Paxos´s coast
13/05/2013 9:52:08
Since we read the book of the Archduke we made the idea that the coast of Paxos was going to be spectacular, especially the western part of it, which is the first we saw when crossing the Ionian Sea from the Strait of Messina.
The fact is that not only landscape has exceeded expectations, but also has given us the unexpected surprise to spot a pair of monk seals!, Monachus monachus, about thirty meters from the boat, a rare privilege we’ve lived intensely . Theyve been out twice to breathe, just several seconds, and disappeared quickly.
We started going back to the island of Porto Gaios northward along the east coast. This coast is formed by soft hills with lush vegetation reminding us to the southern islands of Croatia -both Mljet and Kolocep channel islands-. We also see how several beaches are repeating along the coast.
Arriving Logos a chimney of an abandoned factory, observed to the right of the bay, strikes us. This factory did not exist when the Archduke made the Paxos book. The Logos dock area, with minor changes, keeps the look offered at the time of the Archduke.
We leave Logos towards Lakka -very close-. In Lakka changes seem bigger than in Logos, and also we observe many more boats in the bay.
We left the port of Lakka and go towards the west coast of Paxos. After turning the tip of Lakka we can see its lighthouse.
Passing the lighthouse we are very close to the Caves of Seals with big cliffs, impressive, leading into the area in which these caves are.
The entrance of the Great Cave of Seals is about 15 meters high, soon we noticed the smell of sulfur that increases as we penetrate in the cave. From the inside the view is spectacular.
Following, the Eremiti Bay, on whose beach, while we were watching the stairs, we could see the two seals that came out a few moments to breathe. At the entrance of the bay we see the reefs the Archduke drew from inside of this bay.
Achai caves are a very attractive place because of the lighting game created inside. One of them, the second right, has the crumbling roof and lets the sunlight in. The Archduke took one of the pictures of the inside from the beach of stones.
In the Ortholiton there is a colony of seagulls that felt threatened when we passed near them on the dinghy. Just after the Ortholiton there is the cave from which we took the picture.
From the dinghy we see the rocks of StoAgerla and Nissaki. However we couldn’t find the cave of Achandacha...
We immediately see with the majestic Sto. Generalatu and then Kathisma rock formations.
So finally, a lovely day around the coast with the gift of having watched a pair of monk seals in Eremiti.
