Aponisos

Aponisos is a place in Anghistri to which many people go to swim in the crystal clear waters of the Saronic Gulf. The only structure that exists there is an old taverna where visitors can order lunch and look out on a beautiful view. No power lines stretch as far as Aponisos so the only power available is generated in a diesel generator among the trees. There is a tiny beach from which you can swim as well as a small group of sunbeds on the tiny island there and they boast a special gangway into the water.

The local fishing boats used by people who live in nearby Limenaria are tied up at Aponisos. They are painted in various colours and form a very pretty picture tied up in a row by the small causeway that connects the island from Anghistri. Beyond the tiny island is a larger island consisting of two steep hills. At the top of one hill you can see a small Greek Orthodox church. How you can get up there I do not know. There appears to be no access on the landward side.

After a swim this year, we dried off and sat reading under the trees from where I took the picture at the head of this publication. Aponisos is visited these days by wealthy Greeks in motor yachts so the taverna has raised its game and today provides the best seafood in Anghistri. Anyone visiting the toilets there 20 years ago would have had a nasty shock. To say the facilities were basic would have been to tell a lie. The facilities at that time defied description! Today the loos are able to compete with any Greek establishment for tourism.

On the day we were there we partook of a lunch of fish, mussels and Greek salad. Once more it was memorable. We came away waxing poetic about the food we had just eaten. On the ride back (2 on a motor scooter!) to Megalohori we noted the island fire engine parked outside the tiny wayside church of Aghia Barbara. The crew always stop there under the trees for their packed lunch.

No holiday in Anghistri is complete without a visit to Aponisos and perhaps along the way to Dragonera where people camp out under the No Camping signs! These days there are many sunbeds provided there if you don't mind a pebble beach to swim from. To ride along that road with only the sound of a multitude of cicadas and the smell of pine resin in your nostrils is quite enjoyable.