Thursday down the alley.

There’s a stretch of Alonissos that Simon and I named Cave Alley. It’s just cave after cave after cave after feature and room and cave and more caves. Anyone know where I can find a cave? I do. Cave Alley.

The thing is, every time we do this swim, we remember exactly where our old cave faves are, but somehow, in between, we find new nooks and crannies to awe and amaze ourselves. Is it changing?? Is there some mythological force at work here? I’ll never know, and I don’t really care. Because to do a swim like this, with no one else in sight, is nothing short of magic.

The water is so clear I’d doubt its existance except for the way it supports us and allows us to move in ways we never could in air. When the sea floor is rocky and white, the water is an impossible turquoise. I want to paint everything in this color. In the caves and along the walls, fresh water springs reach for us with cool tendrils that blur the water and make us squeal. The cliffs. My God, the cliffs. Forever. Screeching above us, a pair of Eleanora’s Falcons take off, circle, and re-land on little ledges of stone (Thank you for the bird id Tay Tay!).

So we hit all the big caves and gave them names according to what we saw, heard, felt or did in there. In order, we visited:

Rave Cave with Round About - a monolith in the middle we could swim around. There was a room big enough for dancing so we lit up our buoys with Simon’s flashlights and did so.

Cathedral Cave with a ceiling that seems to reach 200 feet overhead.

Dead Goat Cave. I have always wondered not only HOW the goats we see skip along tiny rocks along the cliff faces (we’ve watched, many times, in awe), but if they ever fall. Sadly, question answered. We did not see the goat fall. But we did see (and smell) the deceased goat floating in the water at the mouth of this cave. Shaken, we beat a hasty retreat.

No pics of Dead Goat Cave, but here’s Simon in front of Skull Cave which is too shallow to get into. But it’s totally a skull ammiright?

Celine's Cold Cave - we swam into a corner of the bay and suddenly Celine disappeared into the rock wall. A two seater, this tiny cave was full of cold water and glowing aqua green. Cool, like Celine.

Blue Cave is big enough to drive a boat into and probably mid day someone might. Fine. This morning, we are here alone. We play in the beams of light that enter the cave and reach 30 feet to the bottom. It’s magnificent.

The finale was Belly Scrub Canyon. Simon named this place years ago after we went through a long crack in just a foot or two of water, and his belly got a nice scrub from the soft algae covering the submarine rocks. The crack is just one small part of this magnificent canyon. There is a large red rock amphitheater with a massive window offering a view of the cliff face behind. This spot rivals Yosemite in my insignificant opinion. And to be there, alone, just us - has anyone else ever even seen this??? - is just a wonder. Of the world. Of the beautiful, amazing world.

Beyond that, a number of crevices and nooks we either were brave enough to squeeze into, or that made us think twice on peering in and assessing the scene. I will say that we have never had the sea so flat on a Greece trip - zero wind. Not good for sailing, but awesome for aqua-spelunking. A calm sea means we can access cracks we might not in any swell.

In the stretches between features, we chatted about the caves, the merits and challenges of each. I mentioned that Miriam has become “Cave Brave”, as she used to be terrified to go into them, and now she is looking for caves and swim throughs all on her own. Taylor came up with the smashing idea of creating SwimVacation patches - Cave Brave, Meander Swimmer, Critter Finder…you get the idea. These could be earned on various swims and then we can all sew them on our back packs or maybe if you’re really good and into the idea I could even make some sashes and we can all sew our badges to those.

See? See how your troubles melt away when you come swim Greece with us? Now all you think about is how many badges you can fit on your backpack (or sash).

Jason motored us south along the east side of Peristera - territory we rarely if ever see because it’s never this flat. Beautiful. Simon and I just search the coastline for things we might swim into or under.

Lunch. Spectacular. Naps. Required. Let’s see what the afternoon will hold.

Back to Stafilos Bay on Skopelos for a little unfinished business. There’s an entire side of this bay we didn’t swim earlier this week, afterall. As it turned out, the unfinished business was a lot of goofing around and silliness and laughing until our sides hurt. Sure, we swam around the big promontory to the beach on the other side. But after that we were like a gang of kids at the city pool, doing handstands and synchronized swimming routines and spelling L O V E with our bodies in the clear turquoise drink. It was fantastic.

We sprinted back to the boat to beat sunset and Jemima had margaritas ready to go. Some sweet potatoes appeared, then dinner of incredible seafood stew and salad followed by some kind of amazing cake with your choice of ice cream and chats until the world got dark.

I’m wrapping up a little early tonight. Kendra and I will do our final night swim (we will be on the dock tomorrow night) and I’m so delighted that Celine and Jemima have decided to join. They’ll be magical fairies too, once they wave hands through the dark Mediterranean sea, sparking up the bioluminescence like fairy dust. The great thing is, it only takes once and you’re a magical fairy for life.

Only one more day with these lovely ladies. I know they won’t let it get away from us.

Kali Nikta,

Heather

A little goofy recap of our fun and playful day. Another beat by Finn Weafer! XO