We spent a day on the beach over on the small island of Kato Koufonissi, right next to our island, and I thought it was cool enough for its own blog post.
They say no one lives there, but it’s not true. There is one tavern with some attached housing, at least six newer vacation homes that we saw along the shore (and we did not see the entire island) and one or two old stone houses in the interior that are occupied on and off by sheep and goat herders, including old man Mixalios of the restaurant (see the Koufonissi post).
That said, it is pretty uninhabited. So we decided to go spend the day there, on what we hoped would be a deserted beach.
We caught the first boat of the morning from the port to Kato. The taxi boat runs to the Venetsanos Tavern at Laki Beach, then along the coast to Nero Beach and then back to port, maybe six times a day. The schedules are pretty rough (see the photos) so you are kind of making an assumption when you will get picked up.
There are two competing taxi services, the “white” boat and the “blue” boat, and the kiosks are in the port. It costs €5 round trip.
The taxi boat cruises close to the shore as you go along the island, and we were able to scope out several very small, private coves. I was surprised at the number of people camping down along the shore in the area around the tavern.
So we dropped off on the rocks-and-gangplank that serves as a dock at Nero Beach, and looked around.
Nero Beach is a long, nice curve of sand, with a second “more private” area to the right that you access by wading around a point of land. We considered staying right here, but as the drop off point we could see it would be accumulating people like flies.
We set our sites on a really nice, empty cove we had seen on our way along the island, back where there was a cave and some bushes and I could tell the access would be easy (some of the coves were backed by high cliffs). I figured it to be about 2/3 of the way back towards the tavern.
I also knew of a beach up and over the other direction, but I was unsure of a trail that way and it would be even further from the tavern. It made sense to me to walk towards the point where we would eventually be picked up.
This turned out to be a good choice.
We hiked over to the canyon that led out the back of the beach; a canyon with some trees. We discovered quite a few people camping in here, among the trees, part way up the sides of the canyon, and along the beach past the canyon mouth. There were a lot of people hanging out in the shade areas as well, so the beach was more crowded than it originally looked.
We hiked up an ill-defined trail, out and over the lip of the canyon. At the top we grabbed a rope attached to a tree to haul ourselves over the rim, and we were standing in a wide open area of rock. The rock led upwards toward the highest point of the island, and we could see a rock house there. There were many more people camping in the trees and bushes lining this wide rock “road.”
We followed the rocks, eventually hitting a sort of worn-in path running by an old stone wall. As we climbed up the hill we had great views back down on Nero Beach where the next boat was already dropping off another group of people.
We reached the top where the old stone house was, obviously still being used off and on by sheep and goats men and probably the occasional camper. There were also several remains of cool old houses with doors framed up, smooth rock floors, and walls forming pens.
We wondered where they got water from back in the old days?
Now we could finally look ahead on the island, and saw the tavern way in the distance. The little cove we were aiming for wasn’t in view. But I knew about where it should be.
We followed the rocks and trail and walls in that general direction, easier now since it was downhill.
Coming over a small rise, the coastline stretched out before us, and there was the sandy little cove, tucked in, still empty.
In this way we walked probably three fourths of the island, ranging inland and seeing almost all of it except for the tip and backside.
We followed the path down, skirting the top of the cliffs backing the cove, to the far end where the rocks came right down to the shore and made a natural entrance to the beach.
Two women had come in just ahead of us from the tavern side (If we go again that is the way we will come. It is shorter, flatter, and while it was interesting to walk the interior of the island, now that we have done it we would rather maximize the beach time and snag the cave.) and they set up in the cave, stripping off their clothes and jumping in the water.
We picked out a good spot in the sand, back up close to the cliff where we would be a little sheltered from the wind.
While I was setting up the umbrella an anchoring it with rocks, one more couple showed up. They set up near the other end of the beach with their umbrella and towels, stripped down and jumped in the water as well.
Well I finished setting up, dropped the suit and jumped it. After the sweaty hike, the water felt cool and refreshing.
And so we spent the day swimming and sunning, the quiet waves lapping gently. We napped and read, swam and stared, walked looking at the colored rocks and swam some more.
There was one time when a boat full of wetsuit-clad kids and their parents showed up from one of the huge yachts anchored offshore, and they arrived with a dog, yelling and throwing rocks, running all among us as the parents sat, clueless and the little motorboat cruised just off the beach, the chauffeur smoking and blaring music.
But they soon left (after driving out the other couple) and we were once again left alone on our nearly deserted beach.
All too soon it was time to walk to the tavern to catch (we hoped) the taxi boat back. It was a quick hike, and we were about ten minutes early. Along the way we ran into the shepherd riding his mule.
On the way back to Ano Koufonissi the boat captain gave us all a tour of the cliff side (that we see from our room) weaving in and out of the sea stacks where there are little caves and a nice pebble beach. There was a small tour boat tied up here, the people all swimming and exploring.
All in all this was a great day.
Things to know:
Every beach here has naked swimming and sun tanning mixed in with the clothed crowd. Our beach was (until the boat arrived) totally nude. It is not a place to be shy. However, if you are, it would not take much effort to find a private cove.
Or, just stay on the other island.
You gotta bring your own shade and water and food.
We did the “long hike” the length of the island in flip flops. You don’t need shoes, though many people wore them.