Swimming in Poros

We took the local bus, seen here at night, to get to Kanali beach. The bus is free and runs from the morning  (with a break during siesta hours) until after midnight.

It runs every 20 minutes and is used extensively by the locals.

A five minute walk would take us to the narrow strait that divides the two islands, Sphairia and Kalaureaia that make up the island of Poros. The locals call it the Canal. On the left of the end of the canal in this photograph is Kanali beach. 

Poros beaches are not spectacularly good as in some other islands, but we did have some nice swims here. Not really sandy, just pebbles and we would have found it very difficult without our swimming shoes which we use when we go to beaches like these.

Nice views from our loungers.

In the afternoons it would get a bit rough and that was fun

A good-sized bay but not too big

It's an organised beach, so that one can get adequate shade, and the prices were not too steep as in some other islands.

The taverna on the beach is good - nice views of the sea, and fairly good food.

One thing I liked about it is that it never got too busy so that we were able to get an umbrella in the first row - I like having uninterrupted views of the sea

It's a family beach - lots of kids having fun with their canoes








I like swimming fairly long distances, so, endless expanses of water get a bit boring.  So, I like swimming around rocks and caves, or, in our own beach getting to the net and back, which gives me a purpose. But, the best are rocks and caves, and this is why I loved swimming in Therma in Ikaria and Sarakiniko in Milos . 

What I did in Kanali was I swam up to the rocks in the picture, explored all around the rocks, went inside the shallow caves - it was such fun. Exploring, no one else around, just wonderful.

I also saw something I have not seen before. Hanging from a rock was what looked like the root of a tree. But, I am not sure, it's just I don't know what else it could have been. It is very long.  It looked like the lower part of a white giant: the hips were embedded in the rock at the top of the cliff and the two long white legs were reaching to the bottom rocks, like roots or feet.  One of them looked like it had a bent knee. I find it difficult to explain, it was such an odd thing that I had never seen before. 

On two occasions, we went to the taverna that's on the beach for lunch after our swim.

The place I really wanted to go and swim, which I had been looking forward to, and which had been my favourite place during our last trip, was this bay, the Russian bay.

It was spectacular due to the backdrop ruin of a 19th century Russian naval base. 

When Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, Russia secured free shipping for its navy and this bay was one of their bases. When Russian activity declined so did the base and the abandoned buildings were left to decay.



So we went again, on our second full day. but did not stay.

They have replaced the umbrellas and the beds, and unfortunately with the new ones you hardly get any shade. The umbrellas aren't that good, but it's the beds that are the problem. They are so heavy that it's hard to move them - on the other beaches, we constantly move the beds following where the shade goes as the sun moves.  We do not like sitting in the sun and it's not good for you, so we had no choice but to call another taxi (there is no other way of getting there unless one has a car) and went to Kanali again.

It's a lovely bay, and I remember loving swimming there, but we cannot sit on a beach without shade. On the way to Kanali, we looked at the other beaches on the way, but they were all very busy, so we decided to stick to Kanali for the rest of our stay.