Autumn swimming

Our beach has closed for the winter. It all happened overnight, unlike other years when the preparations for the winter would take weeks, where every few days a few more umbrellas would be taken down and we would get psychologically prepared for the end of the summer.

All that's left now is the net, a few buoys and a few pedaloes which will disappear in the next few days.

I think storm Athena has quite a lot to do with this sudden dismantling of the beach. Strong winds and pouring rain kept most people indoors on Friday, but even though the storm is meant to go on for almost a week, Saturday was sunny, warm even if a bit cloudy, so we set out for a swim. (Incidentally, in the evening we went to Edem bar, sat by the sea, marveling at the steel grey of both sea and sky, and then moved next door to the restaurant. Just as our food arrived, it started pouring again: the waiters were quietly efficient in moving us under large umbrellas where we were able to finish our meal and enjoyed sitting there, listening to the rain crashing down on the roof of the umbrella. It was a good evening).

So, we walked down the path 

that leads to the free beach, which was renamed Cape Sol this year.

A lovely bay which is relatively sheltered and perfect for autumn swimming

A rock formation at one end of this bay, while at the other end you can see the net that surrounds the pay beach.

It's a sandy beach which unfortunately is not as well looked after as the pay beach - the fag ends on the sand, irritate, but we do not tend to linger as we do in the summer, we just have a long swim and go. 

I love this single sun ray captured by the camera.

This is what one can see when standing by the rocks

I like the new changing huts which are reminiscent of English beach huts. As you can see there are quite a few people who are still swimming, despite the cooler weather.

While standing on the rocks, in the other direction, I could see the sailing boats in the horizon. It's the same every weekend, where loads of people go sailing, some of them learners.

We had one of the best swims of the year. We started from here

swam around the corner

swam alongside these rocks, 

parallel to the Promenade where we walk on our way to the Marina

more boats in the horizon

came upon a few more swimmers on the way

past the tiny, tiny sandy beach in the middle of the mass of rocks that define this part of the coast

 swam up to the wall that surrounds the marina, and then swan back. It took us over an hour. 

The next day was very different. The sky was dark grey as was the sea. We could hear the thunder rumbling continuously as we walked to the beach, and it continued doing so the whole time we were swimming. We decided to swim across the bay and back this time, as the weather looked very ominous 

but it did not deter the people who were swimming. We were half way back from the end of the bay when the lightning started. It was time to get out of the water, and we did so as fast as we could.

The boats looked very pretty against the grey.

It started raining as we were getting changed, 

but that did not deter the winter swimmers outside their hut, who were dancing to the sound of loud music.