Swimming in Hydra

We took a boat to go swimming. There are four or five beaches dotted along the island, mainly the south side, where it is possible to swim - no sand, except for the resort beach and there we think the sand must have been specially imported. All the beaches have  bits of rock on the ground - can't call it pebbles, it really is bits of rock that have fallen from the hills over the centuries.  Very difficult on the feet.

We could not go to either of our two favourite beaches as they have changed the schedules and the first boat coming back is at 4:00 pm - too late, we really do not want to spend that much time on a beach. So we thought we would try Vlychos beach - we'd been before.

The boat ride is a pleasure in itself

leaving the harbour

We had such giggles. The sea was a bit rough and the guy warned us that we would get wet. This girl got sprayed for most of the short journey and she was hooting with laughter - totally infectuous

A good view of the town from here

and we were off

All around the island, in the town and on the hills are these stone walls surrounding houses or just plots - this is one of them

Vlychos beach is on the south side of the island, so this is what we are seeing here - you can see the windmill that we passed when we walked to Kaminia

lots of spray and the little girl was having such a great time - totally infectuous

This is Kaminia which you can see here

looking back

This is Vlychos beach, the nearest to the town

And this is where the little boat dropped us off

It's an organised beach, which means shade, essential in such a hot country. We had taken the first boat in so the beach was empty but by the time we left at 2:00 it was packed

I always like to sit in the first row so that I get unimpeded views of the sea, but all the front umbrellas were booked - I think the guy keeps them for people who will give him a good tip. We left at 2:00 and some were still empty - what a waste

Lots of sea traffic - the one on the right is a taxi the second, a private boat

We went for a wee walk to the neighbouring bay

a little church, pareklisi, perched on the rocks

the local taverna

good views from here

This is where the water taxis come in as well as the local caique

and we decided to have another swim here then went back to our loungers and shade.

The boat ride back was fun and we were the only passengers 

and then back to the town and the donkeys, or mules in this case.

The next day we thought we might try swimming in the town which is by Sunset restaurant

you go down some steps

and then there's a ladder that takes you straight down to the sea

there are 3 platforms in the midst of the rocks where you can sit afterwards

There is no shade, but after your swim you can walk up the steps 

and come and sit here.

We used to do that a lot, swim on to the next bay get out there, and then swim back again

We decided against it this time.

Instead we went back to the harbour and took a boat to Madraki, the only beach on the north side of town

This was a speedboat and the ride was quite rough, but great fun

past the Slaughterhouse gallery, with Jeff Koons' sun on the roof.

A short ride, and we arrived at Madraki. Madraki beach is divided into two. On the left is the fancy resort where it costs an awful lot to sit, and on the right, the beach for the plebs, which is what you can see in the photograph and where we went

we settled 

and looked around. In the distance you can see the building which is the restaurant and offices of the resort

a small bay

the beach got busy later on

This house is for short term lets - probably an airbnb. There were people staying there





but then they left and on our last day the cleaner was there getting it ready for the next lot. I went up and had a chat with her - it's two apartments, one on each floor. It looked quite good.





We liked it here and came to Madraki every day for the rest of our break. We were fed up with the hard surface on the ground however, so went and bought ourselves some appropriate footwear - these are Ken's

and these are mine.

We swam across the bay every day, past the boats, on to the fancy resort, we would stay there for a few minutes and then swim back. Not as long as we would have liked but we did this a few times and then some more.