Slept so well after yesterday’s exertion, and up early for today’s adventure. Fuelling up on feta, tomato, cucumber, olives; egg, yogurt and nuts – and a coffee. We’re heading east today in the boat. We are dropped off for the first swim which is long – over 3k, but the cliffs are different. So many caves to explore and the rock seems more porous.
Everything is craggy and shaped by the wind and the water. The seascape below looks like buried palaces with stone steps going to the depths. Inside the caves there are gradations of greys and shades of white and cream, then just below the surface, the rock is a most beautiful pink, and small bright green ferns grow immediately above it in the calm of the cave. The same pink of a Major Mitchell cockatoo, or the same tones and lines that I recall from Queenie McKenzie paintings. Below the surface this sea algae blooms even brighter in pink, orange, grey and green. Swimming back out of the cave I look out to see my view framed by a magnificent arch. I didn’t expect so much colour or the changes to the texture of the rock. As I swim along the coast I see that the spring water has seeped out of the face of the rocks and bleached the grey granite base, streaming down marking the recent seepage a deep grey. Every breath to the left I see a procession of spirit shapes dancing on the rocks, so similar in shape to the west Arnhem Land mimih, I check again and again, and the similarity grows even stronger. Some of them even appear with the characteristic hood…
We stop after about 3k at a pebbly beach, swim in, use the fresh water shower and lie on the sun warmed rocks to dry. Bliss! A tiny beach and a taverna with the best lunch I’ve had this week! A small sleep in the shade, and then we are back in the water for the afternoon swim of around 2k. Today I really found my stride with swimming and found that I am moving faster than earlier in the week, and enjoying the exertion very much.
Last day of swimming tomorrow – and we are combining that with a walk along the cliffs. I’ve booked a body massage at Sfakia at lunch time. Yum! Kali nichta xxx