Beaches
For many people, the beach lies at the very centre of their holiday, so a good beach can make all the difference. Fortunately, the Greek islands abound with good beaches.
And here it is, the essence of a good beach; soft golden sand, beautifully cared for by the hotel that owns it (carefully raked and flattened that morning before the guests were up), sun loungers and umbrellas (only 1 Euro 50 per day), a calm shallow sea, a blue sky, an August sun, and a beachfront taverna just behind me. Just add a good book and some suntan lotion for a perfect day!
In this case, the photograph was taken at Rethymnon.
This is the same beach, looking along the bay towards Rethymnon old town. In the distance, you can make out the white shape of the ferry to Piraeus, loading up in the harbour.
This is the delightful beach at Myrtos on Kefalonia. Anyone who saw Captain Correlli’s Mandolin may recognise it as the beach where the Opera Club went for a picnic with the Italian “ladies”. I believe it was also the beach where they blew up the mine.
This is one of the most famous (certainly one of the most photographed) beaches in the Islands. It is the beach at Navagio on Zakynthos. The story goes that the ship was stranded here in a storm, with a full cargo of contraband cigarettes, while the crew were trying to avoid coastguards. (Whiskey Galore à la grec!) Now the ship is going nowhere, and as the bay can only be reached by sea, it is a popular place for passing boats to drop in and explore.
The photograph was taken from a viewing platform (like a large diving board with a barrier around) similar to the one at Cape Keri. Once again, it was a bit of a white-knuckle experience to go right to the end of the platform over a gaping drop and lean right over the barrier to get a clear shot of the
Back to Kefalonia and Captain Correlli again. Ardent film-goers will recognise this immediately as the Italian artillery camp. In fact it is the beach at Antisamos Bay, and the camp has been replaced by a taverna in the middle of the clearing.
The beach at Antisamos is made up of brilliant white stones and the glare from these makes photography quite difficult. Most of my photographs here took their exposure from the beach and closed the aperture so much that the day looked dull and wintry. This was probably the best one I got. The beach was particularly quiet at this point, because most of the men were in the taverna watching England beat Argentina in the 2002 World Cup.
By contrast, this photograph was taken in winter. This is the beach at Agios Stefanos in Corfu. Even though it was only seven weeks to Christmas when I took this shot, the day was hot and there were many people swimming.
This photograph was taken at a sandy beach near Vasilikos in the south of Zakynthos. Note the small cage in the middle foreground. This is the site of a turtle nest, and this beach is a turtle sanctuary. There are very strict rules about what you can and cannot do on such beaches, especially after dark, so that the turtles and their nests are not disturbed.
Finally, this is another winter shot from Corfu, (who would believe it?)
This idyllic scene was shot in November from a beach in Sidari, at the north of the island. In the distance, you can see the coast of Albania across the straits.
