Paleochora Beaches

After thirty five years away, I had to rediscover those secluded beaches I loved so much. Walk along the sea shore in either direction and you see the clear water surrounding rocky outcrops.

The sand has a very fine gritty texture and can get very hot in the summer sun. In the water, it is very pleasant underfoot but some beaches have underwater rocks which can be a little tiresome.

Armed with nothing more than memories and a bottle full of Paleochora tapwater, I set off looking for the beaches I knew west of the town. When I was here last, there was absolutely nothing west of Paleochora except a very rough rack. Now there is a road!!!

Some of the cliff faces have been blasted away to make way for the new road and it has even claimed a little of the beaches along the way. Some of the beaches I knew have been given names on the road signs and even have small car parks. No longer only the domain of walkers, the whole area is now accessible to any form of road transport.

The road was very quiet. Here and there, where previously there had been deserted hillsides, were new houses and even some tomato farms. Some beaches had even been bulldozed out of existance to give the width needed for the new road. Had I been driving a car, I’m sure I would have been happy with the new arrangement.

One of my favourite beaches had been sacrificed to the road so I walked on until I was about six kilometres from Paleohora where several beaches stretch out into the ocean on either side of an isthmus. Here those original beaches were still there! I walked on to the second beach and there were a couple of nude swimmers from Stanmore in North London. Maybe they had been there for the last thirty five years? At least some things had not changed!

It was nice that my friendly nudists had come from Stanmore. It isn’t just the end of a tube line. They even knew about Cannons and Handel’s Chandos anthems. so that was a very pleasant interlude on a beach where I had enjoyed so many happy days years before. But the most important feature of that beach was that it had not changed at all. The mountain side now had a few houses and the large tomato farm but the beach was the same. It looked as though those beaches had been made into a type of national park so I hope it never changes.

On my way back, I walked down into many of the smaller beaches. Some of them were backed by a wall of road rubble bulldozed to make the car park for that very beach. It was very obvious that a landscape gardener had not been involved! But, now and then, I saw people taking advantage of the car parks to enjoy the seclusion of the tiny beaches with their crystal clear water.

The next day, I decided to walk five kilometres in the opposite direction. I had never bothered to walk to the East of Paleochora, so this was a completely new venture and nothing to do with my previous visit.

I was curious to see what was on the stony beach immediately East of the harbour so I attempted a walk along this stretch. It was incredibly difficult to walk along this surface and all I found was a messy beach fronting some houses.

Walking further on, I joined a track designed mainly for four wheel drive vehicles but clearly navigable by ordinary cars. There were pleasant beaches visable from the track but no bulldozers had yet arrived to spoil their approach. After five kilometres, I came across a Greek sign saying something that I could not understand and an English sign saying “Canteen Beach”, Down below me, I saw a small taverna and the owner had even put umbrellas on the beach. But there was nobody under them.

Both sides of Paleochora have very steep mountain sides and cliffs dropping down to the sea. There are beautiful beaches still there and they may stay unchanged to the East of Paleohora as the mountains are much steeper on that side.

But are people going to start streaming down to south Crete instead of staying in the north? Having met so many people in Paleochora who live in Chania and take weekends and holidays in Paleochora, it seems that Greek people will certainly come.

There are two things which distinguish the South from the North. The first is the cool wind which blows gently all of the time except when it is blowing very strongly. But the second is a feature which I find difficult to cope with after living in the subtropical climate and warm water of Noosa Heads. The sea water in the South is colder than the north!!!! After spending a summer around Sweetwater Beach, I ascribed the cold sea to the cold water draining down from the mountains. Maybe this is a feature that will persuade some tourists to keep to the north of Crete? I hope so.