. The only other people there were in three huge German trucks, the sort of thing you see in Africa doing the Europe to Cape Town overland thing. Perhaps that is what they are doing, they did seem rather OTT vehicles for a holiday in Greece, our little hire car could almost drive underneath.
We found a seemingly empty taverna with a few sun loungers and we managed to improvise an umbrella. As you can see in the picture I was sorted, earphones in, a book on the Kindle and an Amstel beer in hand, what could possibly go wrong.
Then the man who owns the sun loungers turned up so we had to pay him 5€.
It was a very pleasant day, we might do the same tomorrow.
It also seems from the picture that my beer belly is growing as the holiday progresses, lots of long walks next week and no lunches!