Hi Frankie, hi all - here are the promised photos of my "swimming to a lonely beach adventure" that had been sitting in my old camera so many years.
Thats the story how I got to this dream beach with the shipwreck on the 18th of November 2004 - without a boat and on my own:

No boats were for hire at this time of year but I so much wanted to get there after making the long way to this beautiful Island mainly to see this spectacular beach live. Climbing down the steep rocks was impossible without equipment. The whole island was already in winter sleep. I tried to convince a fisherman in Puorto Vromi at the west coast to lend me his fishing-boat, but he didn´t understand a word in English (or didnt want to;-).

So I decided to try to swim there. I waited nearly two weeks for the best possible weather conditions - not so much wind (and waves) and sunny weather. On the 18th of November 2004 (2 days before my planned departure couldn´t take place as no ferry could leave the island for several days because of too much wind and waves) I climbed down a goat path at the southern rocks of the shipwreck beach and got into the sea - only with my swimming trunks on and my digital camera under a bathing cap on my head. I had to swim breaststroke in order to not wet the camera so it took me some time to reach the beach (oneway approx. 2 km).

Even if the water was still above 20 degrees Celsius, I was bloody freezing after a breaker smashed me on the beach. The weak November sun came out, but the air was cold. I had the beach and the shipwreck just for me but was in fear of the way back and the increasing sea - in autumn in the afternoon strong winds come up. My wife (being at home) had the order to call my travel agency in Zante town and the greek coastguard if I didn´t give her a call before 7 p.m. greek time. I took some photos, warmed up by jogging barefeet on the quite stony beach and visited another smaller beach closeby.

From there I swom back around the cliffs in an hour and needed another half an hour just to get out of the water without getting smashed at the rocks from the swelling sea (getting in with low waves around noon was much easier - but I knew that before). Just when the sun was setting I managed to climb out with some deep cuts in my feet from the sharp rocks. I was so subcooled that I was barely able to hold the camera for a last sunset photo.

In my midthirties and in good shape after some 15 years of triathlon, I saw this adventure as a maintanable risk - even if my daughter was born only one year ago. Thinking about it now - I would never take this risk again....perhaps in summer with warm weather and in calm sea- but then the beach is overcrowded with people and you can get there with a tourist boat. I had this dream beach just for me for some hours.

Musik: Divider von Chris Zabriskie - Creative Commons Attribution license ([ Ссылка ]).
Quelle: [ Ссылка ]
Interpret: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть