Greece: Zakynthos - The Journey Cross Turtle Island II.

This does not mean that Zante can´t offers enough or other potential tourist destinations. The main ones are Blue Caves, which is located in the northeastern border of the island. And then the beach Navajo, also known as beach of shipwrecking, which hides one of the most famous ship wrecks of the Mediterranean. And about this, we will talk about today.

As we mentioned in previous part, Zante is necessarily understood as an island of two faces. The western mountain range with steep cliffs directly contrasts with the tranquil agricultural landscape eastern part. During a day trip then we will experience both of these extremes. If we start to go from the South, popular tourist sites Laganas, Kalamaki and Limni Keri and rent a car one day will be enough, because with short stops it is possible went across the island. Our journey will leads through the main city of Zakynthos, a relatively peaceful harbour and relatively busy road between the sea and a plenty of shops, where there are a typical tavernas and fast food stalls. A city, where there is nothing much to offer or surprise - this Mediterranean classic, which gets its appeal especially in the evening. We will continue north along the coast, around Akrotiri resorts - Tsilivi-Psarou Ag.Kiriaki-alikes and where after about 40 miles of our journey the land slowly begins to undulate and the sea cliffs are more rising. From here leads a tour on the winding, but maintained road towards Katastari - one of the lunch places where you can still bask in peace on the beach.

During this part of the journey is also a good idea to make less stops and from the rest areas or cliffs to enjoy the beauty of the azure blue waters and a variable landscape of the island. To the first major stop is only about 15 miles. On one side is a rock, on the second one an escarpment and the sea. Roads with high-quality asphalt rapidly running out and soon we are already at the southern tip of the island, the lighthouse Skinari, where he maintained one of the last wind mills with an impressive view of the bay, the ones hiding Blue Grotto, one of the aims of our trip. There are two ways how to get there: the first are regular cruises by larger motor boat that will take you directly inside the caves and the second, which requires utmost courage and strength, which is about the descent and a smaller jump in the clear waters and then tens of meters of swimming to the first cave, which their plenty are five. I recommend this option only as a refreshing, because I can´t imagine how anyone would even swam into a nearby cave with a camera overhead and still managed to enjoying its beauty. That is Why are we chose option 1, to invest a few Euros and give our fate in the hands of a skilled captain, who managed his ship with precision of millimeters directly in the cramped cave where the water really plays all the tones of blue, from azure the blue night sky. The greatest strength of this phenomenon is mainly in the morning and afternoon, which is just the most illuminated part of the island sun, whose rays lag on the walls and underwater magical play of colors and shades. This effect was gradually loses in the late afternoon and evening as we unfortunately could saw it, but even so it was an impressive experience, even at extremely industrious contribution of the pilot, which is actively used to describe everything that can be seen in caves and record.

If you really go for about 80 mile ride to the Blue Caves, get you up earlier to be able to catch the show in the morning yet. The rest of the day you can spend by relaxing on the terraces and the evening you can go to the nearby viewpoint close beach of Navagio. More you can read next time. 

Text: Jan Chaloupka

Photo: Tereza Překlasová, Jan Chaloupka